There were no less than three remakes of the French classic "Pépé Le Moko" by Julien Duvivier: John Cromwell's "Algiers" could not hold a candle to it,but it was not bad and some of the lines of the original screenplay were preserved.It had nonetheless Charles Boyer sing a maudlin song ,which was not a really good idea."Casbah" did the same and had Tony Martin croon two bland songs (even De Carlo pulls a little tune)
"Casbah" is a disaster ;the fact that it begins with a bunch of tourists visiting the Casbah with a guide did not bode well .But John Berry completely butchered "PEPE" .The hero is a handsome crooner,it takes lots of imagination to believe he is a thug .And Yvonne De Carlo is not even given the best female part!She has to be content with the part of INES -which was fleshed out whereas it was a secondary character in the original- the mistress the buck is not in love anymore with.She and Peter Lorre are the only positive elements of an appalling film noir. And if it were not enough ,the final ship is replaced by a plane,which is much less romantic .
For the record,the third remake is an Italian spoof called "Toto Le Moko".
"Casbah" is a disaster ;the fact that it begins with a bunch of tourists visiting the Casbah with a guide did not bode well .But John Berry completely butchered "PEPE" .The hero is a handsome crooner,it takes lots of imagination to believe he is a thug .And Yvonne De Carlo is not even given the best female part!She has to be content with the part of INES -which was fleshed out whereas it was a secondary character in the original- the mistress the buck is not in love anymore with.She and Peter Lorre are the only positive elements of an appalling film noir. And if it were not enough ,the final ship is replaced by a plane,which is much less romantic .
For the record,the third remake is an Italian spoof called "Toto Le Moko".