Casbah

1948

Crime / Drama / Musical / Romance

4
IMDb Rating 6.0/10 10 654 654

remake algiers, algeria jewel thief casbah

Director

John Berry Photo
John Berry

Top cast

Eartha Kitt Photo
Eartha Kitt as Katherine Dunham Group Dancer
Hans Schumm Photo
Hans Schumm as Willem
Herbert Rudley Photo
Herbert Rudley as Claude
Thomas Gomez Photo
Thomas Gomez as Louvain
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
857.1 MB
986*720
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds ...
1.55 GB
1478*1080
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Anne_Sharp 7 / 10

A musical film noir

If you don't recall seeing this featured in any of the "That's Entertainment" anthologies, it's because this black-and-white postwar romance with songs is considerably darker and more sophisticated than the usual Hollywood musical. A considerable improvement over the 1938 Americanization of "Pepe Le Moko," the logy Charles Boyer vehicle "Algiers," this not only integrates a few well-chosen musical numbers featuring Martin, Yvonne de Carlo and the Katherine Dunham Dancers into the old story, but adds a refreshing note of humor and playfulness. Martin isn't bad at all as the surly, sexy gangster Pepe, who was always one-dimensional anyway. Peter Lorre is the dream Slimane that he should have played ten years earlier in the Boyer film (though Lorre's often credited as being in "Algiers," it was actually Joseph Calleia who played Slimane in that film), and Marta Toren's bittersweet siren is seductively reminiscent of Valli in "The Third Man."
Reviewed by bkoganbing 7 / 10

Arlen-Robin score the real star here

When Tony Martin was discharged from the Navy he was looking for a vehicle that would reestablish him as a top musical lead in Hollywood and decided that a musical adaption of Algiers was just the ticket. He gathered a good supporting cast and the results, while entertaining were a mixed bag.The best thing that Casbah had going for it was the great musical score that Harold Arlen and Leo Robin wrote for this picture. Four numbers were sung by Martin and co-star Yvonne DeCarlo. Every one of them became a big hit and were a staple of Tony Martin's nightclub act for years. Hooray for Love, What's Good About Goodbye, For Every Man There's A Woman, and It Was Written in the Stars are the songs that Martin does. The last one was identified by Ella Fitzgerald as her favorite Harold Arlen tune and one she insisted on including in her Harold Arlen songbook album. The score greatly benefited Tony Martin's singing career, but he never did reach the heights on screen as a musical leading man. Acting wise Peter Lorre steals the show as the wily, serpentine Inspector Slimane. Lorre's Slimane is charming, cunning, and treacherous as he uses all of his "little gray cells" to bring down arch criminal Pepe Le Moko, played by Martin who is unassailable in the Casbah section of Algiers.Yvonne DeCarlo is the tobacco shop owner who's crushing out on Martin and I'm sure that given the location of the story, one could probably get more than tobacco to smoke from her place. The other lead is the jet setting Marta Toren who Martin is panting after and forces him to make a life or death decision. Toren was extraordinarily beautiful woman in the Hedy Lamarr tradition who after a short stay in Hollywood went back to Europe and died there way too young of leukemia in 1957.If you are a fan of Tony Martin's singing as I am, this is an absolute must. Martin had not yet met and married Cyd Charisse who became wife number two. I think the film might really have been a classic had she done it with Tony. As it is she never did anything together while she was at MGM with her husband and we're the worst for it.
Reviewed by AAdaSC 7 / 10

Why leave?

Pepe le Moko (Tony Martin) is wanted by the French and local police in Algeria where he has his hideout in the Casbah. However in order to get him, the police have to infiltrate the Casbah to bring him in. Casbah is the Algerian word for fortress and that is the problem that the police have. They have 2 approaches - Louvain (Thomas Gomez) takes a direct route by storming in and arresting him - this fails as it has on every occasion before - because everyone in the Casbah is on Pepe's side and he always escapes. Slimane (Peter Lorre) from the local police is more streetwise and befriends Pepe while maintaining that he will one day arrest him. The 2 opposite thinking inspectors need to collude to bring him out of the Casbah in order to make the arrest. They do this by sending an old prison-friend Carlo (Douglas Dick) to betray him and lure him out with a love interest Gaby (Marta Toren).Yvonne de Carlo who plays Inez, Pepe's girlfriend, is my favourite of the cast with Peter Lorre and Thomas Gomaz also standing out. Yvonne de Carlo also manages to pull off singing her song and turns it into one of the memorable scenes as she mocks Pepe's behaviour in it. The other moments of singing are not necessary with Tony Martin bursting randomly into song and providing moments of hilarity as he does so - "Oh no - he's singing again. What for?" This film has a great setting and it's a shame that the two lead women did not have a scene together where they could confront each other. There is some crazy chicken-killing voodoo ritual dancing that is also thrown into the mix and despite the ending being utterly unconvincing, this is an enjoyable film.
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