The life, Loves and Adventures of a classic Casbah thief.
1h 34min | Crime, Musical | April 1948
Director: John Berry
Stars: Yvonne De Carlo, Tony Martin, Peter Lorre, Märta Torén, Thomas Gomez, Katherine Dunham.
Katherine Dunham ... choreography: Dunham Group
Bernard Pearce ... dance director
Watched online; mediocre print.
Remake of Pépé le Moko (1937) and Algiers (1938) with Jean Gabin and Charles Boyer as Pepe, respectively. I rated both of those a 6. Having Pepe (TM) sing doesn't add or subtract from that. I don't find the story intriguing, the setting exoticly appealing, nor is the music particularly captivating here. Don't remember the other films well enough to know how close this is; the character names overlap.
The reasons to watch this: Katherine Dunham and her dancers, and Peter Lorre.
KD herself leads the dance troupe in 1.5 dances. Modern dance with an African flavor: good stuff. These are the scenes where I wished the print were much better. If you really focus, at about 1:09 the half a dance starts, and you can really see Eartha Kitt dancing, facing TM, on the lower left side of the screen.
PL is always watchable. Here he's the cop who befriends Pepe, but still wants to capture him.
TG is PL's boss.
I don't remember seeing YD dance in this one. But that could be my inattentiveness.
Marston Prod., distr. Universal, dir. Berry; 6
