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Duvivier's atmospheric gangster film was modeled on Scarface and set in French Algeria. Gabin is a colorful jewel thief playing a game of cat and mouse with the French police, who are incapable of penetrating the densely populated Casbah with its network of alleys and balconies, and denizens who are instinctually on Pépé's side. He is the jewel, the police are the thieves. If he should step out into greater Algiers, he'll be nabbed, so the Casbah with all its attractions is also a bitter prison. A gorgeous French tourist (Mireille Balin) lures Pépé to his doom, not with her jewels, or even her sex, but because she reeks of Paris, his love. A classic of romantic fatalism, Pépé le Moko is also a fascinating picture of colonialism as a system of traps and betrayals. Draw a line as you watch this early classic, with its "bird's–eye" view of the Casbah, to Camus' The Stranger, and from there to The Battle of Algiers.