Algiers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Algiers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 13, 2025

Hey, remember when Gus Van Sant made a (more or less) shot for shot remake of Psycho? The thing about that patently odd effort is that it was Van Sant's choice, as questionable as it may have been. Algiers is a (more or less) shot for shot remake of Pépé le Moko, a French film which had debuted a mere year before this one and become something of a sensation. While the commentary track by Karie Bible and Roy Windham offers two supposedly competing theories as to how this remake came to be, most historians cite contemporary accounts in industry "rags" like Variety which reported at the time that Walter Wanger saw the French film, recognized its potential, and bought the rights and attempted to suppress all existing prints of the original, somewhat like what happened vis a vis Angel Street* and Gaslight. John Cromwell was hired to direct the English language remake and either by his choice or (probably more likely) instructed by Wanger, he more or less recreated the original version shot by shot, but with a different cast (and a few other salient changes, including most notably to the Hayes Code enforced ending).

*The link points to a Region B release.

Pepe (Charles Boyer) is an infamous thief who has been hiding out in Algiers' casbah, with the police slowly circling him. Things become increasingly heated (in more than one way) with the arrival of Gaby (Hedy Lamarr in her English language debut), which then thrusts the plot into quasi-ménage à trois territory with regard to Pepe's current mistress, Ines (Sigrid Gurie). The film is obviously dated, but it's a fun character study of a group of disparate expats in desperate straits in a supposedly exotic locale, all of which may make this film a "prologue" of sorts for the later and much better remembered Casablanca.

The casting of the film, and even the history of the casting, may be at least as interesting as the film itself. There were evidently qualms about Lamarr during the shoot, though she's quite lovely, but modern sensibilities may have at least as many doubts about Sigrid Gurie's characterization. Interestingly, Goldwyn and Edward Small had already announced Gurie for South of Pago Pago, though that didn't end up getting made until 1940 with Frances Farmer (this film's Gene Lockhart is in a rather similar role in South of Pago Pago as well). Here, Gurie is made up to look rather startlingly like an actress in a much later film, namely Marlene Dietrich's "alter ego" in Witness for the Prosecution.

Algiers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Algiers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Masters' Archive Collection imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.38:1. Unlike some of the other Film Masters releases I've reviewed, this is not a BD-R, but a "real" pressed disc. That said, there was an initial release date announced for this that was then pushed back pretty significantly without any explanation (or response to emails, something that been a bit of a bane of my reviewing existence lately with a number of labels), which may indicate some issues. One way or the other, this was obviously sourced off of a secondary print of some kind (I'm wondering if may have even been 16mm), one with some pretty evident damage at times, and one which is (to my eyes, anyway) too dark at times, something that can completely obliterate (or at least come close to obliterating) fine detail in darker areas of the frame. As can probably be pretty easily seen in the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, the entire presentation can be on the fuzzy side, with even close-ups offering only baseline detail levels at times, though at least that "fuzziness" indicates no radical denoising attempts have been undertaken. There are also some large if short lived scratches and other signs of age related wear and tear.

Algiers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Algiers features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that probably fares at least a bit better than the video side of things, but which itself can't escape its age related confines. The entire track is pretty boxy and hollow sounding, and there is some evident hiss and a few pops along the way, but dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly for the most part (the accents of Lamarr and Gurie can be a bit thick at times). Optional English subtitles for both the film and the commentary are available.

Algiers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Film Historians Karie Bible and Roy Windham

An insert booklet features an essay by Roy Windham. Packaging features a slipcover.

Algiers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Several decades ago in my musical career I scored a television pilot written by Hedy Lamarr's ex-son-in-law, and got some interesting "behind the scenes" information on this absolutely fascinating woman, not all of which made it into a recommended documentary, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. (In the trivia department, Gus Van Sant was a grip on that pilot shoot.) As mentioned above, the casting of this effort may provide at least as much interest as the film, and one way or the other, this makes for an instructive "compare and contrast" with the original French version. Technical merits are definitely improvable for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.