“Blame it on the Casbah,” says gangster Pépé le Moko (Jean Gabin) as he nears his end. The famous Casbah of Algiers serves as le Moko’s (“the man from Toulon”) hideout from the French police, much to the frustration of Inspector Silmane (Lucas Gridoux), whose efforts to lure Pépé out have failed. When Silmane learns that the coveted gangster has fallen in love with Parisian visitor Gaby Gould (Mireille Balin), Miss Gould becomes Silmane’s new strategy for bringing him to justice. Line Noro plays Pépé’s other love interest Inès, a local girl who offers him undying devotion if not excitement, and popular singer Fréhel plays the older, plumper Tania (“I’ve got a face men like to clout”) who finds comfort by listening longingly to a record of her own voice singing. A prime example of French poetic realism, the film’s true star, however, is the Casbah, which even manages to outshine Gabin, its dense and endless web of intersections, alleys, and stairways becoming a kind of kaleidoscopic melting pot for infinite nationalities (it’s introduced with an almost documentary treatment) which Duviver exploits with his inventive proto-noir camera.