Algiers: Hedy Lamarr and Her First Hollywood Movie

 

 

 

Algiers (1938)

Directed by John Cromwell

United Artists, 99 minutes, not-rated.

★★★★

 

In the next few weeks I will be featuring films involving Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000) because I co-lead a women’s history group reading a biography of her. Lamarr was an inventor and one of the most intriguing starlets of the early days of sound movies. She was born in Austria as Hedwig Eva Marie Kiesler, won a beauty contest when was 12, and at 18, married Friedrich Mandel who was 33. She made five films in Europe, including Ekstase (Ecstasy) in 1933, which was notorious. The 18-year Hedwig Mandel briefly appeared fully nude and a scene of her in the throes of passion is believed to be the first film depiction of a female orgasm.

 

Her marriage to Mandel was the first of six (and six divorces). Friedrich made two big mistakes, he expected her to be a dutiful traditional wife and thought she was an airhead. As Mandel drifted into fascism, Hedwig listened to sensitive political conversations she took with her when she fled to London in 1937. (She was half Jewish.) Samuel Goldwyn of MGM took her to Hollywood, changed her name to Hedy Lamarr, and began the legend that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She gets my vote, though Hedy once considered surgery to make her breasts larger.

 

Algiers was her first Hollywood film. It was directed by John Cromwell and written by John Howard Lawson, who later gained infamy as one of the 1947 Hollywood Ten indicted for Contempt of Congress for refusing to rat on anyone accused of communism during the second Red Scare. Algiers might remind you quite a bit of Casablanca, which took Hollywood by storm five years later. Ironically, the role of Ilsa was written with Lamarr in mind, but went to Ingrid Bergman because Lamarr was under contract to MGM, which refused to loan her to Warner Brothers. Casablanca, though, borrowed heavily from the script to Algiers. Ironically, the main villain/lover boy of Algiers, Pepé le Moko (Charles Boyer) was the model for the Warner Brothers cartoon skunk Pepé LePew. (How’s that for revenge!)

 

Le Moko is a French jewel thief hiding out in Algiers. France sends an inspector to find out why Algerian law enforcement hasn’t caught him. As detective/informer Slimane (Joseph Calleia) explains, everyone knows where Pepé is, but he cannot be captured as long as he’s living in the Casbah section of Algiers. The French send twelve men into the Casbah and find out what Slimane means. It is a warren of narrow streets, connecting rooms and rooftops, tunnels, and informants that’s similar to searching for a straight pieces in a giant hamster habitrail. Plus, Pepé is a popular man in the Casbah. He’s like an old-fashioned ward boss whose henchmen keep order. Pepé and his exotic-looking lover Ines (Sigrid Gurie) know everyone and they protect him, though he has rivals.

 

The Casbah, though, is confining; Pepé is only safe as long as he doesn’t leave it. Enter Gaby (Lamarr), who bedazzles Pepé with her beauty, memories of Paris, and glittering jewelry that his gang wonders why he hasn’t pilfered. Gaby is engaged to the obese Giraux (Robert Grieg), who is filthy rich. It’s never clear if Gaby is bait or if she is attracted to Pepé, but if Lamarr was faking it, she fooled me! He’s also depressed when outside-the-Casbah enemies lure his friend Pierrot (ex-Our Gang star John Morey Downs) into a trap.

 

Algiers is dated and both script and direction could be much tighter. Casablanca is a superior film and there’s a reason why its director Michael Curtiz is considered a legend and John Cromwell is largely forgotten. Still, it’s incredible to see how little Hedy Lamarr needed to do to fill screen eyes. By the way, no one in Algiers ever says, “Take me to the Casbah.” That was Pepé LePew!

 

Lamarr is a Hollywood legend who remains one of the most beautiful in movie history. She was also difficult; only one of her marriages lasted longer than four years. Yet, she was a genius inventor when off the set. The Navy never used the invention of a guided torpedo she and avantgarde composer George Antheil developed, but their spread spectrum theory made the following possible: Bluetooth, GPS, wireless communication, and Wi-fi. No wonder there’s a Lamarr-class starship in Star Trek.

 

Rob Weir