When Tony Martin was discharged from the Navy he was looking for a vehicle that would reestablish him as a top musical lead in Hollywood and decided that a musical adaption of Algiers was just the ticket. He gathered a good supporting cast and the results, while entertaining were a mixed bag.The best thing that Casbah had going for it was the great musical score that Harold Arlen and Leo Robin wrote for this picture. Four numbers were sung by Martin and co-star Yvonne DeCarlo. Every one of them became a big hit and were a staple of Tony Martin's nightclub act for years. Hooray for Love, What's Good About Goodbye, For Every Man There's A Woman, and It Was Written in the Stars are the songs that Martin does. The last one was identified by Ella Fitzgerald as her favorite Harold Arlen tune and one she insisted on including in her Harold Arlen songbook album. The score greatly benefited Tony Martin's singing career, but he never did reach the heights on screen as a musical leading man. Acting wise Peter Lorre steals the show as the wily, serpentine Inspector Slimane. Lorre's Slimane is charming, cunning, and treacherous as he uses all of his "little gray cells" to bring down arch criminal Pepe Le Moko, played by Martin who is unassailable in the Casbah section of Algiers.Yvonne DeCarlo is the tobacco shop owner who's crushing out on Martin and I'm sure that given the location of the story, one could probably get more than tobacco to smoke from her place. The other lead is the jet setting Marta Toren who Martin is panting after and forces him to make a life or death decision. Toren was extraordinarily beautiful woman in the Hedy Lamarr tradition who after a short stay in Hollywood went back to Europe and died there way too young of leukemia in 1957.If you are a fan of Tony Martin's singing as I am, this is an absolute must. Martin had not yet met and married Cyd Charisse who became wife number two. I think the film might really have been a classic had she done it with Tony. As it is she never did anything together while she was at MGM with her husband and we're the worst for it.

I was 15 when I first saw this film. Tony Martin played Pepe le Moko. I wanted to be like him. Because when you're 15 you think of how lucky you must be to play opposite beautiful girls such as Yvonne De Carlo and Marta Toren. These three actor/actresses had much more talent than they were given credit for. Tony seems cast perfectly as the gangster, yet no director gave him another chance in that type of roll. Unfortunately the gorgeous Marta Toren died several years later. But Yvonne carried on, appearing in other good films and the Munsters TV series. I hear she is now living in California. Good luck to her. Thanks for the memories (especially Casbah)

This strange little item is a remake of the 1938 film "Algiers" which starred Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr, which itself was a remake of a French film of the previous year, called "Pepe LeMoko." The 1938 version made stars of Boyer and Lamarr; Tony Martin (who was married to dancer Cyd Charisse) and Marta Toren were not so lucky. Both were physically attractive enough but lacked the panache and charisma to capture the movie going public's loyalty. DeCarlo held her own in the film in a secondary role in a period when Universal was trying to figure out what to do with her -- the camp era was over -- no more "Salome" or "Sheherazade" for her. She did some fine work in film noir during this time -- "Brute Force" and "Criss Cross" in particular. (If you look real close at the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe -- you might spot a young dancer named Eartha Kitt who made quite a name for herself a bit later, as a singer.)

I watched this years ago on TV with a friend who swore that was NOT Yvonne DeCarlo playing the spitfire Inez...I almost lost my mind! Yvonne is unintentionally hilarious in this campy musical remake of 1938's "Algiers", featuring big, bland Tony Martin as Pepe Le Moko (for those who don't know, Tony Martin was even more bland than Perry Como and Andy Williams, sort of a Dean Martin knock-off without any of Dino's naughty charm). Pepe is a jewel thief caught between two women, and he occasionally breaks out into song (not bad songs mind you, as they were written by the famous Harold Arlen). Still, viewers not familiar with the picture's background might think they've stumbled upon a musical version of "Casablanca". *1/2 from ****