Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr.

[2] Written by John Howard Lawson, the film is about a notorious French jewel thief hiding in the labyrinthine native quarter of Algiers known as the Casbah.

Feeling imprisoned by his self-imposed exile, he is drawn out of hiding by a beautiful French tourist who reminds him of happier times in Paris.

The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name.

French officials who arrive insisting on Pepe's capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time.

[3] United Artists had considered Ingrid Bergman, Dolores del Río, and Sylvia Sidney for the female lead, but, as Boyer tells it, he met Hedy Lamarr at a party and introduced her to Wanger as a possibility for his co-lead.

The hour-long adaptation starred Orson Welles and Paulette Goddard,[7][8] with Ray Collins taking the role of Inspector Slimane.

[10][11] A musical remake of Algiers titled Casbah was released in 1948 by Universal Pictures and starred Tony Martin and Yvonne De Carlo.

In 1954, the Looney Tunes cartoon The Cat's Bah, which specifically spoofed Algiers, the skunk enthusiastically declared to Penelope Pussycat "You do not have to come with me to ze Casbah.

Parts of the dialog between Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr have been sampled by new wave band The New Occupants for their song Electric Angel.