Gaby (Hedy Lamarr) arrives in Algiers engaged to a fat, vulgar borderline-loathsome older man who clearly regards her as a trophy bought and paid for. Why she needed this creep isn't clear. What is clear is her falling in love with the jewel thief Pepe Le Moko (Charles Boyer) who abandons the devoted and clinging Ines (Sigrid Gurie) for this right-off-the-boat hothouse beauty. A Parisian police official (Walter Kingsford) is in Algiers determined to collar Pepe.

Directed by Leo McCarey, this 1939 romantic classic is the first and best version of the old warhorse of a fateful shipboard romance between an aimless playboy and a nightclub singer, both engaged but appearing to be destined to reunite on the top floor of the Empire State Building. The elaborate, shot-for-shot 1957 remake again directed by McCarey with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr is much better known, and Warren Beatty even saw fit to remake it yet again with his wife Annette Bening for a 1994 update featuring an 87-year old Katharine Hepburn in her last film role.

"Algiers" is a romantic mystery starring Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr. It's a 1938 Hollywood remake of the 1937 French film "Pepe le Moko" with Jean Gabin. Pepe (Boyer) is a notorious thief who has escaped from France and hides in the Casbah of Algiers. The French officials are after him, but he is protected by the local police. Boyer and Lamarr are attractive, and in one scene Boyer sings "C'est la vie" to his neighbours. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers_%28film%29