Welcome to Public Domain Theater, your home for the wonderful world of films that have (in the United States, at least) fallen into the public domain, and are free for everyone to see!
We’ve got a humdinger for you this time. It’s the 1938 film Algiers, starring Charles Boyer as the debonair jewel thief Pepe le Moko, who, while hiding out in the Casbah district of Algiers, falls in love with a beautiful tourist played by Hedy Lamarr. What follows is a masterfully done tale of passion and danger and divided loyalties, with one hell of an emotional climax.
Not only is this a mighty fine film, but it’s surprisingly influential one as well. It’s tale of troubled love in the seedier portions of French Africa was a major influence on the film Casablanca. What’s more, the character of Pepe le Moko was the direct inspiration for famous Looney Tunes skunk Pepe le Pew – once you’ve seen Algiers and then rewatch some of those old cartoons, a bunch of references you missed the first time around suddenly make sense.
Given that connection, I wish our opening cartoon this month could be a Pepe le Pew outing. Sadly, though, none of those are yet in the public domain. We’ll instead make do with the debut of a different Looney Tunes mainstay: “A Tale of Two Kitties”, featuring the first appearance of Tweety Bird!
… but not the Tweety you’re likely familiar with. No, this is Bob Clampett’s original, pink colored, malicious asshole Tweety – a bird whose baby talk and innocent demeanor are clearly a put on, and who takes great delight in dishing out pain to bad old pussy cats. And rather than tangling with Sylvester, as would become common, this Tweety matches wits against a pair of cats based on Abbott and Costello, named … Babbit and Catstello.
Yeah, Looney Tunes never made much effort to hide its influences.
So whether you want to wreak mayhem with Tweety or rock the Casbah with Pepe, Public Domain Theater has what you’re craving!
Opening Cartoon:
Feature Presentation:
