Juarez

A mixed bag. In the plus column: Aherne, Davis, and Korngold's inventive score. Pauline Kael nailed it perfectly: "It's a lumpy big movie; Muni's big-star solemn righteousness is like a dose of medicine. [...] John Garfield, as Diaz, gives a blue-ribbon bad performance." On Davis: "She looks both fragile and tempestuous, and gets a chance to show off her best violent spasms when she pleads for help at the Tuileries and frightens the Empress Eugénie (Gale Sondergaard, who doesn't frighten easy)."

It must be outdated even in 1939

Though named for Benito Juarez (Paul Muni), the Mexican president fighting off the imperialist incursions of Louis Napoleon (Claude Rains), the film really belongs to Maximilian (Brian Aherne), the puppet emperor who wants to do right by a nation that does not want him. Aherne's finely tuned, Oscar-nominated performance makes the film worth seeing; Muni makes a commendable effort to disappear into his character but the script, marred by pre-release tinkering, doesn't give him enough support.

A prestige historic drama. Sadly Juarez (1939) is a bit of a ham. While they do a respectful job, the acting is stiff theater. Paul Muni as Juarez is a perfect example of that. He wears heavy make-up as usual, and has only one expression, becoming nothing more then a caricature. More rounded was Brian Aherne as the emperor, who becomes the real center of all the political games here. Him and the lady who plays his wife - Bette Davis. And as you can guess, Davis has the most stand-out scenes.

Not without its problems, but I thought Juarez was good. For a film with Juarez as the title, you would think that Muni's Juarez would be the best here, but I thought he was outshined by Brian Aherne's emperor. The majority of the film takes place in Mexico, but its best scene might be Davis ripping into Rains' Napoleon III in France and her subsequent mental break. Seemed to take some historical liberties also.

A complex political film. The viewpoint continually shifs--pragmatic, idealistic, paternalistic, Marxist by turns--but in the process it introduces us to many interesting characters. And what performances! Muni is uncharacteristically restrained as Juarez, Aherne gives the performance of his career as the noble but naive Maximilian, and Davis is mesmerizing as the mad Empress Carlotta, not to mention good work by Garfield, Crisp, Rains, Sondergaard. A fine ensemble cast.