• One of Warner Brothers premiere big budget pictures from 1939—it is a really solid film- it just got swallowed up, historically, in the tsunami of great films from Hollywood’s golden year.
  • Muni is one of the original- if not THE original- shapeshifter actor who could disappear in a role like PSH or Gary Oldman- he’s a great chameleon- heavy makeup and prosthetics here- it’s really hard to believe he’s the same guy from scarface– fantastic range
  • Amazing supporting cast from Claude Rains to John Garfield, Bette Davis, Donald Crisp, Calhern, and others
  • Written by John Huston
  • Large epic battle sequences with lots of extras
  • 3rd collaboration between Dieterle and Muni- the story of louis pasteur and the life of emile zola – biopics
  • There are two great forward dolly tracking shots near the end of the film- one is of bette davis laying down with light pouring in on her through the window and one is of a Mexican woman singing—and it’s shot from the emperor’s perspective behind bars and Dieterle shoots through the bars— both of these are really well done
  • Not in the top 10 of 1939 but in the archives
  • Recommend