The 1939 classic, JUAREZ, starring Paul Muni (as Benito Juarez), Brian Aherne (as Maxillian) and Bette Davis (as Carlota) is, regrettably, much neglected in this age of color, 3-D, and special effects, but it is well worth seeing.

This film is from the pre-TV era when a lot of biographical films were being churned out.  I used to sneer at their telescoping and simplifying of historical events - and then I read the prologue to Shakespeare's Henry V, and I realize that I'd had the wrong attitude and historical drama can't be drama if it has to imitate real time.  JUAREZ is a film of true artistry and craftsmanship.  One of the outstanding features, which the New York Times review in 1939 treated as a weakness, is that we are shown true historical events in which there is no clear villain, but two intelligent and honorable antagonists.

In short, the film recounts the 3-year reign of Maximillian von Hapsburg of Austria and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, over French occupied Mexico.  Ostensibly the film intended to make Benito Juarez, the Mexican Indian who established the Mexican constitutional republic, as its central hero, but this movie skips entirely over the beginning of  his political career, including the first five years of his Presidency - and the story stops with the toppling of Maximillian.

We begin in 1863, with French dictator Napoleon III (nephew of Bonaparte) receiving word of the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg.  France, in combination with England and Spain, had invaded Mexico in December 1861 to collect on very considerable debts defaulted on by the fledging Juarez government; but France did not merely collect its money and go away, it had sent its army to seize all of Mexico and by the time that news of Gettysburg arrived, it had driven Benito Juarez and the legitimate government into the hinterlands.  Napoleon had been counting on the American Civil War and a Confederate victory to insulate Mexican affairs from US intervention.  Now with the prospect of the Civil War ending in the Union's favor, he must cast about for a means to forestall US interference.

The Empress Eugenie (Gale Sondergaard, excellent in this small role) advises Napoleon (Claude Rains) that the Americans will not be able to invoke the Monroe Doctrine if the Mexicans themselves choose a head of state who is friendly to France.  A monarch - but who can Napoleon appoint?  Eugenie rattles off a short list of European royals with time on their hands, and settles on Maximillian, younger brother of the Austrian emperor -- but he's a Hapsburg, which evidently means that he has too much honor and honesty to participate in Napoleon's scheme.  Napoleon will induce Maximillian by making him believe that he was lawfully and freely chosen by the Mexicans themselves in an open plebescite - and so the French Army is used to rig a crooked election.

Maximillian (a young Brian Aherne) and his devoted wife Carlota (young Bette Davis) - she having taken the Spanish equivalent of her name and both of them evidently fluent in Spanish as befits relations of Spanish royalty - arrive eager to devote themselves as enlightened and loving monarchs.  As Emperor of Mexico, Maximillian quickly organizes a government of Mexico under its Conservative Party - who want all the reforms instituted by Juarez undone.  Maximillian refuses, as a honorable and wise monarch, to undo the land reforms that benefitted thousands of peons at the expense of only 85 still-wealthy families.  Further, Maximillian unexpectedly refuses to perpetuate the snobbishness and racism that had long prevailed whereby those of Spanish ancestry got preferment over true Mexicans of Indian descent.  When the Conservatives protest, Maximillian reminds them that, as emperor, he does not play party politics and will form a new government without them.

In the meantime, the French occupation army is chasing Benito Juarez from pillar to post.  Juarez (Paul Muni), of Indian ancestry, is quiet, soft spoken, and consistently mild, but there is tremendous courage under that calm exterior.  He treasures a fan letter from Abraham Lincoln and he manages to put down a plot by his treasonous vice-president (I do not know if this last item actually happened)  {PS:  Since writing this I have read Maximillian & Juarez by Jasper Ridley (1993) and there was no such Vice President but a quarrel with the elected Chief Justice of Mexico which Juarez won in a much less dramatic - and less heroic -- way}.  He is able to marshal his untrained and under-equipped forces to fight effectively against the French.

Maximillian has heard much about Juarez, and all sounds good to him.  He also learns that the plebescite that brought him to Mexico was a fake and he is truly shaken.  He releases one of Juarez's captured generals (John Agar) to return to Juarez with a very generous message:  Maximillian will set up a constitutional monarchy, himself as emperor, with Benito Juarez as president.  The emperor will keep things honest, inasmuch as the emperor does not depend on parties and is too rich to be bribed, so things will go better than just a bare democracy.  And Maximillian and Carlota, who are childless, will assure the continuation of the monarchy by adopting a Mexican child to be their heir and successor.  Juarez hears this offer but must refuse, as self-government is the absolute foundation of freedom. 

As this is going on, the Union wins the Civil War, and the American ambassador in Paris warns Napoleon that the US will invoke the Monroe Doctrine.  At the same time, France needs its army in Europe to fight there.  So Napoleon orders the French withdrawal from Mexico, leaving Maximillian with only his small Mexican army to prop up his regime.  Carlota rushes back to Europe to remind Napoleon of all his promises to Maximillian, but when Napoleon treats her rudely she has a nervous breakdown and remains an invalid in her home in Belgium (in fact, her nervous breakdown, or whatever it was, did not occur until she had exhausted herself trying to coax support from nearly every government in Europe including the Vatican).

Well, that more than sets the stage.  The remarkable thing about this movie is that both Juarez and Maximillian come off as heroic figures.  In fact, at the very end Maximillian seems to be nearly Christ-like, with a white dove representing his soul flying to heaven (Aherne was nominated for an Oscar for this role).

The screenplay was written by John Huston and others, based on a Broadway play by Franz Werfel and the novel "The Phantom Crown", but the movie  company claimed to have consulted more than 300 books to get all its details correct.  Muni reportedly sought out veterans (they must have all been in their 90s) of Jaurez's troops to get their recollections of him.

This is a remarkable movie, the more so because both of the main characters exhibit so many admirable qualities.  The movie teaches about honor, honesty, benevolence and sacrifice.  It's well worth seeing ... and remembering that they really don't make movies like this anymore.  It's even worth showing this to teenagers, though there is no sex and no spaceships.  Two hours, black & white (teenagers may have to be told this was the way that films used to be made).

An odd note:  Just as JUAREZ was about to hit the screens in 1939, another movie company dashed off its own film about Maximillian and Carlota, titled The Mad Empress, and starring Jason Robards, Sr., as Maximillian and Medea de Novara as Carlota (de Novara made a career out of playing the Empress Carlota - which she did in three Mexican movies as well as this one - that's four out of her total of eleven films - and like Carlota she had been born in old Europe - in her case Liechtenstein, which may have given her a convincing accent for the role).  I assume from the title that it painted Carlota as a villain, which is very unfair.  This movie was instantly forgotten and I know of no one now alive who remembers watching it.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older