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The men who made "Juarez," photographed beside Maximilian's coach: Muni, producer Hal Wallis, associate Henry Blanke, director Dieterle.
Bette Davis as the tragic Empress CarIota — her most poignant performance.
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for their tour of those places in Mexico where records of Juarez might best be found, the screen play of the projected film already was well in hand. Three writers, Aeneas MacKenzie, research expert : Wolfgang Reinhardt. Max Reinhardt's son; and John Huston, son of Walter Huston, had been working on it for almost a year. That's a long time to devote to the writing of one motion picture, but this was to be an unusual film and no detail must be left to chance or conjecture.
"Before we left for Mexico I had already devoted months to the study of Juarez," Paul Muni explains. "\\ hen I first knew that he was to be my next screen subject and started to look for material on his life, I found very little available. The reason was apparent. He was contemporary with Abraham Lincoln and the stirring events in the history of the United States that occurred during Lincoln's time. Plus that, Mexico itself has had no great historians and we of the Americas know very little about our neighbors and that record of their country. Yet here was a man much like Lincoln, a man born in abject poverty, self-educated, who rose by the brilliant powers of his own mind to save the nation that had borne him. Juarez not only re-kindled the great flame of democracy in Mexico, he kept it alive during the time the powers of Europe established a dictator-monarch, Maximilian, on its throne and it was Juarez who ultimately ousted Maximilian and Carlota, regained the seat of liberal government. It was this man we sought to know."
Leaving Hollywood in August, 1938, the film men visited some fifteen towns and cities in Mexico : San Pablo, Guelatao, Ixtlan, capital city of Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi, Vera Cruz. Puebla. Paseo del Norte, Texca. Acapulco and Mexico City itself. It was there, in the archives of the National Museum, and from papers and records in private hands and memories, that they found their source of material. They spent many evenings in the home of the two Prida brothers, grandsons of Juarez, now men of wealth and influence in Mexican government circles. They even found an ancient, 116 years old, who fought in Juarez's army during (Please turn to page 93)
Every member of the cast gives a superb performance— but none better than John Garfield and Brian Aherne, as Diaz and Maximilian.
"Juarez" is an impressive spectacle as well as a moving human drama and social document. Above, stirring scene at the palace at Chapultepec.