Juarez

Juarez (1939)

See It Now ! You'll Remember It Always !

The newly-named emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlota arrive in Mexico to face popular sentiment favoring Benito Juárez and democracy.

Date of release
1939-06-10
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (26)
Runtime
2h 5m
Genres
Drama, History, Romance
Director
William Dieterle

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Juarez and Maximilian
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 2

Juarez is a 1939 American historical drama film directed by William Dieterle. The screenplay by Aeneas MacKenzie, John Huston, and Wolfgang Reinhardt is based on the 1934 biography The Phantom Crown by Bertita Harding and the 1925 play Juarez and Maximilian by Franz Werfel.

Production

As early as 1935, producer Hal B. Wallis had proposed a film about Maximilian I of Mexico and Benito Juárez to director Max Reinhardt. At the time, he was interested in casting Luther Adler as the titular Mexican president. In 1937, Wallis and Jack L.

In August 1938, Wallis, Blanke, director William Dieterle and Muni traveled to Mexico, stopping in 15 small towns, then visited the National Museum in Mexico City, where Juárez's personal papers were housed. They also managed to find a 116-year-old man who had fought with Juárez and Porfirio Diaz, and Muni questioned him about the president's mannerisms and speech patterns at length.

On October 12, 1938, Bette Davis was offered the role of Carlota of Belgium while in the midst of filming Dark Victory. Although the part was small, she welcomed the opportunity to portray an historical figure, especially one who would go mad during a dramatic confrontation with Napoléon III. She was asked to submit to makeup tests by Perc Westmore and costume fittings by Orry-Kelly but refused to do so while still working on another character.

John Garfield was cast as Porfirio Diaz at the request of Paul Muni, who appeared with Garfield in the 1932 Broadway play Counsellor at Law. Garfield was relatively unknown in Hollywood at the time, but by the time filming began he had received critical acclaim for his performance in Four Daughters.

The epic film boasted 1,186 supporting players performing on 54 sets designed by art director Anton Grot and his assistant Leo Kuter. The largest was an 11-acre replica of Mexico constructed on a ranch in Calabasas, California. Behind the throne room and living quarters of Maximilian (Brian Aherne) was a 250-foot-long and 50-foot-high backdrop of Mexico City, with Popocatépetl in the distance.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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