MEMORABLE ACHIEVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 23693, 28 September 1940, Page 19

MEMORABLE ACHIEVEMENT

' JUAREZ ' WITH MUNI AND DAVIS In line with its policy of securing the highest calibre film entertainment, tlie Regent presents the magnificent historical saga ‘ Juarez,’ a motion picture which lias been awaited with the greatest interest over since—in 1937—Warner Brothers announced plans for its production. Sufficient to justify the tremendous interest is the fact that it co-stars Paul Muni and Botto Davis, generally acknowledged to bo the greatest American screen actor ami the greatest American screen actress, for the first time since the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences formally proclaimed their pre-eminence. And those two distinguished artists are aided in making the, film a masterpiece by such notables of the screen as Brian Aherne, Claude Bains, John Garfield, Donald Crisp, Joseph Calloia, Gale Sondergaard, Gilbert Boland. Henry O’Neill, Harry Davenport, Montague Love, John Miljan, Vladimir Sokoloff. Monte Blue and many others. It is, hqth in scope and significance, by far the most ambitious production ever undertaken bv the Warner Brothers Studio, Banging in its settings from the magnificence of European _ palaces to the arid Mexican terrain on which a peon army won back the independence of their nation from an imperialistic invader, the production is calculated to dazzle the beholder with its magnificence and convincing with its fidelity and authenticity. Against this remarkable background is told a story that is important not only in the history of Mexico but also in tbe annals of the United States, for it concerns the only large-scale attempt ever made by a European power to flout tbe Monroe Doctrine, a declaration of American policy which recent world events have endowed with increasing significance as the keystone of the defence of democracy all over the Western Hemisphere. The production tells the story of the ill-starred attempt of Napoleon 111. of France to make of Mexico an empire in name but actually a vassal state of Franco. It starts with the sorry intrigue by which tbe people of Mexico were virtually forced to vote for monarchial rule and accept ns their monarch, Maximilian von Habsburg, brother of Emperor Franz Josef of AustriaHungary.

This well-meaning hut futile wouldbe emperor is depicted arriving at Vera Cruz with his empress, the beautiful Carlota, while Benito Pablo Juarez, the Zapotecan Indian who has been president of the country, flees to tbe north with his loyal cabinet. From there, the honest and .patriotic Juarez carries on an incessant guerrilla warfare against the French troops which have been sent over by Napoleoti to keep Maximilian on his puppet throne, and meanwhile the emperor and his consort make futile gestures to win the affection of the Mexican people, the last of which is the adoption of a son. It is on the very day of the adoption that followers of Juarez blow up the French munitions dump iu the capital city, and it is then, pressed by his generals, that Maximilian signs the infamous “ black decree.”

Supports include ‘ The Immortal Brush,’ a colour special of artistry, and ‘ London’s Beply to German Claims.’