The Mystery of Juarez

There are a lot of mysteries concerning old-time Hollywood that will probably never be solved but if I had to pick the one that most intrigued me this week, it would be the mystery surrounding the reasons why the 1939 movie Juarez received its current title. After all, the movie itself did not seem to be too interested in telling the story of the Mexican president it was named after. Indeed, despite playing the title role, actor Paul Muni spent so little time on film that it seemed a wonder that he got any dialogue at all in the movie.

Nor did it help that he was constantly upstaged by actor Brian Aherne (who played would-be Mexican Emperor Maximilian I) and actress Bette Davis (who played Maximilian's wife Carlotta). True, Muni did get to make a lot of serious speeches but in the end, it was Aherne and Davis whose characters who got the bulk of the filmmaker's sympathy if for no other reason that they were among the few historical figures in the movie who got to be portrayed as human beings.

Thus the movie Juarez presented its viewers with a paradox: a movie that was allegedly about the triumph of the first Mexican president of Indian descent that nevertheless chose to concentrate most of its story on his European opposition. Which is a nice thing if you always wanted to see a movie about people like Maximilian and Carlotta but kinda besides the point if you wanted to see a movie about people like Benito Juarez.

If that wasn't a big enough paradox, the movie also found time to portray Porfirio Diaz (the head of Juarez's military forces) in a heroic role -- a development that seemed ironic considering what would happen to Diaz in later life. But, alas, this was a movie that had little room for irony.