JUAREZ

"Virtue is a formidable weapon in the hands of an enemy"--Juarez

Wednesday night I saw William Dieterle's Juarez, for the second time, with the History Meetup.  It was one of three prestigious Warner Brothers biopics where Dieterle directed Paul Muni, the others being The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Life of Emile Zola. (I first saw it back in the '80s on the CBC late show that broadcast a lot of old Warner Brothers movies, hosted by Ben Gordon.)

The movie got better as it got along, but Muni's hagiographic Juarez wasn't so interesting; it was really about Brian Ahearne as the misguided, doomed Emperor Maximilian. (Of course there's a subtext about resisting the Nazis...)

A couple of people from my Crowdreads Meetup turned up at the screening, which was nice.  This afternoon I went to their group, and we were still talking about the movie.  I was also talking about the Viking history I'm reading.  Someone else had some quotes from Einstein. (I like his quote, "Don't feel bad if you have problems with mathematics.  Mine are bigger.")