It's 1863 Mexico. French emperor Louis Napoleon III (Claude Rains) is battling democratic leader President Benito Juárez (Paul Muni) for control of Mexico while the American Civil War rages. When news of Lee's defeat at Gettysburg arrive, Napoleon with the support of the landowning conservatives has Maximilian von Habsburg (Brian Aherne), younger brother of the Habsburg Emperor, installed as King of Mexico to avoid America's Monroe Doctrine and mitigate his southerner allies' defeat. Maximilian arrives with his wife Carlota (Bette Davis) only to learn later that a vote was rigged to bring him over. In the end, one word separates Maximilian and Juárez; democracy. Meanwhile, Juárez is being undermined by his ambitious vice president Alejandro Uradi.
This historical drama is more history lesson than a character drama. Maximilian is portrayed with soft gloves as a nice guy. Juárez is portrayed as a stoic Lincoln disciple. Being completely clueless, I have no idea about the accuracy. All I know is that this movie needs a protagonist to center itself. It does lay out the main combatants in the story but non of them are good protagonist material. Juárez is too stoic and Maximilian is too light weight. Maybe Maximilian's cluelessness could be a nice character study. That's almost this movie. It would be interesting to have a dark comedy about the would-be emperor.
This historical drama is more history lesson than a character drama. Maximilian is portrayed with soft gloves as a nice guy. Juárez is portrayed as a stoic Lincoln disciple. Being completely clueless, I have no idea about the accuracy. All I know is that this movie needs a protagonist to center itself. It does lay out the main combatants in the story but non of them are good protagonist material. Juárez is too stoic and Maximilian is too light weight. Maybe Maximilian's cluelessness could be a nice character study. That's almost this movie. It would be interesting to have a dark comedy about the would-be emperor.