In 1936 Warner Bros. produced The Story of Louis Pasteur, a film which is considered to be one of the first grand biopics in the history of Hollywood. A year later, Warner Bros. repeated the formula by reuniting director William Dieterle with Oscar-winning actor Paul Muni who would play another great figure of 19th century French history in The Life of Émile Zola.
In the film, Muni plays the famous French author Émile Zola. The plot begins in 1862 Paris where Zola, as a young struggling writer, lives in an attic with his best friend, the young struggling painter Paul Cézanne (played by Vladimir Sokoloff). His fortunes begin to change when he is given a desk job in a publishing house which allows him to write in his spare time. The subject of his writing – the plight of the poor, wretched and marginalised, as well as corruption within the government and military – seems unattractive and draws the ire of censors. However, a chance encounter with a prostitute called Nana (played by Erin O'Brien Moore) inspires Zola to write a novel which would, despite its scandalous content, become a bestseller and bring him fame and fortune. Years later, Zola lives a comfortable life and is all but ready to retire when another event starts a major scandal that would almost tear France apart. The French General Staff discovers that one of its officers has been providing secrets to Germany and, without actually bothering to properly investigate the matter, picks Captain Alfred Dreyfus (played by Joseph Schildkraut) as the most convenient perpetrator, tries him for treason, deprives him of his rank and sends him to spend the rest of his life at Devil's Island in the infamous penal colony of French Guiana. Dreyfus maintains his innocence, but even after the French military brass discovers that the real spy was the aristocratic Major Esterhazy (played by Robert Barrat), it chooses to acquit him in the trial solely in order to save themselves from embarrassment. Dreyfus' wife Lucie (played by Gale Sondergaard) comes to Zola and pleads with him to join her campaign to exonerate her husband. Zola agrees and publishes his most famous work – "J'accuse", an open letter to the French President in which he attacks the top military officials for their shameful handling of the Dreyfus Affair. The generals react by suing Zola for libel, which Zola sees as an opportunity to publicly expose the scandal in the courtroom.
The Dreyfus Affair had ended three decades before the production of the film, but The Life of Émile Zola was actually quite a relevant film for its time. Its premiere coincided with the Great Purge in the Soviet Union, during which tens of thousands of Red Army officers suffered a similar (or in most cases worse) fate than Alfred Dreyfus. The reason why Dreyfus and not any other officer was chosen as the scapegoat was Dreyfus' Jewish background; later, when the affair became public, anti-Dreyfus sentiments in the French public were fuelled by rampant anti-Semitism, very much like the one that would gain ground in many countries during the Great Depression, including Germany where it became part of the official Nazi policy. The 1937 film was, therefore, both a piece of entertainment and a warning about how bigotry and intolerance can wreck the innocent man and how difficult it is to right the wrongs caused by it. On the other hand, producer Henry Blanke and Warner Bros. were very careful not to make those views too explicit. Words like "Jew" and "anti-Semitism" are never uttered in the film, and the names of many real-life historical personalities are simply replaced with their official titles in an obvious attempt to prevent lawsuits from those persons or their relatives. The script, while generally faithful to the historical detail, occasionally strays from the facts and rearranges certain events for dramatic purposes.
Despite those flaws, The Life of Émile Zola represents a very good recreation of history. Director Dieterle has built on his experience from the previous film and handles Émile Zola better than he handled Louis Pasteur. The plot's structure is more compact, divided into two parts – the first one, which introduces Zola and his early work and career, lasting roughly half an hour; and the second part, which is more than twice as long and deals almost exclusively with the Dreyfus Affair. Paul Muni, who won an Oscar for playing Pasteur, delivers another grand performance. Known for meticulously preparing his roles, he has read all of Zola's books and grew a beard in order to attain as much physical resemblance with the famous French author as possible. But it is his passionate speech at the courtroom that shows Muni's talent at its best; it was so good that it received a standing ovation from the cast and crew on the set. Muni's great performance is accompanied by Joseph Schildkraut who almost steals the film in a smaller, but effective role of an officer who is falsely accused, publicly disgraced and forced to endure humiliating incarceration while claiming innocence and hoping that history would absolve him of any guilt. Schildkraut won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, one of three that The Life of Émile Zola would gather following unprecedented ten nominations – for Best Picture and Best Screenplay. The film also benefits from a minimalist but effective musical score by Max Steiner, one of the greatest composers of Classic Hollywood.
Although in today's cynical world the name of Émile Zola might not mean much to anyone other than French Literature students, this film is nevertheless relevant to our times. Bigotry, scandalous corruption within government circles, and innocent people being persecuted are, despite decades of progress, facts of life in the modern world as they were in the time when this film was made.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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