Paul Muni


Paul Muni made some great movies, but in this one he had one look: like a corpse stuffed into a too-short coffin, waiting to be buried. A very unremarkable acting job.

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In Hal Wallis book Starmaker and in John Huston's book An Open Book, both noted that Muni has tremendous clout at Warner's and was treated with kid gloves.

Jack Warner was quoted as saying "We are paying Muni all this dough and we can't recognize him"

As I noted Mr. Muni was WB's biggest star in the 1930's and gave some of the that era's great performances in particular Scarface, I Was A Fugutive from the Chain Gang, The Life of Emile Zola and the Story of Louis Pasteur and on loan out to MGM for The Good Earth. In Huston's words it was heaving going when dealing with Paul Muni. Because of his talent, per Wallis, Muni's quirks were honored. In the case of Juarez, Brian Ahearne and Bette Davis gave better performances.

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I certainly agree. Both Ahearne and Davis gave compelling performances, while Muni was little more than an overly made-up mannequin, despite the other great work that you cited.

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