Juarez is a 1939

1939 in film

The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...

 American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 historical drama film directed by William Dieterle

William Dieterle

William Dieterle was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films include The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...

. The screenplay by Aeneas MacKenzie

Aeneas MacKenzie

Aeneas MacKenzie, or Æneas MacKenzie, was a Hollywood screenwriter with many notable films to his credit, including: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex , They Died with Their Boots On , Ivanhoe , and The Ten Commandments .-Filmography:*Juarez *The Private...

, John Huston

John Huston

John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...

, and Wolfgang Reinhardt

Wolfgang Reinhardt (producer)

Wolfgang Reinhardt was a German film producer and screenwriter. He produced ten films between 1940 and 1973. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Screenplay in 1962 for the film Freud....

 is based on the novel The Phantom Crown by Bertita Harding and the play Juarez and Maximilian by Franz Werfel

Franz Werfel

Franz Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet.- Biography :Born in Prague , Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves and leather goods. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner...

.
The film focuses on the conflict between Maximilian I

Maximilian I of Mexico

Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy...

, a European political dupe who is installed as the puppet ruler of Mexico

Second Mexican Empire

The Second Mexican Empire was the name of Mexico under the regime established from 1864 to 1867. It was created by Napoleon III of France, who attempted to use the Mexican adventure to recapture some of the grandeur of earlier Napoleonic times...

 by the French, and Benito Juárez

Benito Juárez

Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...

, the country's president.

In 1863, Napoléon III of France, fearful he will lose Mexico

Second Mexican Empire

The Second Mexican Empire was the name of Mexico under the regime established from 1864 to 1867. It was created by Napoleon III of France, who attempted to use the Mexican adventure to recapture some of the grandeur of earlier Napoleonic times...

 to its newly-elected president Benito Juárez, circumvents the Monroe Doctrine

Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention...

 by instituting sovereign rule and controlling an election that places Maximilian von Habsburg on the Mexican throne.