The first third of this biography, devoted to Zola's rise from poverty to fame, is rather dull. It picks up steam with the introduction of the Dreyfus affair, wherein a Jewish Army captain is falsely accused of treason, although the anti-semitism angle is ignored by the film. Muni is terribly hammy in the title role, playing Zola as a pompous blow-hard. As he showed in "The Good Earth" the same year, the actor was never able to adapt his theatrical acting to the screen. Schildkraut is OK as Dreyfus, a performance that won him an Oscar, but Sondergaard overacts as his wife. This overcooked drama beat out the likes of "Stage Door" and "The Awful Truth" to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Review of The Life of Emile Zola
