AndersonWhitbeck — 13 years ago(February 01, 2013 05:04 PM)

Paul Muni was great in this film. I saw it today on TCM Channel.
As has been reported, Muni was a great star at Warner Bros with an amazing list of hits
Chain Gang
Scarface
The Story of Louis Pasteur
The Life of Emile Zola
Juarez
The Good Earth ( on loan to MGM)
It was Muni whom Jack Warner regarded as the biggest star at WB and that includes Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart. The Muni pictures brought great prestige ( and box office) to Warner Bros. Hal Wallis in his book noted that only because that Muni was such a great actor and his pictures so profitable to WB did the studio allow him to be as temperamental as he was. It was his wife Bella Muni that called the shots on the sets not the Director!
When Muni left WB his star faded but did get one more great movie role The Last Angry Man at Columbia and an Oscar nomination. Muni made a stragetic error in turning down the Pawnbroker allegedly because it was done by a small studio Allied Artists!