I Accuse!

I Accuse!
Directed by	José Ferrer
Produced by	Sam Zimbalist
Screenplay by	Gore Vidal
Based on	Captain Dreyfus; The Story of a Mass Hysteria 1955 book by Nicholas Halasz
Starring	José Ferrer Anton Walbrook
Music by	William Alwyn
Cinematography	Freddie Young
Edited by	Frank Clarke
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates	March 5, 1958 (USA)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$1,768,000
Box office	$665,000

I Accuse! is a British-American 1958 CinemaScope biographical drama film directed by and starring José Ferrer. The film is based on the true story of the Dreyfus Case, in which a Jewish captain in the French Army is falsely accused of treason.

Plot synopsis

In 1894 Alfred Dreyfus (José Ferrer), a Jewish captain in the French Army, is falsely accused of treason. He is sentenced to imprisonment on Devil's Island. When the real traitor is found, the French Army tries to hide the truth by exonerating the traitor in a mock trial. Émile Zola, the famous French author, writes a letter to the President of France entitled "I Accuse!", which reveals the truth behind the cover up. The letter is published in the newspaper and Zola is sued for libel, leading to a re-examination of the entire Dreyfus case.

Cast

• José Ferrer as Captain Alfred Dreyfus
• Anton Walbrook as Maj. Esterhazy
• Viveca Lindfors as Lucie Dreyfus
• Leo Genn as Maj. Piquart
• Emlyn Williams as Émile Zola
• David Farrar as Mathieu Dreyfus
• Donald Wolfit as Gen. Mercier
• Herbert Lom as Maj. DuPaty de Clam
• Harry Andrews as Maj. Henry
• Felix Aylmer as Edgar Demange
• George Coulouris as Col. Sandherr
• Peter Illing as Georges Clemenceau
• Michael Hordern as Prosecutor
• Laurence Naismith as Judge
• Ernest Clark as Prosecutor
• Eric Pohlmann as Bertillon
• John Phillips as Prosecutor, Esterhazy trial
• Malcolm Keen as President of France

Reception

The film was a box office flop. It earned $190,000 in the US and Canada and $475,000 elsewhere, leading to a loss of $1,415,000.

Notes

The fact that Dreyfus was railroaded because he was Jewish was obscured in the movie The Life of Emile Zola (1937). Only those villains whose names were a matter of public record (Major Dort, Major Esterhazy) are specifically identified. Others are referred to as the Chief of Staff, the Minister of War, etc. to avoid lawsuits from their descendants (remember that the events depicted in the film, most of which take place between 1894 and 1902, were still within living memory in 1937). As for Dreyfus himself, he was not freed and restored to rank in 1902, the year of Zola's death, but in 1906-after being found guilty again in an 1899 retrial (Dreyfus died in 1935, outliving everyone else involved in the case).

External links

• I Accuse! at IMDb
• José Ferrer at the Internet Movie Database
• I Accuse! at AllMovie
• I Accuse! at the TCM Movie Database
• I Accuse! at the American Film Institute Catalog