The Life of Emile Zola

“He'll hold you in silence as deep as your emotions!”

A Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut), is sent to prison for espionage, and no one in Paris seems troubled that the case against him doesn't hold. Émile Zola (Paul Muni), by now a famous novelist living in comfort, is slow to take notice, until he decides Dreyfus is an innocent man. William Dieterle keeps the focus on the Dreyfus family, on Lucie (Gale Sondergaard) waiting while her husband sits in a cell.