if plodding, entertainment." The publication said Ferrer's performance is "a wily, impeccable one, but it comes from the intellect rather than the heart and rarely causes pity." The Philadelphia Inquirer was unimpressed: "For no immediately apparent reason, the Dreyfus scandal...is being given a new screen airing....more zeal than art....Gore Vidal's plodding writing is almost constantly at odds with the overly melodramatic or numbed performances director-star Ferrer has elicited from himself and his cast....If Ferrer underplays drastically, the reverse must be said for almost everyone else in the large, hard-pressed cast." New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the film's "studious and generally valid re-enactment of the highlights of the case offers rewards," but said the film lacked excitement and drama and that "Mr. Ferrer's Dreyfus is a sad sack, a silent and colorless man who takes his unjust conviction with but one outburst of protest and then endures his Devil's Island torment lying down. He is a chilly hero who stirs mere intellectual sympathy." References External links 1958 films 1950s historical drama films 1950s biographical drama films British biographical drama films British historical drama films British black-and-white films Films about the Dreyfus affair Films based on non-fiction books Films set in 1894 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films CinemaScope films Films directed by José Ferrer Films with screenplays by Gore Vidal Films scored by William Alwyn Cultural depictions of Georges Clemenceau Cultural depictions of Alfred Dreyfus Cultural depictions of Émile Zola 1950s English-language films 1950s British films