France at the end of the 19th century was split over the guilt or innocence of a soldier, Alfred Dreyfus, who had been convicted of selling secrets to the Germans.
In The End (chapter 6) she uses the term "Dreyfus" in reference to Alfred Dreyfus when accused of a crime.
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At this stage, the protagonist of the story, becomes a witness to the suffering of his best friends: Oscar Wilde is demoralized and imprisoned for the crime of sodomy, Alfred Dreyfus was convicted and exiled to Devil's Island, the writer Émile Zola died in suspicious circumstances and France, his homeland!, is ruled by corrupt politicians.
However, he also played gruff authoritarian figures, such as Monsieur Cavaignac, who, contrary to history, demands the resignation of those responsible for the Dreyfus coverup, in The Life of Emile Zola (1937), as well as Don Alejandro de la Vega, whose son appears to be a fop but is actually Zorro, in the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro, starring Tyrone Power.
The film documents the events that saw a French Captain, Alfred Dreyfus, sent to Devil's Island for espionage near the end of the nineteenth century.