The thing about this movie is, everyone in it acts like they're in a historical biopic of Louis Pasteur. There isn't an unselfconscious scene or performance in the film, though Paul Muni (in chameleon mode) convincingly portrays a Great Man. The trouble with these Great Man stories is that we're supposed to cheer (or tear) when he wins the valediction of his peers, but the movie has just spent the preceding hour and a half telling us his peers are dunces.