Suez is an American romantic drama film released on October 28, 1938, by 20th Century Fox, with Darryl F. Zanuck in charge of production, directed by Allan Dwan and starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Annabella.

Entranced by Eugenie's beauty, Bonaparte arranges for his romantic rival to be assigned to a diplomatic post in Egypt, joining his father, Count Mathieu de Lesseps, the Consul-General.

However, Napoleon unexpectedly withdraws his support out of political necessity; he needs to appease Great Britain, and the British prime minister is firmly opposed to the project.

[6] In March 1938, Zanuck revealed that he had set up a $2,000,000 budget, with recently retired from acting George Arliss, winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing the title role in 1929's Disraeli, possibly returning to repeat, in Suez, his famed portrayal.

[10] The New York Times found the film "a handsomely sepia-tinted and ponderously implausible description of how the Suez Canal came to be built....Mr. Zanuck, in short, has endowed his historical excursion with everything but credibility....It is not precisely the role for Mr. Power, who has the screen manner one associations with the young men from Ted Peck's Escort Bureau.

"[11] The Washington Evening Star was more accepting of the inaccuracies, noting that "In preparing the script for the lavish, spectacular and expensive picture, Twentieth Century-Fox found the historical arrangement of character and situation somewhat lacking in adequate dramatic values.

"[12] The New York Post acknowledged the plot's Hollywood touches while complimenting special effects: "The building of the Canal itself is celebrated with some genuinely spectacular photography, sets, and swarms of people.

It is comparable to the Chicago fire, the San Francisco earthquake, the Chinese locust plague or the South Seas hurricane....This is something that connoisseurs of movie catastrophes will have to add to their collections.

"[13] Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide gives Suez 3 stars (out of 4) and, in its early editions, states, "elaborate Darryl Zanuck production surrounds good cast with 1850s France and Egypt".

Steven H. Scheuer's Movies on TV also gives it 3 stars (out of 4), commenting, "well-photographed and lavish film which is supposed to tell the true story of how the Suez Canal was built.

Assigning 3½ stars (out of 5), The Motion Picture Guide described it as "typically lavish Hollywood biography that bears even less relation to the truth than usual for the genre" and later went on to state that "inane dialog is the biggest culprit in this ridiculous view of 19th-Century French politics".

The write-up also mentions that in his 1971 biography by Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Pioneer, Allan Dwan expresses admiration for Annabella's professionalism, in particular while filming the epic sandstorm.

The film follows the usual formula of the other Zanuck biographical bowdlerizations: smart sets, great costumes, romance, fine special effects, and complete disregard of fact.