John Garfield was cast as Porfirio Diaz at the request of Paul Muni, who was familiar with his stage work in New York City. Garfield was relatively unknown in Hollywood at the time, but by the time filming began he had received critical acclaim for his performance in "Four Daughters". Studio executives questioned his playing a relatively minor role in "Juarez", but the actor was anxious to appear in it, so he remained in the cast, his box-office appeal managing to win out over his heavy Bronx accent. Garfield's reviews were uniformly bad, and Diaz proved to be the only period role he played in his career.