Das Privatleben des Don Juan

Don Juan, the great lover, is now middle-aged and finds he no longer has the same appeal with the ladies. Meanwhile a young impostor keeps the Don Juan legend alive by kissing women all over town. When trying to make a comeback, the real Don Juan can't live up to his own legend.

This is a very funny movie and an interesting take on the Don Juan character. We see him forced to adhere to a strict diet, as his good looks are "his only asset", and balcony-climbing has become a chore. It's a tale about aging and clutching to one's youth.

The cast is great for this witty Alexander Korda film. Young Merle Oberon is very beautiful as a dancer whose celebrity profits from being kissed by the great Don Juan. Benita Hume is lovely as the one woman who understands Don Juan - his wife. And it's a rare treat to see Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in a sound film, playing Don Juan in what would be his final role. The movie's a lot of fun, and even the opening credits are full of wit.

In one scene Melville Cooper says to Douglas Fairbanks: "Leave off while they still think of you as you were ten years ago". It is a sad moment that you feel must have rung true for the two actors. The great Fairbanks, a movie legend, hadn't worked for two years. His famous marriage to Mary Pickford was at an end. And he was ageing, at 51 he could no longer fill the film with his trademark stunts - though he still climbs a mean rope ladder.

Korda, perhaps cruelly, makes Don Juan a rather pathetic character - living off his legend rather than any real charm or beauty. Once he allows the public to believe he is dead, the real Don Juan can't even seduce a kitchen maid, and the only offer he receives is from an old lady - in a scene beautifully played by Fairbanks. When he stands on a stage and declares that he is Don Juan he is met with gales of laughter. You can't help thinking that Fairbanks might have met the same reaction had he stood before a crowd and declared himself to be Douglas Fairbanks.

The film itself is actually pretty good - splendidly staged if a little clumsy in pace. And Merle Oberon is ravishingly beautiful. Fairbanks, like Don Juan, seems tired - ready for retirement. The spark re-ignites briefly in some scenes, but the overall feeling is one of defeat. Within five years Fairbanks would be dead having never worked again. As the film concludes, with Don Juan finally succumbing to marriage, and therefore retirement, we get the impression that he won't live much longer either. A god has been brought to earth. A flame extinguished.

Returning old and in debt to Seville, the scene of his youthful triumphs, Douglas Fairbanks Snr as the Don finds a young impostor climbing less adroitly up balconies to get at the city's wives. When the inept lad is run through by a husband, Don Juan enjoys attending his own funeral but is persuaded by Melville Cooper, his sardonic sidekick Leporello, to disappear under an alias to Portugal.

Bored and unsuccessful with women there, he leaves when the even-older owner of the inn, Athene Seyler, proposes. Back in Seville, nobody believes that this strange elderly man is the dead Don Juan and he is universally taken for another impostor, even by old flames.

Among the host of lovely women it is invidious to pick out Merle Oberon as a gloriously seductive dancer Antonita, Benita Hume as his abandoned but still faithful wife Doña Dolores and Binnie Barnes as a gawky barmaid Rosita.

The whole film is tongue-in-cheek, with nobody taking themselves seriously and all acting with Latin extravagance. Picturesque costumes are about 1805, based on Goya's paintings, and there are some ambitious sets. Fine soundtrack throughout, with an opening serenade "Senorita Carmencita" and a running motif of "La Paloma". Good entertainment!

Douglas Fairbanks, in his final role, stars as the legendary Spanish lover in his later years, when his legend has outgrow his reality. There is an epidemic of young men pretending to be Don Juan in order to woo lonely wives, and tales of Don Juan's past escapades have been published and are found on every street corner in Seville. But the real Don Juan has aches in his joints from too many years jumping off of balconies to escape jealous husbands, as well as lines on his face and gray in his hair. When one of the impostors is killed in a duel, Don Juan takes it as an opportunity to retire and move to the countryside under an assumed identity. But life as the world's greatest lover is hard to put away, and soon he begins to wish for his old glory.

This was a terrific send off for Fairbanks, as there are many parallels between his character and himself. His distinctly American voice may seem out of place, but I allowed for the discrepancy. He was still in tremendous shape, performing some climbing and jumping stunts, and a bit of swordplay. Oberon has rarely, if ever, been lovelier, and I got a kick out of Cooper as Don Juan's exasperated manservant. The costumes and sets are top notch, and director Alexander Korda keeps things moving along at a fine clip. A perfectly enjoyable romp, with some deeper things to say about the acceptance of aging, and the nature of reputation and legend.

In Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s memoirs, he and his father decided in 1933 to go over to Great Britain together for work. Fairbanks the younger wasn't satisfied with his film career at Warner Brothers and his father was falling head over heels with the British Lady Sylvia Ashley. She became his third and last wife. Doug Jr. said that they bonded while there closer than they did while he was a child.

Doug Jr. did a bunch of films and some stage work in London, his best known film in his British period was Catherine the Great with Elizabeth Bergner. Doug, Sr. did this one film, The Private Life of Don Juan and it's as tailor made a farewell to the screen as The Shootist was for John Wayne.

We all of us get older and even such sex symbols as Don Juan does. He's wearying of the life and I suspect has not the stamina any more for what he was known for. When rumor goes around he's been killed finally by an irate husband, Fairbanks decides with his faithful man Friday, Leporello, played by Melville Cooper to take a long needed rest.

The problem comes when he decides to make a comeback and no one believes this 51 year old man is the real Don Juan. Fairbanks was 51 when he made The Private Life of Don Juan and he did look pretty good for a 51 year old man. At least I didn't look as good when I hit that age.

What will the outcome be for the aged Lothario? For that you'll have to see the film and I will say that Alexander Korda provided a nice bevy of British beauties for Fairbanks to choose from. Such beautiful and talented folks as Merle Oberon, Benita Hume, Binnie Barnes, and Diana Napier all vie for Fairbanks's attention at one point in the film.

Best in the film however is Athene Seyler and her proposition to Fairbanks. Her scene with him is a delight.

I don't know if Fairbanks had it in his head that The Private Life of Don Juan would be his farewell picture. It needn't have been, his speaking voice registered well for sound and by 1934 he wasn't overacting as many of his silent contemporaries did and ruined their careers thereby. But The Private Life of Don Juan was perfect as a farewell performance for a man who was an American icon in his day, as much as John Wayne was in his.