La vida privada de Don Juan

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.

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.

This was at the twilight of Douglas Fairbanks's career and he gives a great performance both in comedy and adventure as Don Juan. He wasn't at the end of his career because he was too old or no longer popular in fact he just decided to call it a day while he was still very much a huge star and relatively young at barely over 50 years old. It's a great performance and a great way to say goodbye for Douglas Fairbanks. The movie is not the best but he is superb.

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 1934, at age 51, Douglas Fairbanks had already decided to end his magnificent and very prolific acting career. Not because he couldn't cope with sound (he had a very nice, strong voice), or with the kind of movies that were popular at the time - he'd originally started as a comedian before he went into the romantic swashbucklers that made him so hugely famous; and in the 30s, screwball comedies were at their height, so he could still have remained a top star for years if he'd wanted to.

But he wanted to retire WHILE he was still on top - and while he could still perform some of those marvelous acrobatic tricks that he'd always employed in his swashbucklers as well as in his comedies and that he himself loved so much doing; and so, for his last role, he chose the one famous character that he hadn't impersonated yet among all the classic heroes of romantic fiction, and that suited him so very well: Don Juan - but an aging Don Juan. A Don Juan who had become tired of keeping in shape for balcony climbing and love-making to young ladies, something which required daily training and diet - a kind of self-confession that he conveyed through his role...

So he shows us here for the last time a display of his famous sword fighting, balcony climbing, and of course romancing - but at the same time, he parodies not only the self-satisfied Don Juan with the myth that surrounds him, but also himself; he wasn't above that.

He was in NO way obliged to admit to his doctor, who calls him "King of Hearts": - "Well, nowadays, when I sit down to a... quiet game with a lady, I'm - no longer sure of holding the card..." Neither to play that scene with the middle-aged innkeeper who has a go at him in a PRETTY unflattering way: "You've no money, no looks, not very much brain - and you're no chicken! You'd make a nice husband..." Neither to have all the young girls of Seville laugh at him when he, who was believed dead, finally steps in in the middle of a stage play about his own 'private life' and declares that HE is the real Don Juan...

And yet he DID play all these scenes - because he wanted to. He wanted to say 'goodbye' to acting with a good dose of self-mockery; he was MAN enough not only to admit that time hadn't just passed him by, but to ridicule that fact in such an exaggerated way that again makes us say automatically: "But hey, you're just joking - you ARE the King of Hearts, and you always will be!" So, with this hilariously funny, bright, romantic costume piece full of action and laughter, Doug Fairbanks retired from the acting stage - not in a pathetic, dramatic way, but in a humorous, lovable one that's kept him in the hearts of his fans until this day. So that's the special meaning behind this very enjoyable period comedy-parody that certainly never gets dull or sentimental or boring for one single moment...