Don Juan

John Barrymore stars as "Don Juan", who (as young lad, Philippe De Lacy) is taught by his father (Mr. Barrymore, also as Dad Jose) how to handle women - Love 'Em and Leave 'Em! Learning his lesson well, Barrymore spends much of his time with various women. Willard Louis (as Juan's pal Pedrillo) is especially useful in fending off husbands and other strangers, and doesn't seem too interested in competing with Barrymore for female attention! All goes well until Barrymore is smitten with Mary Astor (as Adriana della Varnese); something about Ms. Astor makes Don Juan want to change his lifestyle, and stick with one woman. But, the reigning Borgias stand in his way - and, Estelle Taylor (as Lucrezia) wants Barrymore, while Montagu Love (as Donati) claims Astor...

Notable for Barrymore's turn as Juan, but better for its soundtrack - the original synchronized sound effects and score are as originally utilized in 1926; and, it works much better than musical soundtracks composed a century later. Barrymore's best scene involves his impersonating a dungeon torturer, nearer the end of the film. Some parts of the story are difficult to understand; for example: What happens to Pedrillo? Why does Juan accuse a certain husband of killing his wife? Perhaps to put him in a later escape scene? which is also difficult to comprehend. Some of the actors read their lines so well, title cards are not needed; however, the acting is not always great. Still, there is enough of everything in "Don Juan" to make it a classic.

******** Don Juan (8/6/26) Alan Crosland ~ John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Montagu Love

Yes, this was the first movie made with a synchronised music score (and some sound effects), but it is much more that that! It is wondrous and spectacular entertainment with brilliant performances and magical camerawork. Like all great silent films there are very few titles because the actors tell the story without words. And what actors they are! John Barrymore is dashing as Don Juan, but he also gives the man great emotional depth - and the scene where he transforms his face while masquerading as a villain reveals not just talent but genius! Remember how he turned from Jekyll to Hyde with no make-up in the 1920 film? He does a similar thing here.

But where would Don Juan be without beautiful women? And here we have three of the most beautiful women ever to grace the scene. Estelle Taylor as Lucrezia Borgia - beautiful but deadly. Mary Astor - bewitchingly young and charmingly innocent. Myrna Loy - exotic and evil, and exquisite!

And the camerawork is superlative. The sword fight and the horseback battle are two of the most excitingly filmed sequences I have ever seen. And the music score is excellent.

This is a wonderful movie.

And who was that incredible actor playing the jealous husband who goes mad? Never seen such brilliant mad acting!

I appreciate the comments made so far on this film but most seem to judge this film in a vacuum and without any background on the silent film genre, a medium quite different from sound films. One commenter even criticized the film for being in black & white. Come now, that's rather silly.

DON JUAN belongs to the great tradition of silent film swashbucklers during the 1920s of which Douglas Fairbanks was the King (and who self-financed his films). Beginning in 1920, Fairbanks effectively switched gears from his modern dress satires of American foibles he made during 1916 to 1919, to literally recreating his boyhood daydreams of being an action hero of Days of Old. The public responded enthusiastically and Doug made a fortune. But his films reaffirmed a kind of rigid moral system and both his character and the heroine were invariably chaste. Clearly, other film makers who were a bit more daring sensed an opportunity to go further than Fairbanks had been willing to go and Warner Bros. struck while the iron was hot in 1926 with DON JUAN.

Compared to the Fairbanks films such as Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), Thief of Bagdad (1924), and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925), which are to this day excellent films, DON JUAN seemed like a revelation with its sexually overt protagonist and equally overt female characters (when Lucretia Borgia first sees Don Juan, a close up shows her clearly eyeing his crotch!). In addition, John Barrymore (aided occasionally by a stunt double) provided a sufficient number of athletic stunts that would satisfy most Fairbanks fans. DON JUAN was and remains a most exhilarating film with a unique conclusion that combines a chain reaction of swashbuckling events.

I must take exception to the most recent commenter's claim that actor Willard Louis, who played Juan's servant Pedrillo, died mid-point in filming. Poor Mr. Louis indeed perished from typhoid fever but either after filming had been completed or at least after his work was completed. He appears throughout the film and his presence during the film's final moments would have been unnecessary. However, if the previous reviewer wanted to question Joseph Swickard's disappearance from the film (he played Mary Astor's father), I would agree that his sudden departure from the story was strange. However, Mr. Swickard lived and appeared in films for many more years so perhaps in DON JUAN he was merely the victim of the film editor who needed to tighten up the story. At any rate, it is a great film and the original Vitaphone music score interprets the action so well that all the young composers who are hired by Turner Classic Movies to provide new scores to silent films ought to be required to see - and hear - DON JUAN to fully comprehend the relationship between silent film and its musical accompaniment.

In my most humble of opinions, this is one of the greatest silent movies ever made. The story line, the sets, (the set designer deserves special credit) the photography, the rapid pace and hesitation when called for, everything combined made for and hour and a half of pure enjoyment. And it was so enjoyable to see one our great talents at his best. There will never be another John Barrymore. And in this film there was something not too often seen in silent film. There was just not movement, there was ACTING. GREAT ACTING. And wait for the chase scene. Absolutely terrific effects. I recommend this film to anyone who is a real fan of films, silent or sound. And as an added thought, there was that beautiful musical score played so dramatically by the New York Philharmonic.

This is a good example of a silent adventure film with a talented star (John Barrymore) in a role to which he is perfectly suited. However, the primary reason it is remembered today is that this was the first feature film to use the Vitaphone system. In other words, it was the first film to have a synchronized sound track, even if all it did at the time was provide orchestral accompaniment and sound effects such as swords clashing. It's a shame that is what it is mainly remembered for, because the film is great entertainment. Barrymore not only entertains the audience with his athleticism, he gives great depth to the role of the wealthy cad who believes that woman gives man only three things - "life, disillusionment, and death" - until he meets a woman (Mary Astor) whose behavior challenges his lifelong beliefs.

Another interesting thing about this film is that two of the female stars are playing roles that seem unusual for them if you are familiar with their later work. Mary Astor, at age 20, is playing an innocent in this film. The finely chiseled features she developed as she got a little older had her playing good but hardened women or femme fatales. Myrna Loy plays the sneaky aid to Lucrezia Borgia, where she is best known as playing the heroine in her talking picture roles once she got to MGM.

The irony of this film is that by 1926 the camera work is able to help make the the sword fight and the horseback battle two very exciting sequences because the Vitaphone soundtrack was not tightly synchronized to the action on screen. Once the synchronized speech phase of sound on film began, such mobile action films as these would not be possible for awhile. Highly recommended, it's just too bad it is not available on DVD.