Les aventures de Don Juan

Errol Flynn, at 38, was not exactly as dashingly handsome as he was in his earliest triumph ('The Adventures of Robin Hood') for his life style had begun taking a physical toll on his health. But he looks in good shape (for the most part, except for some tell-tale closeups) and carries off the role with his usual zest, good humor and athletic grace.

He still has a good sidekick in Alan Hale who gets some witty banter with Flynn throughout the fast-moving film. Victor Sherman directs the tongue-in-cheek adventure tale with great style. All of the court intrigue and swashbuckling derring-do is photographed in gorgeous technicolor and accented by a lush pseudo-Spanish Max Steiner score. Fine bits of villainy supplied by Robert Douglas and Raymond Burr and some high spirited romance from women like Viveca Lindfors (at the peak of her physical beauty) and Ann Rutherford.

For fans of Flynn films, this is one of his best. None of it can be taken seriously, but that's part of the fun. From the wry opening to the sly closing scene, this is a pure delight if you're seeking escapist adventure photographed in some of the best color cinematography ever seen.

...from Warner Brothers and director Vincent Sherman. Notorious ladies' man Don Juan de Marana (Errol Flynn) has grown weary of all the duels and womanizing, and he turns himself over to the mercy of the Spanish King Phillip III (Romney Brent). Don Juan takes a job as a fencing instructor, but he gets drawn into court intrigue, and a romance with the Queen (Viveca Lindfors). Also featuring Alan Hale, Robert Douglas, Robert Warwick, Ann Rutherford, Jerry Austin, Douglas Kennedy, Jean Shepherd, Fortunio Bonanova, Una O'Connor, Aubrey Mather, and Raymond Burr.

Flynn is looking a bit older, and his health (and his drinking) was reportedly in such a state that he had to use stunt doubles, and frequently delayed filming. He isn't bad here, but this is a long way from Robin Hood, despite the presence of old pal Alan Hale. The production design is very good, and the score is rousing, but the story meanders a bit and goes on a tad too long. I still enjoyed it, though. The movie won the Oscar for Best Color Costumes (Travilla, Leah Rhodes, and Marjorie Best), and it was nominated for Best Color Art Direction.

I've always been a huge fan of Flynn's movies. When he was into the role, he was as good an actor as anybody. Of his swashbucklers, the "BIG THREE" were always Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk. But two movies often omitted from a list of his best are The Adventures of Don Juan and The Master of Ballantrae. Don Juan is a movie in the vein of Burt Lancaster's Crimson Pirate or The Flame and The Arrow, being a tongue-in-cheek swashbuckler that scores on several points. Flynn was clearly comfortable with light comedy; it featured some great "bad guy" work by Robert Douglas; and, despite production problems caused BY Flynn's excesses, the editing in of sequences from Robin Hood and Elizabeth and Essex worked very well. The fencing scenes were thoroughly enjoyable! All in all, I would recommend this film to anybody who is a fan of the genre.

Like his swashbuckling predecessor Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn tackled the part of Don Juan in his late years, he was 39 when he made this film for Warner Brothers. Like Fairbanks, Flynn plays an older and wiser famous lover who's getting a bit bored by it all. Not unlike the real life Errol Flynn.

The Adventures Of Don Juan finds Tirso De Molina's famous lover sent home after a couple of escapades in the newly formed Kingdom of Great Britain. King Philip III and Queen Margaret give our hero a chance to redeem himself by teaching at the royal fencing academy.

He's up to his neck in trouble soon enough, but not the kind of trouble Flynn's usually in. The first minister Robert Douglas is planning a move against the Queen who he sees as his main obstacle for total power in the kingdom. And the great lover starts behaving more like Sir Lancelot and less like Don Juan where Queen Margaret as played by Viveca Lindfors is concerned.

Although Philip III was not the great ruler his father Philip II was, by no means was he as big a fool as Romney Brent plays him. The real Queen Margaret who was his Hapsburg cousin did in fact have considerable influence over domestic and foreign policy in Spain.

The Adventures of Don Juan was given a sumptuous production and won an Oscar for Costume Design and was nominated for Art&Set Design. I think the film's best asset besides Errol Flynn is Max Steiner's music. As Flynn films usually are well scored, this one even stands out among that group.

The Adventures of Don Juan marked the thirteenth and last film that Alan Hale made with Errol Flynn. If Alan Hale or Frank McHugh did not appear in Warner Brothers production it didn't seem quite right. Jack Warner kept those two guys busiest of all at his studio.

Although Errol was getting older and his hedonistic living was starting to show, the part calling for an older and wiser Don Juan was well suited for him. One wishes he'd done the role back in the middle Thirties as a young man however.

Very good color filming, great costuming, a terrific music score are some plus factors for this swashbuckling movie. The highlight (pretty much the only one) is a magnificent sword fight- I can recommend the movie based on this highlight alone, as well all the sword work generally.

The film is competently but not spectacularly directed by Vincent Sherman. The characters in this film are fairly routine, the script is average, and except for the climactic sword fight the action mostly consists of characters running around briskly.

The fictional tale of 16th Century Spain is unremarkable, but the acting is good. Viveca Lindfors is a beautiful leading lady portraying the Queen of Spain, but is mostly required to react, breathlessly and with restrained emotion, to Don Juan's romantic verbal (verbal only) approaches. It is really not much of a role for a fine actress. Robert Douglas is as good a villain as you might find in any swashbuckler and gives a great performance as the evil Count. At this point in his career, an exceedingly obese Raymond Burr is just OK as a standard thug palace guard. Movie perennial Robert Warwick gives one of his best performances as the good Ambassador and friend of Don Juan; he makes his role more human and less cardboard than some of the other roles in this movie.

Errol Flynn is carefully filmed to appear strong and handsome, but heavy make-up and no shirtless scenes are some of the techniques used to disguise the sad fact that that Flynn was forty-ish and not physically well. He seems to realize that he is too debilitated for the part, and while his acting is good (he was a competent actor always), he is a more mature man than his once swashbuckling self. He clearly knows this fact and admirably tries to portray more "Don Juan" than "swashbuckler", and as a result he is utterly charming and watchable. Battling full blown alcoholism, serious heart problems, malaria and according to his then wife and others, a morphine issue, its remarkable that he is able to complete a film at this point in his life, although he did manage to keep his fading career limping along in increasingly poorer films for a few more years before dying at age 50.

Viewing this film I wonder why someone felt it necessary to put it together at all, but I guess swashbucklers were popular then. It seems unnecessary and basically just a retread with a fading and ill star. It is beautiful and well made technically but offers nothing at all that you could say was original.