Les aventures de Don Juan

Amusing and entertaining swashbuckler has Don Juán (Errol Flynn in his self-mocking best) saving Queen Margarita (Viveca Lindfords) who secretly loves her champion from her evil First Minister , (the British Robert Douglas) . He , then swashbuckles his way across England and Spain in effort to win her heart . At the end Don Juan finds a worthy fencing adversary in the treacherous Duc of Lorca (actually , Duke of Lerma , favorite of King Felipe III) at an exciting final duel .

Errol's last spectacular and overwhelming epic features impressive duels , elegant costuming , impressive production design , marvelous gowns , and loads of action . It is so crammed with fights and action , there hardly seems to be a set-piece that doesn't start or end with a duel , fencing or brawl . This was the major ¨Sword and Swagger¨ film mounted by First National Pictures and Warner Brothers for its superstar of swashbucklers , Errol Flynn . Errol is still nearly at his most agile and deft style . Errol Flynn was 38 when he made this movie , but his wild lifestyle had diminished his health and made him less able to perform his own stunts, as he had in earlier films . Previously , Flynn made his best swashbucklers and played successes as ¨Captain Blood¨ , ¨Adventures of Robin Hood¨, ¨The prince and the pauper¨ , ¨Sea Hawk¨, ¨The private lives of Elizabeth and Essex¨ , ¨Gentleman Jim¨ . Flynn performed splendidly the mass battle royal at the ending and the ultimate romantic gesture for the queen , he certainly gave his enthusiasts something to remember him by . It was all downhill for Errol after this , as he followed his successive flops as ¨The warriors¨, ¨Against all flags¨, ¨The Master of Ballantree¨ and ¨Adventures captain Fabian . Support cast is pretty well , such as Alan Hale Jr as his squire , Rommy Brent playing the silly King Felipe III and Robert Douglas is too good for his baddie role . And other notorious secondaries in brief apparitions as Robert Warwick , Douglas Kennedy , Barbara Bates , Monte Blue , Raymond Burr , Helen Westcott , Fortunio Bonanova and forthright as well as sympathetic Una O'Connor , as usual .

Richly costumed , including luxurious gowns and in glamorous Technicolor by cameraman Elwood Bredell . Breathtaking and luxury set design and art design by Edward Carrere and Harry Platt , though mostly interiors . Thrilling and evocative musical score by the great maestro and prolific Max Steiner . The picture is not a masterpiece , but being made with huge confidence and fair play by Vincent Sherman . Vincent directed all kinds of genres : drama , suspense , Western , biography , such as ¨Cervantes¨, ¨Lone Star¨, ¨Affair in Trinidad¨, ¨The Young Philadelphians , ¨Ice palace¨, ¨All through the night¨ , ¨Underground¨. Being his best films : ¨Mr Skeffington¨and this ¨Adventures of Don Juan¨.

...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.

THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN was intended as something of a 'comeback' film for Warner Bros. resident 'bad boy', combining the heroic elements of 'ROBIN HOOD' and 'THE SEA HAWK' with Errol Flynn's well-established (by 1948) reputation as a hell-raising womanizer. Unfortunately, the color production, Flynn's first swashbuckler in nearly a decade, was not a box office hit, but the comic adventure is today embraced by his many fans as one of his best roles!

It was not an easy film to make, as Flynn's carousing and disappearances (officially called 'sicknesses') stretched the filming, and forced frequent reshooting. Director Vincent Sherman, cinematographer Elwood Bredell, and editor Alan Crosland often had to 'cut-and-paste' snippets of many takes to achieve a decent performance from the star, and careful lighting had to be used to play down the increasingly obvious effects of the star's hedonistic lifestyle. (The closing scene, featuring then wife Nora Eddington, was shot nearly a year before the remainder of the film, and the change in the Flynn's physical appearance is clearly evident.) At 38, the star, who always hated being called a 'pretty boy' (to the extent that his home had few mirrors) was aging rapidly.

All this being said, Flynn tried to give the film the best he could. It had been a landmark film for his friend/mentor John Barrymore, in the first Warners' film with sound, employed for music and special effects only, in 1926 (THE JAZZ SINGER would introduce 'talkies' a year later). It reunited him with friend and frequent costar Alan Hale, who, at 56, was still a popular character actor, and whose son, Alan Jr., was starting to make his mark around town (he would eventually be best known as the Skipper in 'Gilligan's Island'). The script for DON JUAN, in development since 1939, passed through many hands, including uncredited help by William Faulkner and Robert Florey, with the end result being marvelously tongue-in-cheek. The score, by the legendary Max Steiner, became an instant classic, and would be reused, years later, in George Hamilton's ZORRO, THE GAY BLADE. This was a film which, despite Errol Flynn's self-destructive lifestyle, had enough talent involved to still stand up as one of the better films of the 1940s.

The plot involves roué Don Juan, tossed out of England after breaking up a 'diplomatic' wedding (a VERY funny scene), returning home to Spain to find evil Duke de Lorca (the sublimely nasty Robert Douglas) controlling weak King Phillip, and taxing the population to near starvation, with only the beautiful Queen Margaret standing in his way. Flynn quickly dispatches a de Lorca press gang, earning the Count's hatred, and the Queen's attention...and Don Juan finds himself truly falling in love, for the first time, with the youthful monarch (played by the radiant Viveca Lindfors). Assigned as a fencing master at the Academy, the legendary lover draws the ire of the Queen by stating his feelings for her, then is manipulated into another disastrous diplomatic blunder, involving, of course, another woman. On the run, he discovers de Lorca's ultimate scheme (manipulating the Crown into war), and with the help of the students of the Academy, he must save the King and Queen.

Featuring a great early appearance by Raymond Burr (as a de Lorca henchman), and a stirring final duel between Flynn and Douglas (expanded from the 1926 version, and featuring an astonishing climactic stairway jump, performed by stuntman and future 'Tarzan' Jock Mahoney), THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN is a gloriously adventuresome romp. Sadly, it didn't save Flynn's flagging career, but it certainly has earned a place among his classic films!

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.

The most eagerly awaited Flynn movie has at last made it to DVD! Unavailable for some years except on a VHS tape and an obscure over priced Korean disc it, thankfully, is back in the Warner Bros. stable where it belongs. The wait was worth it for the disc is simply pluperfect! With rich vibrant three-strip Technicolor and sharply defined images it is a joy to behold! Flynn is terrific in the title role of the great lover and roue. Not withstanding perhaps a nod to the actor's own lifestyle the part was nevertheless taylor made for him. And although it was said at the time that he was slowing down and that he hit the booze while filming there is no evidence of it on screen. The great swashbuckler cuts a fine figure in his many fabulous costume changes throughout the picture. These costumes - designed by the great Travilla - won the 1948 Acadamy Award for best costume design.

The supporting cast were well chosen too! Robert Douglas is great as Flynn's adversary - the evil Duke DeLorca. His dark eyes blackened even more to make him look that bit extra villainous. Alan Hale is once again Flynn's faithful sidekick but after 12 movies this was to be their final picture together. He died the following year. The female lead is taken by the beautiful Swedish actress Vivica Lindfors. Here she plays Margaret Queen of Spain and the one true love of Juan. Lindfors' final film was "Stargate" in 1994! She died in 1995 at the age of 75.

"The Adventures of Don Juan" is well directed by Vincent Sherman and is probably his best remembered movie. The atmosphere, the colour and the sets in the court scenes are really very impressive. But now and then the film gets a little bogged down with some palace intrigue until the picture's famous set piece - the brilliantly staged sword-fight on the magnificent palace staircase. It ranks as one of the cinema's finest duels and Flynn will always be remembered for it even though that amazing leap with the knife was performed by stuntman and B picture actor Jock Mahoney.

Then, of course there is the music by Max Steiner - one of his very best scores! Particularly splendid is his music for Juan's Parade into London with its masterful use of bells and chimes. Also the wistful Ballade which accompanies Juan on his many and various balcony climbings, the driving action music for the fight in the palace and the gorgeous love theme for the scenes with Juan and the Queen especially for the sequence near the end. Here the theme is heard in full bloom as the lovers say farewell to each other forever ("I shall be the only one who knew, for just a little while, that there was no Queen"). Interestingly Flynn's usual swashbuckling composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold - who had served him brilliantly on past successes such as "Captain Blood", "The Adventures Of Robin Hood" and "The Sea Hawk" -was originally slated to score "The Adventures Of Don Juan" as far back as 1945, but by the time the picture went into production the esteemed composer had left Hollywood and returned to his birthplace Vienna. As brilliant a composer as Korngold was it's difficult to imagine he would have topped Steiner's exceptional score. But alas we will never know!

So quite a wonderful disc all round with good extras consisting of a commentary by director the late Vincent Sherman and Flynn authority Rudy Behlmer, a trailer and some instantly forgettable old fashioned shorts but the movie is all, so enjoy. En Garde!