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Adventures of Don Juan
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by MGM (Video & DVD)
Sales Rank: 23938
Price: $19.98
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<i>The Adventures of Don Juan</i> is more fun than its reputation suggests, but it inescapably plays as a footnote to Errol Flynn's swashbuckling career. The heroic, athletic figure that lunged, leapt, and sashayed through <i>Captain Blood</i>, <i>The Adventures of Robin Hood</i>, and <i>The Sea Hawk</i> had thickened a bit thanks to middle age and, not to mince words, booze. Accordingly, and with an eye toward the star's real-life aptness to the role of Don Juan, the picture is at least as interested in eliciting chuckles as serving up thrills. <p> Flynn's creative partnerships with top action directors Michael Curtiz and Raoul Walsh were history. Vincent Sherman lacked their finesse and gusto, but he ably steers the actor past self-parody to a reasonably graceful performance. On the commentary track, Sherman (who died in 2006 at age 99) recollects that only once did Flynn arrive on set the worse for alcoholic wear; Flynn couldn't stand, so the director reblocked the scene with Don Juan seated while his bête noire, the Duke de Lorca (Robert Douglas in the Basil Rathbone part), strode around him deploying insults and rapier flicks. It's the best scene in the film. <p> For latterday viewers, the real excitement is the vivid Technicolor. Part of the reason is that cinematographer Woody Bredell, who shot such pungent noirs as <i>The Killers</i> and <i>Phantom Lady</i>, lit the movie as though he were still working that black-and-white territory. The effulgent hues of the Oscar-winning costumes reinforce the effect. In a footnote to a footnote, the film was edited by Alan Crosland Jr., whose father directed the landmark 1926 silent <i>Don Juan</i>--and that film's action climax on an outsized palace staircase is echoed here. <i>--Richard T. Jameson</i>
Viewer Reviews
Errol Flynn's last big swashbuckler is a delightful, sometimes bittersweet farewell to both the movie roles & real-life escapades that made him famous ... and a bit notorious. Clearly playing off his womanizing reputation, he seems to be having a good time as Don Juan, tinged with a bit of wistful nostalgia & regret. Hard living has taken its toll, but he's still up for one last grand adventure!
What makes his performance especially interesting is that blurring between role & real life. Don Juan is well aware that all the lovely & ardent women who throw themselves so eagerly at him are drawn by his larger-than-life image -- the actual human being is a bit of an afterthought, really. And while he's more than happy to oblige the ladies in living out their fantasies, he's aware that he's playing a role for them, and for the world at large ... and that makes him a little sad, bemused, lost.
And then he finds himself genuinely falling in love with a woman he can respect & admire, but can never have. Perhaps this is exactly what he needs, though -- an ideal to live up to & defend, a cause greater than himself. We see that there's much more to the man than the popular, superficial veneer, demonstrated by his treatment of the court jester, a dwarf, as an equal rather than as a joke. And his decency is amply rewarded.
Of course all the requisites of a good swashbuckler are present: truly hissable villains, dark schemes & treachery, fencing with both words & cold steel, humor & romance. And Flynn makes the most of it! The final sequences are thrilling, everything you could want, right down to the muted, noble farewell. Except that Flynn has one last parting wink for the audience that'll leave you with big wide grin.
This is the way they used to make 'em -- highly recommended!
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