Themes: Daring Rescues, Heroic Mission, Righting the Wronged
Main Cast: Errol Flynn, Viveca Lindfors, Robert Douglas, Raymond Burr, Romney Brent, Alan Hale
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
Plot
Though Errol Flynn was well past his prime (and obviously well lubricated in certain scenes), he rises to the occasion of The Adventures of Don Juan with a spirited, athletic performance. As fabled Spanish swashbuckler/lover Don Juan, Flynn spends the early portions of the film romancing willing young ladies and dueling with jealous husbands. Spain's Queen Margaret (Viveca Lindfors) assigns Don Juan to head the royal fencing academy to keep him out of trouble. When scheming Duke de Lorca (Robert Douglas) plots to topple the monarchy, it is Don Juan's eager young fencing pupils who come to the rescue. Though a troubled production (filming was habitually halted due to Flynn's precarious physical condition and by constant changes and replacements in production personnel),The Adventures of Don Juan moves swiftly and enjoyably from start to finish, abetted by a rousing, semi-satirical Max Steiner musical score, which has since been heard in such 1980s films as Zorro, the Gay Blade and Goonies. Incidentally, Errol Flynn is doubled in the famous leap from the head of a long staircase by stunt expert Jock Mahoney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Accompanied by trusted sidekick Alan Hale and an appropriately lush Max Steiner score, Errol Flynn returns to what he did best, full-blooded swashbuckling romance. And, happily, with the now accustomed tongue firmly planted in cheek. The same, alas, can not be said for leading lady Viveca Lindfors, whose Queen of Spain is unnecessarily arch, or Robert Douglas who, as the villainous De Lorca, hardly lives up to such glorious 1930s predecessors as Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains. Yet despite these caveats, director Vincent Sherman and the Warner Bros. award-nominated set designers craft an exhilaratingly old-fashioned adventure yarn featuring a Don Juan who is more action than amour. Costume designers Travilla, Leah Rhodes and Marjorie Best earned well-deserved Academy Awards and there are amusing cameos by a young Raymond Burr, as an evil captain of the guard, and future Search for Tomorrow star Mary Stuart, as an unfaithful wife. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Marjorie Best - Costume Designer, Leah Rhoads - Costume Designer, William Travilla - Costume Designer, Vincent Sherman - Director, Alan Crosland, Jr. - Editor, Max Steiner - Composer (Music Score), Edward Carrere - Production Designer, Elwood Bredell - Cinematographer, Jerry Wald - Producer, Herbert Dalmas - Screen Story, Harry Kurnitz - Screenwriter, George Oppenheimer - Screenwriter
