Adventures of Don Juan (1948) – full review!
Adventures of Don Juan (1948) – full review!
Directed by Vincent Sherman with a screenplay by George Oppenheimer (The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942)) and Harry Kurnitz (What Next Corporal Hargrove? (1945)) that was based on the Herbert Dalmas story this average adventure drama not only marks the last swashbuckler role for Errol Flynn (at 39 years old) appropriately playing the title character but also the actor’s last of more than a dozen pairings with sidekick Alan Hale. The film won an Academy Award for its Color Costume Design; its Color Art Direction-Set Decoration was also Oscar nominated.
The film begins by showing the legendary womanizer in a couple of different dicey situations in which Flynn’s character with the help of his sword and his trusty aide Leporello (Hale) must extricate himself. Una O’Connor appears briefly (as Helen Westcott’s handmaiden) in one of them. The first incident leads to a second one in London during which both men are captured and Don Juan must face his native Spain’s ambassador the Count de Polan (Robert Warwick) to whom he’s been released. The Count is well aware of Don Juan’s reputation earned over many years across Europe and chastises him for hurting his own efforts in negotiating peace with England. With the Count’s advice and a letter sealed with a ring he’d been given by Queen Don Juan returns to Spain seeking to serve her. Queen Margaret (Viveca Lindfors) and King Phillip III (Romney Brent) receive Don Juan and after more chastisement she puts him to work training their country’s young fencers. The ambitious Duke de Lorca (Robert Douglas) the King’s trusty right hand man has secret plans of his own for seizing power but cutting off the Queen’s supply of funds for peace to Ambassador de Polan to use them to fund a new Spanish fleet for their Navy.
A reformed Don Juan does an excellent job training his country’s young swordsmen with Don Serafino’s (Fortunio Bonanova) help while befriending dwarf Don Sebastian (Jerry Austin) a friend of the royal couple. Unfortunately he’s then almost entrapped into another dalliance by Donna Elena (Ann Rutherford) she’d tried to seduce him just before her wedding. The scandal causes him to face the Queen who had trusted him. Earlier under her orders Don Juan revealed that his true love was the Queen herself. She was shocked at his impudence that he would say such a thing even under her command and had discharged him (but later had to admit to herself that she was flattered and not altogether unhappy with what he’d told her). Distraught and consoling himself in a pub with Leporello Don Juan discovers the Count’s ring in the possession of the man (Douglas Kennedy?) who runs the Duke’s secret torture chamber. But when he goes to warn the King and Queen of the Duke’s treachery and treason he’s too late to stop the coup and ends up in said chamber himself. Leporello and Serafino rescue Don Juan then the three free the Count before rendezvousing with the young fencers. With Sebastian’s help they infiltrate the castle to rescue the Queen and a grateful King. A climactic sword fight between Don Juan and the Duke’s trusty Captain Alvarez (Raymond Burr) is short-lived but followed by a much longer duel (on the elaborate staircase steps) with the Duke himself. Naturally Don Juan wins; he then has one last platonic meeting with the Queen before he leaves declaring to Leporello that his romancing days are over until he sees a lady in a carriage (Flynn’s wife Nora Eddington uncredited).