Adventures of Don Juan (1948)

Warner Bros.

Director: Vincent Sherman

Starring: Errol Flynn, Viveca Lindfors

Honors:

Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Color)

This lavish costume swashbuckling spectacle picture for Warner Bros featuring its chief leading man from the glory days of the genre was an attempted return to the glory of pre-war Technicolor prestige films. Sadly this retelling of the fabled lover and swordsman would mark a definitive downturn for its star as age, ill health, and poor personal care hindered to recuperate the budget for such a picture. It would serve as a form of nostalgia of Hollywood’s past glory days in the minds of audiences, but fail to make economic sense for Warner Bros to attempt similar pictures with their now middle aged star. The result was a film, albeit well received at first, was ultimately proven to be a failure.

Adventures of Don Juan is a Technicolor swashbuckling adventure/romance about a legendary Spanish lover who returns home to save his queen from a treacherously treasonous plot. Known far and wide for his plentiful scandalous love affairs, Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Mariana (Errol Flynn) is extricated to his home country where he attempts to mend his reputation serving as the Royal Army’s fencing instructor by order of the queen. Don Juan shows signs of a budding romance with Queen Margaret (Viveca Kindfors), the true backbone of the monarchy compared to King Philip III (Romney Brent), who is as irresponsible with his wife as he is to the country.  During his service Don Juan discovers a treasonous plot by Duke de Lorce (Robert Douglas) to usurp the power of the crown and begin a war and an allying nation. Don Juan defends the Queen and King, heroically saving the nation, and in closing avoids the Queen’s advances for the good of the country. Of course Don Juan is not immune to the beauty of a woman as the film concludes yet again in pursuit of an attractive married woman as the film’s send off moment.

The film is truly an attempt to return to the brightly colorful adventure spectacles of pre-World War II, akin to the Errol Flynn classics Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood. However, Flynn at age 39 Flynn has aged quite a bit in the decade since his swashbuckling heydays, as he appears to lack focus and physicality, with moments of apparent self induced hinderances showing through in his on screen performance. As a story about a famed lover known for “romantic” affairs with various married women the story of Don Juan does have to focus on a positive plot as he protects the Spanish crown from treason. This leaves us with the feeling that Flynn wants himself portrayed as the ultimate male while the morals of society at the time in movie production needing to shoehorn a plot that makes him a straight hero.  The result is a weak romantic story matched with a weak period costume adventure story that is easy to forget.

For Warner Bros the Don Juan property was a long considered for a remake of the highly successful 1926 silent feature starring John Barrymore since the advent of talking pictures. Beginning in 1939, while Errol Flynn was in the height of his fame, the studio proposed the film another vehicle for its recent Robin Hood star. Other projects and eventually the war would keep the project on the indefinite back burner for the studio. Despite many false restarts to pre-production in the years following the war the film would eventually begin production in 1947 with Errol Flynn as the only remaining original piece in place from the initial inception of the project.

Simply put the entire production of Adventures of Don Juan revolved around Errol Flynn. From its commencement back in 1939, through its production ideas, and even its filming schedule all of it was done to fit around being an Errol Flynn picture. In 1945, when the film was announced to being moving towards production, Raul Walsh was announced as the director until Flynn had a falling out with the filmmaker, lobbying for a replacement. A similar story can be said when in 1947 just before principle photography began Michael Curtiz, director of some of Flynn’s better works, had his own spat with Flynn and Errol eventually having Curtiz replaced the star’s good friend Vincent Sherman in the director’s chair.

Through the years many names were attached to the production. Actresses like Claudette Colbert, Olivia de Havilland, and Margaret Lindsey all saw their names graced along Flynn’s as leading lady candidates before the role ultimately landed on Viveca Lindfors as Queen Margaret. The performance portrays the queen as a strong woman as Don Juan’s love interest, but with a performance that leaves not lasting impact in a viewer’s mind. The villain for a while was considered to be played by Claude Rains, eventually being filled by Robert Douglas, a long time stage actor beginning to make a stronger career in movies. As the film’s protagonist he is the usual political villain with unprovoked evil plans to be carried out by his henchmen. Douglas does a fine job as the villain, but takes a second (or possibly third or forth) seat to Flynn in film focusing mostly on star over plot, giving Douglas little to work with.

Other performers found throughout the feature include Ann Rutherford before her retirement from film as another of Don Juan’s love interests, Robert Warwick as a friend of Don Juan whom he helps save, and one of Flynn favorite pals Alan Hal, shortly before his death in 1950, as Don Juan’s sidekick Leporello.

Flynn at age 39 was not nearly as spry as he once was a decade prior as years of not properly taking care of himself resulted in ill health. Said to have suffered slight heart issues and possibly battling a venereal disease (a bit of irony for the role), Flynn was noticeably thinner and less fit for his usual physical work. Un able to be as physical in his performance this time Flynn relied much more on his stunt work to be carried out by a double.

Production proved to not smooth out once cameras began rolling. Battling alcoholism Flynn often came to the set under the influence, beginning his day with a few glasses meant to dull his demons. Furthermore, Flynn’s illness would completely halt production on two extended occasions, costing the studio a great deal of money in this heavily needy production. There were times where Warner executives questioned whether to call off the production completely, but ultimately it was determined that they were too far into it finically to not see it through, especially with promise of good international gains. Sherman and the editor would attempt to work around the troubled work of Flynn but a good eye can note Flynn is slightly off in the picture.

When the film premiered in late December 1948 European markets, as expected, fawned over the lavish costume picture, bringing in generous box office receipts. Domestically the story would not be as promising. In American critics would praise the film as a return to the old Hollywood with Technicolor that showcased a cast of thousands of extras in bright period costumes. If you were to read the trade publications of the day, you would think the film was to be a runaway hit with all the great praise it was receiving. However, domestic box office revenue was not where Warner Bros would have liked it. The film would be deemed a failure financially for Warner Bros.

 

Despite having working out a new contract with Errol Flynn during the production of Adventures of Don Juan that would keep him with the studio until 1961, to numbers showed Warner Bros that such pictures were not a profitable formula going forward. The result of recent low box office numbers, Flynn’s ailing health, and the eventual criticism of Flynn’s noticeable decline saw Flynn’s future picture budgets greatly reduced.

In time critics have come to criticize Errol Flynn’s decline which can be observed in this picture, It was the noticeable decline for he once highly touted Warner Bros star despite all the puffing out of his chest to make himself look fit and manly. As a film Adventures of Don Juan is a yawner of a feature, attempting to reignite the pre-war swashbuckling adventure/romance films started by the likes of Douglas Fairbanks carrying up to Flynn. However, in the post war years the leading man was aging rapidly and soon audience tastes would change. Sure, there would still be a market for nostalgia and the enjoyment of lavish costume pictures, but only if done right, and here it was done to serve its star, which may have hurt the overall film. An Academy Award for Best Costume Design manifests the want for such features, but it was just trying to do over a style that has already been done. Here we see a rehashing of the past failing even with all the money and resources the picture needed.