Steineded How sad is this?

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Vincent Sherman, with a screenplay by George Oppenheimer and Harry Kurnitz 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).

mmallon4 You could look at it cynically and view Adventures of Don Juan as a career life support, seeing Errol Flynn going to back to doing what made him famous in the first place after a string of unsuccessful pictures at the box office but it is none the less Errol Flynn returning to do what he does best. Despite not having done a swashbuckler since The Sea Hawk in 1940, Adventures of Don Juan manages to recapture the magic of his earlier days in this very dialogue driven swashbuckler. Flynn's signs of ageing are increasingly apparent but considering his health and status as a star this would have been the final time Flynn could have headlined a big budget production such as this.The Technicolor here doesn't have the striking vibrancy of The Adventures of Robin Hood but the beautiful, detailed backdrops and very large scale sets with immaculate attention to detail are superb. The only complaint I have production wise is the very obvious use of footage taken from The Adventures of Robin Hood which sticks out from the rest of a movie which was filmed a decade later. It's a shame they couldn't get Michael Curtiz to direct for one last Flynn adventure or Erich Wolfgang Korngold to do the music score, none the less Max Steiner's score does the job. I also previously knew Viveca Lindfors as the teacher from the 1985 comedy The Sure Thing. To see her 37 years earlier play a Spanish queen in the 17th century was such a contrasting role.Unlike John Barrymore's take on Don Juan in 1926, Flynn's Don Juan uses the character's insatiable lust for woman for laughs rather than for tragedy (I doubt a film in tone of the Barrymore Don Juan could be made during the code era). Flynn's Don Juan is a charmer but with a tad buffoonery to him, who's love making antics threaten relations between England and Spain. However Flynn injects some John Barrymore into his performance with his manner of speaking, which it should then come as no surprise that Flynn would later portray Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon. What is also taken over from the Barrymore Don Juan is the famous breathtaking epic dive down the stairs; and it does not disappoint. The two villains in Adventures of Don Juan, the King of Spain (Romney Brent) and the Duke de Lorca (Robert Douglas) attempt to hatch a plan to build an armada in secret for world conquest and use shady tactics along the way such as abducting subjects by force for the navy. This was only a few years after the Second World War had ended and the memories of Hitler where still vivid in people's minds. Robert Douglas channels a bit of Basil Rathbone in his performance while the partnership between these two villains is the classic Emperor/Darth Vader set up; with one figure taking the public limelight and the other pulling the strings behind the scenes; as the Duke de Lorca puts it, "I have no desire to sit on a throne, I much prefer to stand behind it".

gkeith_1 Robin Hood, Elizabeth and Essex, They Died With Their Boots On -- add these to this movie, and you have a great combination. Errol Flynn was always so handsome and charming. Wish he could have lived forever. It is so wonderful that his images can be preserved in these excellent films.Yes, Don Juan was the great lover. He also had to be a great politician, what with dealing with kings, courtiers and husbands. If I were a movie director, and could get Errol Flynn to act for me in a leading man role, I know I could get a great performance out of him every time. RIP, Errol. You were the best.12/10

Robert J. Maxwell This was Flynn's last big one. He was only 38 at the time but had begun drinking in the afternoon, causing problems on the set, what with multiple retakes and a major binge that lasted several weeks. It's not "The Sea Hawk" or "Robin Hood." Still, the film was artfully edited and clearly a lot of money was spent on it. The Technicolor photography is outstanding and nobody ever looked quite so natural in a gaudy period outfit as Flynn. It holds one's interest.The story has Flynn as Don Juan, lover and swordsman, returning to Spain at the beginning of the 1600s. It's really a pastiche, kind of like "The Sea Hawk" with elements introduced from various other films of the genre. There's the well-intentioned Queen, the beautiful Viveca Lindfors of the plump lips and strong features, surrounded by weaklings and traitors who want to go to war -- except for Don Juan, of course. (Cf., "The Sea Hawk.") There's the comic sidekick, Alan Hale. (Cf., all of Flynn's Warners pictures.) The good guys disguised as hooded monks. ("Robin Hood", "The Mark of Zorro.") The hero and villain, face to face and belly to belly, straining at their crossed swords, and the villain sneakily withdrawing a dagger from his belt ("Robin Hood"). The hero captured and thrown into prison to await execution, only to make a spectacular escape. ("Robin Hood", "The Mark of Zorro.") Shadows fighting on the castle wall. ("Robin Hood," "The Prisoner of Zenda".) And so on. Some shot are edited in that are taken directly from "Robin Hood" and "Elizabeth and Essex." Robert Douglas is Duke de Lorca, the heavy. He makes a slimier heavy than Basil Rathbone did. Douglas is okay but Rathbone was a nonpareil with his tall figure, abrupt movements, and darting glances. Perc Westmore was responsible for the make-up. He should be proud of himself for the task with which Flynn must have presented him. But he should be ashamed of himself for what he did to the villains. You know how you can tell the principal villains from everyone else? They all have dark eye shadow, so they look like the ghouls or zombies in a Grade C horror flick. Douglas has this sinister curl down the middle of his forehead that looks painted on.The director, Vincent Sherman, doesn't seem to have compelled any of the performers to act with any subtlety. It's not that kind of movie. But everyone is professionally competent. Alan Hale -- well, it's as if he were your fond uncle. Viveca Lindfors probably puts the most effort into her work. When Flynn enters her life she becomes positively, and literally, breathless. And watch the fleeting expressions that cross her features when Flynn confesses his love for her -- the briefest of half-hopeful smiles followed by a scowl of indignation.The amours of Don Juan occasion some amusing moments. One of the many young ladies who come to watch him instruct the members of the fencing academy leaves her fan behind. When Flynn calls this to her attention, she replies, "You WILL return it, won't you? It's the house on the Plaza Madrid. The last house on the right." "Oh, on the RIGHT," says a resigned Flynn, who has heard this hundreds of times before.The budgets on Flynn's pictures dropped dramatically after "The Adventures of Don Juan." He chain smoked, used drugs, boozed it up daily, and never complained. He died at the age of 50, having lived as he pleased.