The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)

just watch it!

Just so...so bad

Good movie but grossly overrated

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Douglas Fairbank Sr.'s swan song. He retired afterward and died five years later. Fairbanks was not very successful in the sound era, and this film was dismissed on its release, and flopped. It's actually pretty good, though. Fairbanks is a tad awkward, but it works in favor of the story. He plays an aging Don Juan. He is still a hit with the ladies, but he's annoyed that he has impersonators. After one of these impersonators is killed in action, Don Juan takes the opportunity to retire from the business, faking his own death. At first he enjoys his life as a regular man, but when he discovers that romance is much more difficult without his reputation preceding him, he decides to re-enter the identity of Don Juan. Problem is, no one believes him. It's a clever and very funny movie, beautifully shot and well acted. Merle Oberon is especially entertaining as a dancer.

Legendary lover Douglas Fairbanks (as Don Juan) feels the fatigue of advancing years; so, the ageing lady-killer takes advantage of a misunderstanding, and fakes his own death. After a rest, Mr. Fairbanks tries to return to his amorous ways; but, nobody believes he's the real Don Juan. Through it all, Fairbanks fans both new (Merle Oberon as Antonita) and old (Benita Hume as Dona Dolores) flames.A look at the credits of "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933) will reveal what filmmaker Alexander Korda had in mind - obviously, with "Don Juan", he hoped to duplicate the success of the earlier "Henry VIII". Unfortunately, this similarly staged "Private Life" found itself coming up short, and is significantly more lowly regarded. Indeed, it is a flat film. Moreover, the supporting cast is introduced in a confusing manner; it's difficult to keep track of who's who.In his last film role, Fairbanks is terrific as an ageing "Don Juan". Interestingly, he succeeds in eliciting the feeling he memorably portrayed "Don Juan" sometime during his 1920s box office reign. Not so, the famed womanizer was played, in fact, by John Barrymore; and, in spirit, by Rudolph Valentino. Still, Fairbanks makes the role personal; undoubtedly, his status as an fading film superstar helped.Fairbanks' best scene occurs about a half hour in, when he is informed of his character's "death" via the sword of Gibson Gowland (as Don Alfredo). Fairbanks pretends to be his character's mourning steward; then, he offers some interesting, likely personal, observations on fame. This is followed by a nice funeral sequence, revealing much about the famed lady-killer's escapades. Barry Mackay's deftly inept portrayal as a wannabe Juan is worth noting; his "inability" to leap effectively contracts Fairbanks' ageing gracefulness. ******* The Private Life of Don Juan (8/28/34) Alexander Korda ~ Douglas Fairbanks, Merle Oberon, Benita Hume

After making four relatively minor films as sound movies, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. concluded his career with a good film. No ROBIN HOOD or THE BLACK PIRATE perhaps, but THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN managed to give a coda to his career as screen presence, by giving him the role of a legendary lover who discovers that age catches up with legends.Made in England by Alexander Korda, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN was one of a series of "historical" dramas and biographies (here a pseudo-biography) by Korda that would include Henry VIII, Rembrandt, and Catherine the Great as subjects. As a result, the cast includes such Korda familiar faces as his wife Merle Oberon and Binnie Barnes.Fairbanks' Don Juan is over fifty, but still exuberant, and still a master of seduction. However his wise valet Leporello (Melville Cooper in a nicely phrased performance) is getting tired (after decades of such work) of helping extricate his master from various sexual escapades. Perhaps they were more tolerable when Juan was twenty or thirty, or even forty, but a middle-aged man of fifty should settle down.Years earlier Juan had married (legally) Dona Dolores (Benita Hume - later, in real life, Mrs. Ronald Colman). Hume wants him to come to his senses and return to her - she's aware he is not the romantic hero of the age anymore. Cooper is aware of this and soon is working with Hume to manipulate Fairbanks into growing up.A chance helps them. A young fool is going around Seville pretending to be Juan, and steals into the house of Juan to learn the master's secrets. He also steals some personal items of Juan, and soon afterward is caught in the house of a young married woman by her husband (Gibson Gowland - "McTeague" in Von Stroheim's GREED), who reluctantly challenges him to a duel. Gowland is reluctant because Don Juan's reputation is a class A fencer. However the impostor is not as good, and is run through. News spreads that the great lover has been finally killed by a cuckolded husband. Gowland's popularity shoots up, and the women in Seville go into morning.Fairbanks is initially going to straighten out the issue, but is "convinced" by Cooper to take advantage of it to get away and have a vacation. He decides to do that, pretending he is a retired sea captain and going to a sea port. Here he soon is pursuing his old interests, but he finds that the young woman he "attracted" wants him to assist her in contacting her real boyfriend (she thinks Fairbanks is a wise old man who can help her). Similarly, when he approaches Binnie Barnes, the maid in the inn, she's willing - if he buys her really nice presents of jewelry (he gives her some in disgust!). The inn-keeper (about five or six years older than Fairbanks) offers him a chance for marriage. He is now thoroughly tired of the vacation, and returns home.But everyone thinks he is dead - he can't convince anyone he is not dead. He sees a play about his life in a theater and interrupts (a situation like that of Baron Von Munchausen in the 1989 movie). But everyone there, including Gowland and Oberon - a former lover - refuse to acknowledge this old man as the great dead man. He is laughed off the stage. But Cooper is there to guide him to Hume, and the film ends with Fairbanks realizing that Hume expects him to be as passionate and expert as a lover - and will never laugh at him like the others. Fairbanks happily accepts the final situation with relief.It was a marvelous performance, showing Douglas Fairbanks at his best, in all but youthful vigor. It gave him a final film of stature to end with. Maybe he could have continued into good character roles, but as he to end somewhere, this film was a good place to end.

In one scene Melville Cooper says to Douglas Fairbanks: "Leave off while they still think of you as you were ten years ago". It is a sad moment that you feel must have rung true for the two actors. The great Fairbanks, a movie legend, hadn't worked for two years. His famous marriage to Mary Pickford was at an end. And he was ageing, at 51 he could no longer fill the film with his trademark stunts - though he still climbs a mean rope ladder.Korda, perhaps cruelly, makes Don Juan a rather pathetic character - living off his legend rather than any real charm or beauty. Once he allows the public to believe he is dead, the real Don Juan can't even seduce a kitchen maid, and the only offer he receives is from an old lady - in a scene beautifully played by Fairbanks. When he stands on a stage and declares that he is Don Juan he is met with gales of laughter. You can't help thinking that Fairbanks might have met the same reaction had he stood before a crowd and declared himself to be Douglas Fairbanks.The film itself is actually pretty good - splendidly staged if a little clumsy in pace. And Merle Oberon is ravishingly beautiful. Fairbanks, like Don Juan, seems tired - ready for retirement. The spark re-ignites briefly in some scenes, but the overall feeling is one of defeat. Within five years Fairbanks would be dead having never worked again. As the film concludes, with Don Juan finally succumbing to marriage, and therefore retirement, we get the impression that he won't live much longer either. A god has been brought to earth. A flame extinguished.