The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) User Reviews

Will The Real Don Juan Stand Up Or Stand Out?

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 7 January 2008]

In Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s memoirs, he and his father decided in 1933 to go over to Great Britain together for work. Fairbanks the younger wasn't satisfied with his film career at Warner Brothers and his father was falling head over heels with the British Lady Sylvia Ashley. She became his third and last wife. Doug Jr. said that they bonded while there closer than they did while he was a child.

Doug Jr. did a bunch of films and some stage work in London, his best known film in his British period was Catherine the Great with Elizabeth Bergner. Doug, Sr. did this one film, The Private Life of Don Juan and it's as tailor made a farewell to the screen as The Shootist was for John Wayne.

We all of us get older and even such sex symbols as Don Juan does. He's wearying of the life and I suspect has not the stamina any more for what he was known for. When rumor goes around he's been killed finally by an irate husband, Fairbanks decides with his faithful man Friday, Leporello, played by Melville Cooper to take a long needed rest.

The problem comes when he decides to make a comeback and no one believes this 51 year old man is the real Don Juan. Fairbanks was 51 when he made The Private Life of Don Juan and he did look pretty good for a 51 year old man. At least I didn't look as good when I hit that age.

What will the outcome be for the aged Lothario? For that you'll have to see the film and I will say that Alexander Korda provided a nice bevy of British beauties for Fairbanks to choose from. Such beautiful and talented folks as Merle Oberon, Benita Hume, Binnie Barnes, and Diana Napier all vie for Fairbanks's attention at one point in the film.

Best in the film however is Athene Seyler and her proposition to Fairbanks. Her scene with him is a delight.

I don't know if Fairbanks had it in his head that The Private Life of Don Juan would be his farewell picture. It needn't have been, his speaking voice registered well for sound and by 1934 he wasn't overacting as many of his silent contemporaries did and ruined their careers thereby. But The Private Life of Don Juan was perfect as a farewell performance for a man who was an American icon in his day, as much as John Wayne was in his.

Sadly ironic finale for the great Fairbanks.

[David-240 · 7/10 · 5 June 2000]

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.

Farewell Mr. Fairbanks!

[gregberne11 · 6/10 · 11 January 2019]

This was at the twilight of Douglas Fairbanks's career and he gives a great performance both in comedy and adventure as Don Juan. He wasn't at the end of his career because he was too old or no longer popular in fact he just decided to call it a day while he was still very much a huge star and relatively young at barely over 50 years old. It's a great performance and a great way to say goodbye for Douglas Fairbanks. The movie is not the best but he is superb.

When the legend becomes fact... retire.

[jimjo1216 · 30 August 2013]

Don Juan, the great lover, is now middle-aged and finds he no longer has the same appeal with the ladies. Meanwhile a young impostor keeps the Don Juan legend alive by kissing women all over town. When trying to make a comeback, the real Don Juan can't live up to his own legend.

This is a very funny movie and an interesting take on the Don Juan character. We see him forced to adhere to a strict diet, as his good looks are "his only asset", and balcony-climbing has become a chore. It's a tale about aging and clutching to one's youth.

The cast is great for this witty Alexander Korda film. Young Merle Oberon is very beautiful as a dancer whose celebrity profits from being kissed by the great Don Juan. Benita Hume is lovely as the one woman who understands Don Juan - his wife. And it's a rare treat to see Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in a sound film, playing Don Juan in what would be his final role. The movie's a lot of fun, and even the opening credits are full of wit.

Fairbanks Goes Out in Style

[wes-connors · 7/10 · 6 April 2008]

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

Fairbanks Last Film

[drjgardner · 7/10 · 28 June 2015]

"The Private Life of Don Juan" is a 1934 comedy from Alexander Korda and is notable as the swan song of screen legend Douglas Fairbanks. The Don Juan character comes from a 14th Century Spanish play, several books and plays (including works by Byron and Moliere) and the Mozart opera Don Giovanni (1787). The first film was in 1926 starring John Barrymore. Don Juan would be played later by Errol Flynn (1949) and Johnny Depp (1995).

Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was one of the biggest stars in the early years of Hollywood, referred to as "The King" of Hollywood. Along with Chaplin, DW Griffith, and Fairbank's wife, Mary Pickford, he founded United Artists (1919). He founded the Motion Picture Academy (1927) and was its first President, was the first to put his hands and feet in the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and hosted the first Oscar ceremony in 1929.

Fairbanks virtually invented the swashbuckler film and appeared in such classics as "The Three Musketeers" (1921), "Robin Hood" (1922), and "The Thief of Bagdad" (1924). He wasn't really known for his lothario roles, which were more the focus for his contemporaries Valentino and Barrymore.

Fairbanks was in England along with his son, looking for work, when he came upon Alexander Korda and hence this film. Korda loved film biographies - "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933), "The Private Life of Helen of Troy" (1927), "Rembrandt" (1936), "That Hamilton Woman" (1941), and "Bonnie Prince Charlie" (1948) – and while the character Don Juan is more fiction than fact, he was so well known it does take on an historical tone

Merle Oberon plays one of Fairbank's love interests. She started in films in 1928 but it was her role as Anne Boleyn opposite Charles Laughton in Korda's "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933) that brought her to stardom. She was nominated for an Oscar for "The Dark Angel" (1935) but is probably best remembered for her role as Cathy in "Wuthering Heights" (1938). Oberon appeared in several Korda films and eventually they married in 1939 and then divorced in 1945 when she married cinematographer Lucien Ballard.

Binnie Barnes plays a maid. Barnes was a major star of the 30s, appearing in "Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933), "Diamond Jim" (1935), "Last of the Mohicans" (1936) and "3 Musketeers" (1939). Her philosophy was - "I'm no Sarah Bernhardt. One picture is just like another to me as long as I don't have to be a sweet woman."

French born Georges Perinal (1897-1965) is the photographer. He worked often with Korda (Henry VIII, Rembrandt, Catherine the Great) and won an Oscar for "The Thief of Bagdad" (1940) and was nominated for "Four Feathers" (1939).

The NY Times called the film "a visually attractive costume comedy" but disliked Fairbanks' performance noting - "the microphone is ruthlessly unkind to him. Neither in voice nor theatrical skill is he gifted to read lines."

1934 was an OK year for films. The top box office slots went to "Viva Villa", "Cleopatra" and "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" and "It Happened One Night" was the big Oscar winner. That year "The Thin Man" series began, Karloff and Lugosi appeared in "The Black Cat", Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced in "The Gay Divorcée", Laurel and Hardy laughed it up in "Babes in Toyland", and Howard Hawks' "Twentieth Century" came out.

The aging Fairbanks is marvelous as the aging lothario, and one can't help but make comparisons with John Wayne's "The Shootist" (1976), Edward G Robinson's "Soylent Green"(1973), Errol Flynn's "Too Much too Soon" (1958) or John Barrymore's "The Great Man Votes" (1939). Fairbanks is particularly good when philosophizing about the vagaries of fame and the problems of growing old.

This isn't the best film, but it is an opportunity to see the famous Douglas Fairbanks in a talkie and in a role that requires acting rather than swashbuckling alone. His voice is a bit disappointing and his acting skills are not terrific, though they are certainly acceptable. He is surprisingly agile as the 52 year old demonstrates throughout the film. Although his contemporaries were disappointed, the passage of time lets us evaluate him more appropriately.

Entertaining swashbuckling romantic comedy

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 8 October 2020]

Douglas Fairbanks, in his final role, stars as the legendary Spanish lover in his later years, when his legend has outgrow his reality. There is an epidemic of young men pretending to be Don Juan in order to woo lonely wives, and tales of Don Juan's past escapades have been published and are found on every street corner in Seville. But the real Don Juan has aches in his joints from too many years jumping off of balconies to escape jealous husbands, as well as lines on his face and gray in his hair. When one of the impostors is killed in a duel, Don Juan takes it as an opportunity to retire and move to the countryside under an assumed identity. But life as the world's greatest lover is hard to put away, and soon he begins to wish for his old glory.

This was a terrific send off for Fairbanks, as there are many parallels between his character and himself. His distinctly American voice may seem out of place, but I allowed for the discrepancy. He was still in tremendous shape, performing some climbing and jumping stunts, and a bit of swordplay. Oberon has rarely, if ever, been lovelier, and I got a kick out of Cooper as Don Juan's exasperated manservant. The costumes and sets are top notch, and director Alexander Korda keeps things moving along at a fine clip. A perfectly enjoyable romp, with some deeper things to say about the acceptance of aging, and the nature of reputation and legend.

At first I thought Fairbanks was miscast...then as the film continued I understood why he was in the lead.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 1 August 2010]

When this film began, I was very suspicious about the casting of the aging Douglas Fairbanks in this film. After all, he was supposed to be playing Don Juan--the famed lover. Yet here was Fairbanks--clearly middle-aged, with thinning hair and a less than impressive physique. In fact, this turned out to be his last film--dying just five years later. So I KNEW this couldn't possibly work...or so I thought. However, the plot actually worked because in the film, Don Juan was supposed to be past his prime--it's just that he and his adoring public didn't yet know it!

The film begins with Don Juan adored by the masses of married women who he has been seducing and flattering. However, his doctor is concerned--his patient isn't as young as he used to be and he needs to slow down. At first Don Juan is skeptical, but when his servant is murdered by a man who THOUGHT this was Don Juan, the aging philanderer makes the most of it--and allows the world to think he is dead. Then, he can retire and take life easy. However, after a while, he finds this life a bit dull--and the ladies are less than impressed by this anonymous man. So he decides to go public--admit he's alive and resume his wicked ways. The problem, however, is that the Don Juan of legend is just too sexy and too appealing--and no one believes this aging man is this rake!

The film has a neat message, nice costumes and a few flashes of the old Fairbanks as he scampers up the side of a building to woo a willing lass. While not a great film, it was a nice farewell for the world-famous leading man. I saw this on the recent Criterion release, but as it had absolutely no special features on the disk, you might just want to watch it or download it from the IMDb link--something you can do with many of director Alexander Korda's films.

The World's Greatest Lover

[lugonian · 7/10 · 26 January 2021]

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN (A London Film distributed by United Artists, 1934), produced and directed by Alexander Korda, stars silent screen legend, Douglas Fairbanks, in his final film role and only one produced outside of Hollywood. After Korda's success with the bio-pic of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (1933) that won Charles Laughton an Academy Award in the title role, Korda's next private life, that of Don Juan, did not become a biography of the great lover as it might have been. Instead, it became a costume comedy dealing with the Don Juan legend. Fairbanks, famous for his silent screen performances as Zorro, Robin Hood and The Thief of Bagdad, assumes the role originated by John Barrymore in DON JUAN (Warner Brothers, 1926). As much as Barrymore might have assumed the continuation of the role he originated, this Don Juan, not actually a sequel to the silent classic, is basically a rehash of the now aged lover of women wanting to now live a simple and quiet life.

The story begins in Seville as a singer (John Brownlee) vocalizes the "Don Juan Serenade" while bored and neglected wives soon become enchanted by a shadowy figure posing as great lover Don Juan, to grant them a flower, then having the husbands asking their wives, "Who was that man?" In actuality, the real Don Juan (Douglas Fairbanks), best known for having 903 affairs in two years, now middle-aged and married to Dona Dolores (Benita Hume), is having his secret affair with Antonia (Merle Oberon), a dancer of Passionate. After being advised by his doctor to give up his physical activities, the now older and tired Don Juan decides to retire from love making. In the meantime, Rodrigo (Barry McKay), a much younger man impersonating Don Juan, comes across a diary belonging to the great lover. and follows it to the letter. Rodrigo's masquerade is soon cut short when killed in a duel by jealous husband, Don Alfredo (Gibson Gowland), for romancing his young wife, Carmen (Joan Gardner). Wanting to put his past behind him, Don Juan attends his own funeral and retires to France in the guise of Captain Mariarco. During his six months in seclusion, during which time having read a recent published book titled "The Private Life of Don Juan," does Don Juan return to Seville to revive his legend as he world's greatest lover. By trying to prove the book to be nothing but a bunch of lies, Don Juan finds himself faced with situations even he could have never have imagined. Others in the cast include Binnie Barnes (Rosita); Melville Cooper (Leporello, Don's servant); Claude Allister (The Duke); and Heather Thatcher (The Actress).

While THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN has great potential, it didn't become the known classic as either Barrymore's DON JUAN nor Laughton's THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII. Production values and casting are first-rate, with Fairbanks as Don Juan, attempting to recapture his legend, being Fairbanks, attempting to recapture his former movie success of the past. Though he speaks well enough to have resumed his career for the next few years, by 1934, he was past his prime with his style of acting seemingly out of date. Audiences would soon focus on much younger swashbuckling types as Robert Donat as THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (United Artists, 1934) and Errol Flynn for CAPTAIN BLOOD (Warner Brothers, 1935). It is also the same Flynn who revived the Don Juan legend in THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (Warner Brothers, 1948), with plot bearing no connection to its prior predecessors.

Though circulating television and home video and DVD prints for the 1934 edition is usually clocked at 80 minutes, its presentation on Turner Classic Movies, where it premiered in 2012, is slightly longer at 86 minutes. Regardless of run times, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN is enjoyable, as British movies go. It's also a good end for the Fairbanks legends in a genre that had made him world famous a decade ago. (***)

Very cute screenplay

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 17 April 2023]

As with all the classic Don Juan tales, the humor in this 1934 version is very tongue-in-cheek. But as you might not expect, since it was released the same year as the Production Code was put into place, lots of jokes slipped past the censors. As Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Watches Merle Oberon dance in her nightclub, he remarks on her beauty. His faithful sidekick mutters that she won't look so good in the daylight; but Doug asks, "Who wants to see her in the daylight?"

There's a very funny twist to this version of the Don Juan story: this one focuses on the famous lover when he reaches middle age. He's told by his doctor to climb no more than one woman's balcony a day. As they discuss the health hazards of climbing balconies, the euphemism is clear. He agrees to slow down, but a young upstart decides to take his place. As he impersonates Don Juan, the ladies are fooled. As long as they think they're getting romanced by Don Juan, they believe anything they want to! When Doug tries to take his reputation back by announcing he's the one and only Don Juan, everyone laughs at him. They insist the famous lover is younger, better looking, thinner, and it's quite a blow to his ego - but it's very funny. The women are loyal to the "real" Don Juan and refuse to let a middle aged "imposter" take his name in vain. While being courted by another, Merle turns her head away when her suitor tries to kiss her. "Don Juan kissed me on a Wednesday. No one else shall ever kiss my lips on Wednesday." O Rejected One asks, "Tomorrow?" and she answers with an adorably coy smile, "Maybe."

Frederick Lonsdale and Lajos Biro's screenplay is very cute and funny. So many lines will make you chuckle, but also make you think - however un-politically correct they are now! "All girls are different. All wives are the same." Try this version out for a fun pre-Code naughty adventure!

Your eyes are like 2 stars

[AAdaSC · 5/10 · 9 April 2023]

Douglas Fairbanks plays Don Juan, the serial lover as he returns to his hometown in Spain. The ladies queue up for him but there is an imposter, Barry MacKay, giving him competition and pretending to be him at the balconies of various women. Barry is soon finished off in a duel and this cements the legend of Don Juan and forces Fairbanks to retire for a while as everyone believes him to be dead. His plan is to lie low for a while and then return to reconnect with his loving ways. However, when he does return, things don't go to plan. Who is this ageing clown who thinks he's some kind of stud? Women now openly laugh at him as does everyone else who he tries to convince of his true identity. Sorry, nobody is having it!

The story has a good premise but it wasn't funny enough. Shame. There could have been so many funnier scenes. The writing falls short but the film is ok to watch.

Fairbanks is good in the lead role and true to form feels compelled to thrown in leaps and bounces to show off his physical agility. It's all good but he's a grown man of 51. This was his last film before he died aged 56, no doubt from over-exertion. Top tip, once you reach a certain age, there is no need to show off to anyone anymore if that has been your thing. Cut it out.

Anyway, you should never run after a woman, let her come to you. Throw out some compliments and bingo! You, too, can be Don Juan. It's a very easy formula.

The most wonderful 'goodbye' from a REALLY great star

[binapiraeus · 10/10 · 18 January 2014]

In 1934, at age 51, Douglas Fairbanks had already decided to end his magnificent and very prolific acting career. Not because he couldn't cope with sound (he had a very nice, strong voice), or with the kind of movies that were popular at the time - he'd originally started as a comedian before he went into the romantic swashbucklers that made him so hugely famous; and in the 30s, screwball comedies were at their height, so he could still have remained a top star for years if he'd wanted to.

But he wanted to retire WHILE he was still on top - and while he could still perform some of those marvelous acrobatic tricks that he'd always employed in his swashbucklers as well as in his comedies and that he himself loved so much doing; and so, for his last role, he chose the one famous character that he hadn't impersonated yet among all the classic heroes of romantic fiction, and that suited him so very well: Don Juan - but an aging Don Juan. A Don Juan who had become tired of keeping in shape for balcony climbing and love-making to young ladies, something which required daily training and diet - a kind of self-confession that he conveyed through his role...

So he shows us here for the last time a display of his famous sword fighting, balcony climbing, and of course romancing - but at the same time, he parodies not only the self-satisfied Don Juan with the myth that surrounds him, but also himself; he wasn't above that.

He was in NO way obliged to admit to his doctor, who calls him "King of Hearts": - "Well, nowadays, when I sit down to a... quiet game with a lady, I'm - no longer sure of holding the card..." Neither to play that scene with the middle-aged innkeeper who has a go at him in a PRETTY unflattering way: "You've no money, no looks, not very much brain - and you're no chicken! You'd make a nice husband..." Neither to have all the young girls of Seville laugh at him when he, who was believed dead, finally steps in in the middle of a stage play about his own 'private life' and declares that HE is the real Don Juan...

And yet he DID play all these scenes - because he wanted to. He wanted to say 'goodbye' to acting with a good dose of self-mockery; he was MAN enough not only to admit that time hadn't just passed him by, but to ridicule that fact in such an exaggerated way that again makes us say automatically: "But hey, you're just joking - you ARE the King of Hearts, and you always will be!" So, with this hilariously funny, bright, romantic costume piece full of action and laughter, Doug Fairbanks retired from the acting stage - not in a pathetic, dramatic way, but in a humorous, lovable one that's kept him in the hearts of his fans until this day. So that's the special meaning behind this very enjoyable period comedy-parody that certainly never gets dull or sentimental or boring for one single moment...

A Tragedy Played on Screen

[dwknuj · 7/10 · 13 June 2023]

This movie is not a tragedy. It's a comedy with undertones of sadness. The tragedy is the real life story acted on screen.

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were the king and queen of hearts of the American public in the 1920's. Visiting royalty and dignitaries were never satisfied until they visited Doug and Mary in their home, Pickfair. The two of them did something that outraged their fans. Doug, the man locked in perpetual boyhood, and little Mary, America's Sweetheart, actually did something that few could conceive. They aged. As they aged, they drifted apart. In 1933, the year before The Private Life of Don Juan came out, they separated.

That year, 1933, Mary acted out her crisis on the screen with Secrets. It was about an established successful couple that separated and her efforts to win him back. In 1934 Doug embraced the part of Don Juan, a once famous man who was falling out of shape and struggling to keep up with his legacy. The part was too close to its portrayer. It even has a young vigorous man who is mistaken for Don Juan, as Doug jr. Was close enough to his father that Doug Sr. Resented him.

Secrets ended Mary's spectacular acting career. Don Juan was Doug's final role. Ten years before Doug lit up the screen with his greatest triumph - The Thief of Bagdad. Just a few years after Don Juan Douglas Fairbanks was gone. The world will never again feel so young.

A fond farewell to Douglas Fairbanks Snr. - a real life Don Juan

[vampire_hounddog · 4/10 · 28 July 2020]

Getting on in years, lothario Don Juan (Douglas Fairbanks Snr.) returns to his hometown of Seville in 19th century Spain. He still has a reputation to upkeep and finds that a young pretender (Barry MacKay) is pretending to be the great lover and balcony hopper. When the pretender is killed by a jealous husband, Don Juan attends his own "funeral" leaving behind many wailing women.

Don Juan was the subject of a 1926 film starring John Barrymore and had Errol Flynn played him in THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN in 1948, this was then a fitting final role for Fairbanks Snr. before he went into retirement, upholding his swashbuckling lover reputation. Although another big production for Alexander Korda and was hoped to be a popular follow-up to the success of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (1933), it was not to be and ended up costing the London Films a good deal of money. The plot has little excitement, great sets by Vincent Korda and an exotic portrayal by Merle Oberon as the Don's final fling.

Tongue-in-cheek extravaganza

[Charlot47 · 19 August 2010]

Returning old and in debt to Seville, the scene of his youthful triumphs, Douglas Fairbanks Snr as the Don finds a young impostor climbing less adroitly up balconies to get at the city's wives. When the inept lad is run through by a husband, Don Juan enjoys attending his own funeral but is persuaded by Melville Cooper, his sardonic sidekick Leporello, to disappear under an alias to Portugal.

Bored and unsuccessful with women there, he leaves when the even-older owner of the inn, Athene Seyler, proposes. Back in Seville, nobody believes that this strange elderly man is the dead Don Juan and he is universally taken for another impostor, even by old flames.

Among the host of lovely women it is invidious to pick out Merle Oberon as a gloriously seductive dancer Antonita, Benita Hume as his abandoned but still faithful wife Doña Dolores and Binnie Barnes as a gawky barmaid Rosita.

The whole film is tongue-in-cheek, with nobody taking themselves seriously and all acting with Latin extravagance. Picturesque costumes are about 1805, based on Goya's paintings, and there are some ambitious sets. Fine soundtrack throughout, with an opening serenade "Senorita Carmencita" and a running motif of "La Paloma". Good entertainment!

Hiding strategy is not a good strategy

[okiss-ua · 5/10 · 8 February 2021]

Story of Don Juan proves once again that Hiding strategy is not a good strategy. We are social creatures. We need society, otherwise all our connections will be broken and society forgets us, of worth does not recognise real us. Ending was surprising and truly interesting- women are smart - his wife is smart: every woman wants Don Juan but all to herself.

Love Takes A Holiday - And Grows Up A Little

[theowinthrop · 9/10 · 25 March 2007]

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.

Quite good

[zetes · 8/10 · 21 June 2009]

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.

Don Juan as a comedy putting all previous tragedies and dramas to shame...

[clanciai · 10/10 · 10 January 2016]

For once a Don Juan comedy and with a vengeance - it's a delightful entertainment all the way sugared and spiced with witty ironies galore, where the great Douglas Fairbanks takes the prize in a final victory over the legend of both himself and Don Juan by surviving both with even the crown of a happy ending.

The film is studded with a generosity of festivity scenes, each one transcending the other, while the irony celebrates triumphs all the way, especially at Don Juan's own great funeral enjoyed by himself and the final great theatre scene, when he explains to the audience that he really is Don Juan with only roars of laughter for a response. This is magnificent entertainment of the 30s at its best, a feast for the eyes as well as for the intelligence, the script is a wonder of ingenious innovations, the dialogue outwits itself all the time sustaining the comedy vein at a high level with constantly new surprises, and the music isn't bad either. Don Juan is at last allowed to celebrate his ultimate victory!

Don Juan settles, and Fairbanks goes out in style

[davidmvining · 8/10 · 21 August 2021]

I wasn't going to review this movie. I was just going to watch it, rate it, and then move on with my life. However, The Private Life of Don Juan ends up doing everything right that Casanova would try to do more than 70 years later wrong. Without that connection, I would have enjoyed the film just as much but felt no need to write about it. Having this contrast to write about was my intellectual hook that got my brain going with about half an hour left in the film.

Don Juan is the purely fictional Spanish version of the Italian historical figure Casanova, sort of. The fictional Spaniard predates the Italian historical figure by more than a century, but their cultural imprint is similar. Both are libertines in search of sensual pleasures from the women of Seville or Venice. That being said, it's obvious that the only way that Hollywood from its earliest days to today could deal with either character was to end up softening them to the point where they could end up with one woman. Fellini, being Italian and his own artist, took a very different approach with the historical Italian, but Hollywood turned Casanova into a boring romantic comedy lead with Venetian clothes. Alexander Korda, with a script by Frederick Lonsdale and Lajos Biro, find a far more interesting way to get Don Juan to a similar spot.

There's a knowing, almost meta, aspect to this 1934 film. The movie starts with Douglas Fairbanks (in his final film role) as an aging Don Juan falling behind his reputation. He sneaks into Seville one day only to have his presence known throughout the town within hours. This happens because he is being trailed by a youth, Rodrigo (Barry MacKay), who idolizes Don Juan and wants to be just like him, climbs about a dozen balconies to young married woman throughout Seville that very same night. The actions of Don Juan's imposter is what announces his arrival. He also has a couple of other things swirling around him. The most prominent is his wife, Dona Dolores (Benita Hume), who owns all of his debts and will have him thrown into prison if he does not return to her. The other is a young dancer who wants the publicity brought to her by a potential kiss from Don Juan to jumpstart her career and make her more desirable to wealthy men as a potential wife. Things all go awry when Don Juan goes to the dancer instead of his wife the same night that the imposter gets murdered by a jealous husband. With the news that he himself is dead, Don Juan celebrates, freed from his debts and his own reputation, he runs off and hides for six months.

Up until this point, I was entertained, but I felt like something extra was happening and I couldn't figure out what it was. Then the book arrived. With the news of Don Juan's death, his reputation was now cemented in print with a book that told of the complete exploits of Don Juan's conquests. At first, Don Juan eats it up, enjoying every manufactured detail no matter how far from reality. Rested from six months free of "Don Juan", he suddenly feels invigored to pursue it again, and things immediately start heading in the wrong direction. The attractive young woman who works at the inn he's living at laughs off the idea of his being Don Juan and will only submit to his charms if he essentially buys her off with a pair of golden earrings. He catches the eye of an attractive young woman, but when he climbs the tower to her room he discovers that she doesn't want him beyond his ability to transmit a message to the young man that she loves. Something's off, so he decides to return to Seville.

In Seville, he cannot get anyone to believe that he is Don Juan. People laugh him off left and right all while reciting, word for word, the fabrications of the book, The Private Life of Don Juan, right back in his face. He even goes to the dancer, now being courted by a duke, who insists that he is not Don Juan. He crashes a production of a play about him, insisting that it's all lies, and the crowd laughs at him. He calls out to people he knew in real life in the crowd to vouch for him, and all he gets is heckles about his inability to pleasure any woman at all. His wife is in the crowd, and in an effort to further debase her wayward husband, feigns ignorance of him as well.

All throughout the film, Don Juan had made disparaging remarks about marriage, about how the only good thing is that it leads to less walking in the middle of the night. And yet, when his looks have faded, his reputation has taken off to be beyond what even he could fulfill (insisting that making love to two women at the same time is impossible, for instance), what does he have? He has his Dona Dolores who is happy to take him back eventually, insisting that every woman wants a Don Juan as long as he's exclusive to her.

How is this different than the 2000s version of Casanova? Well, the latter film tried to split the baby of having the "real" Casanova preserved while taking the young, virile sexual specimen and turning him into a generic romantic comedy lead. The Private Life of Don Juan does something very different while leading its main character to a similar spot. He does end up with one woman alone who will love him, but it's not because he suddenly discovers the joys of monogamy. He ends up with one woman because she's the only one who will have him. Perhaps if she had rejected him completely might we have gotten the sort of hard-edged approach to this story that it really needs, but I think this idea of Don Juan essentially settling into marriage is a very good middle ground. It's enjoyable rooting for Dona Dolores in the end, teaching the wayward lover the humility he needs, and it's also satisfying seeing Don Juan find a happy ending at the same time (the advantage of having a charming lead).

I ended up enjoying this far more than I thought I would.

Fairbanks Final Movie in a 20-Year Film Career

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 22 April 2023]

The former superstar in silent movies knew it was time to give it up when Douglas Fairbanks shot his last scene in December 1934's "The Private Life of Don Juan." The film's final images of the flickering candle that he puts out with his hand symbolizes one of cinema's greatest performers fading away on the screen like the last lingering smoke from the extinguished candle.

Fairbanks may have not wanted to end his twenty-year film career with the Alexander Korda-directed motion picture. But surprisingly for what the star felt was still his massive public appeal, "The Private Life of Don Juan" failed miserably at the box office. Fairbanks connection with movie audiences had long lost its luster when talkies arrived on the scene in the late 1920s. His supposed swan song, 1929's ""The Iron Mask," a mostly-silent film, concluded with his on-screen death along with his other compatriots, The Three Musketeers, showing the quartet literally prancing upwards towards the pearly gates of heaven. But the ever persistent actor played in another three talkies, one with his wife Mary Pickford, before embarking on the Korda-inspired adaptation of the Henry Bataille 1920 play "L'homme a la Rose.' Its plot almost parallels the fantasy life Fairbanks portrayed on the big screen, reflecting on his past reputation of an aging lothario whose pop no longer exists. As Don Juan, he discovers an imitation of himself in Seville, only to see the fake cut down and killed by a jealous husband. He, the authentic Don Juan, secretly goes into hiding, but then finds out a book and a play has been produced that parodies his real life. Unable to take the humiliation of his past anymore, Don Juan barges onto the stage during the play's live performance in hopes of convincing the audience he's the real deal. During the middle of the audience heckling him, Don Juan realizes his life was only worthwhile by the love from his wife, Dona Dolores (Benita Hume), who still longs for his return.

As one insightful commentator wrote, "when it comes to love, lasting triumph lies not in conquest but in surrender, particularly the surrender of posturing, pretenses, and even dignity, the happiest kind of surrender, without which real love, meaning and purpose is impossible." At 51, Fairbanks probably had time to reflect on his actress wife, Mary Pickford, as the filming progressed. As one film historian noted, "It is fair to say Fairbanks was a bit of a Don Juan himself, his marriage to Mary Pickford began as an affair and ended with one as well!"

While in London for the production, Fairbanks fell for actress Sylvia Ashley, 30, who was going through a divorce from her first husband Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper. Their love affair became public, causing quite the stir. Pickford and Fairbanks were already separated, but the newspaper headlines confirmed Hollywood's royal couple were headed for an official split, which happened in 1936. Mary ended up keeping the pair's palatial homestead, Pickfair. Fairbanks and Lady Ashley exchanged wedding vows in March 1936, and remained married until his death three years later. Sylvia crossed the alter five times in her life. Her fourth husband was actor Clark Gable in 1949, a marriage which lasted less than three years.

"The Private Life of Don Juan," a play on words by Korda's previously wildly successful film starring Charles Laughton in 1933's "The Private Life of Henry VIII," has lately gained a more favorable reputation. Director Jim Jarmusch's 2005 "Broken Flowers" plays homage to Fairbanks' last movie, with his former 'Don Juan' actor Bill Murray duplicating the story of revisiting his youthful days. Film historian Sparrow Morgan called Fairbanks' movie "the perfect final film for a great Hollywood swashbuckler."

After "The Private Life of Don Juan" Fairbanks was still involved in his partnership with United Artists. Other than that, his declining health steered him away from actively participating in the film industry, spending most of his time traveling and recuperating at his luxury 1922-built home on 705 Palisade Beach Road in Santa Monica, California, which is still standing. On December 12. 1939, Fairbanks suffered a fatal heart attack, dying at age 56. His last words were "I never felt better."