"The Adventures of Don Juan" was the final hurrah for Errol Flynn as far as big budget films were concerned. The film didn't perform very well at the American box office and Jack Warner decided that Flynn was no longer worth the money. The filming was constantly delayed due to Errol Flynn not arriving on time for work allegedly, the budget was out of control, he grew depressed over reviews he read about his film, "Escape Me Never." In addition, Flynn's rather hedonistic lifestyle was taking its toil on his body. He had to wear a tighter costume to hide his expanded waist line and most of the action scenes had to be re-shot several times each. Initially, he and the film's director Vincent Sherman got along quite well as Flynn was receptive to the director's instructions and suggestions. However, things soon changed and by the end of filming, 28 days had been lost for one reason or another. Watching "The Adventures of Don Juan," you would never have guessed there were any problems of any kind. Errol Flynn is great as the womanising, care-free adventurer and Alan Hale features one last time as the ever faithful friend. The look on Flynn's face shows a man who had been through a lot and had experienced what life could throw at him. It is with a slight feeling of sadness that things would change so much for Flynn after this film: No more Alan Hale or Olivia De Havilland, no more big budget films or box office success. The film is played as being tongue-in-cheek for the most part and that was the correct decision. For all of Flynn's way of life, even his character wouldn't stoop so low as to betray his own country. The scene where traitor Robert Douglas attempts to buy Don Juan's loyalty and is turned down highlights this. Juan makes it clear that it fills his heart with horror at the very notion of the King's adviser (Douglas) being the ruler of Spain. Robert Douglas is a very good villain but not quite in Basil Rathbone's league. The set design and the photography are first class. I can actually picture Spain as it might have looked back in the day when this film was based. The music is very good as well, it is a real stirring composition. The swordplay scenes really make this film and they usually occur when Flynn is pushed into action. Vincent Sherman was a fine director in his own right and we see evidence of that here in spades. The last masterpiece Errol Flynn made. His career would never be the same again.

The New Adventures of Don Juan is not quite as great as Captain Blood and especially The Adventures of Robin Hood(the latter being one of my favourite films). The film is lacking somewhat in romantic chemistry, which is surprising seeing that Don Juan is often portrayed as a womaniser, and Romney Brent plays Phillip as too much of a fool for my liking. But these quibbles are far outweighed by what is good about The New Adventures of Don Juan, the best assets almost equal to The Adventures of Robin Hood. The New Adventures of Don Juan looks fabulous with huge spectacular sets, lush photography and Technicolour and some of the best ever costumes(no wonder they won an Academy Award) for any film. Max Steiner's vibrant as well as elegiac music score compliments the film perfectly and, while not among the best film scores of all time like Korngold's for The Adventures of Robin Hood is(at least to me), is one of the composer's finest of a positively consistent body of work. The New Adventures of Don Juan boasts some deliciously witty dialogue, some fine sword play and some of the best fencing in film history, the standout of all the action being the truly exciting final duel between Juan and Lorca. And one mustn't miss that leap from the head of the staircase, done by a stunt double but the stunt itself is famous for a reason. The story is always entertaining and swiftly paced, of course a little standard and a little silly but those are ignorable. The characters are very memorable especially the charismatic Juan and the villainous Lorca. Vincent Sherman does a more than competent job directing, he has a good eye for detail and accommodates Flynn nicely, from personal opinion he does do a respectable job with the action. Errol Flynn may be older and been battling physical and health problems behind the scenes but you can't actually tell, he still looks fine and has lost little of the youthful vigour and heartiness that he had a decade plus earlier. The Swedish beauty Viveca Lindfors is every bit the beautiful regal Queen while Robert Douglas is superbly intimidating as Lorca and Alan Hale is appealingly witty. Raymond Burr makes an impression as a henchman. All in all, a near classic. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Errol Flynn, having played the long beloved mythical rascal-hero Robin Hood a decade earlier, here plays another centuries-old mythical rascal-hero: the legendary seducer of women: Don Juan, albeit in his mature years, when he was ready to curtail his lustful adventures for more practical pursuits. This screenplay is scripted in a historical setting of very early 17th century London and Spain, shortly before the death of Queen Elizabeth. Phillip III(Romney Brent) is king and his Hapsburg wife Margaret(Viveca Lindfors) is queen of Spain. The chief villain is Duke de Lorca(Robert Douglas): chief minister of the Spanish court, supported by Don Rodrogo(Douglas Kennedy) and Alvarez(Raymond Burr), chief of the palace guard. The duke clearly plans to transform the royal couple into puppets so that he can carry out his plans for Spain. Since the queen refuses to cooperate, he is preparing to execute her near the film's ending.In the film, Philip is portrayed as a weak-minded king, dominated by his rather estranged queen and de Lorca, who are at odds with each other over major policies. Clearly, de Lorca is a stand in for the historic Duke of Lerma. Although there is often a measure of historical truth to the characterizations in the film, mostly, they are quite distorted versions of the historical persons they are based upon. The historical king and queen actually got on very well, for the most part: well enough to produce 8 children during the queen's short life(She died during childbirth at only 26). With at least some of these young children, the historic queen wouldn't likely be thinking of abandoning her position and running off with Don Juan, as she briefly fantasized. The Duke of Lerma was actually a good friend of the king, who willingly gave him his very powerful position within his administration. As in the film, the Duke was often at odds with the queen over financial policy. The queen influenced the king to provide financial aid to her native Holy Roman Empire, whereas the Duke wanted to use Spanish revenues only for Spanish purposes. In the film, this conflict is transformed into a conflict between using revenues to promote peace(queen's idea) vs. using it to built up the fleet in preparation for war(Duke's idea). Juan sides with the queen in this conflict. This is the ultimate fencing-dominated film, culminating in the dramatic duel between Juan and de Lorca on the very long palace stairs. Much of it is practice, after the queen demands that Juan become the chief instructor for the royal fencing academy, to give him something useful to do to keep his mind off chasing pretty young things. In one scene, there is a mass choreography of fencing students: the fencing equivalent of a musical chorus dance. Juan engages in a number fencing duels or mock duels throughout the film.For a film about a compulsive seducer of women, there is remarkably little real romance. The film begins with Juan climbing a balcony outside London to reach a lover. What ensues is cartoonish. He is soon chagrined to discover that she has a husband, who unexpectedly arrives, providing Juan's first dueling scene: really a mock duel, in which Flynn goes into his Robin Hood mode. He then lectures the husband about his inadequate attention paid to his wife. Juan and servant Leporello(Alan Hale) then make a fast getaway on horse, to be greeted by a palace patrol, expecting to meet a Spanish duke, coming to marry. Juan pretends he is this duke, thus is escorted to be introduced to the bride-to-be. A scandal ensues when the real duke arrives to find Juan and the lady alone in a room.... Later, while a fencing instructor, one of the court ladies makes an obvious pass at him, which he reluctantly follows up. Again, he discovers she is to be married the next day, her husband showing up to creating another scandal... The final scandal is when the Queen and Juan discover they love each other, heightened by Juan saving the Queen from de Lorca's planned execution. She even talks of running off with him, but Juan says her duty to Spain is more important than their love. An in joke is that in the final frames, Juan decides to chase after a coach containing Flynn's then wife, having vowed to abstain from chasing women.Obviously, the screen play exploits Flynn's reputation as a compulsive skirt chaser. Also, clearly, much expense was put into the elaborate costumes and sets. Max Steiner, taking over from Wolfgang Korngold as the traditional composer for Flynn films, did a fine job. Actually, I believe the film would have fared much better at the box office, if it had been made into at least a semi-musical. The film was not a box-office success in the US, although it did better in Europe. Hence, the Warner budgets for future Flynn films were slashed. Flynn still looked and acted relatively youthful at age 39. As he turned 40 or so, his drug excesses would show up much more clearly in his looks and performances. However, he wasn't quite done swashbuckling. For example, he starred in yet another sea pirate film: "Against All Flags", 4 years later, where he, perhaps with the aid of doubles, engages in several ferocious duels, clearly laboring where formerly he made it look easy.This same year, MGM released another classic tale of swordplay and romance in "The Three Musketeers", starring Gene Kelly.

This was Errol Flynn's first swashbuckler in almost a decade, thanks to a string of World War II roles, and it was arguably his last great costume adventure. As he neared the age of 40, the king of the Hollywood bad boys was beginning to show the effects of hard living, but in the role of Don Juan he is still perfectly convincing as both a fighter and a lover. And it doesn't hurt that his best sidekick, Alan Hale, is along for the romp. The film, set in an idealized version of Renaissance Spain, skillfully balances romance, action and humor. Viveca Lindfors is stunningly beautiful as the courageous queen: No wonder all the male characters -- good, bad or pathetic -- find her irresistible. And the rousing Max Steiner score makes you want to cheer every sword stroke. That's a lot of cheering.