User reviews

Although John Barrymore was 44 when he played the role of Tirso DeMolina's famous libertine, the soft focus photography enabled to look years younger and really do a convincing job as the most famous seducer in fiction. In fact Barrymore plays two roles, the dashing cavalier Don Juan and his stern father who was cuckolded by his wife and imparted some cynical views on women to his young son in a prologue.

When the main action of the film gets going it takes place in Rome when the Borgias were running things. Cesare Borgia played by Warner Oland and his evil sister Lucretia who has Estelle Taylor, then Mrs. Jack Dempsey playing her part. They're quite a pair, cruel and sadistic, and they've got a cousin played by Montagu Love who rivals Don Juan in the seducing department.

Barrymore is ostensibly in Rome as a student, but he's way too busy with his female conquests for any academics. He and Love have their eyes on the same woman, Mary Astor, who is royalty herself, related to the Orsinis who the Borgias have kicked out of power. That rivalry is what fuels the plot of this film.

Director Alan Crosland was obviously influenced by Cecil B. DeMille in directing this film. The sumptuous sets and even more the scenes of debauchery could be found in many a DeMille spectacle. And we don't get DeMille's moralizing with the film either.

As for Barrymore he plays the part with the dash and verve of Douglas Fairbanks who later got to play Don Juan, but as a much older man in Faribanks's final film during the sound era. Note the dueling sequence with Love. Warner Brothers for whom this film was produced used some of the same bits in their sound version of The Adventures Of Don Juan with Errol Flynn.

There is also a nice bit by Willard Louis as Barrymore's lackey, Pedrillo. Sad that he would die the same year as this film came out. He was quite amusing in the role.

Still it's Barrymore's show and quite a show it is. Don Juan is a good chance to see a young John Barrymore at the zenith of his acting talent.

I enjoyed this movie very much, especially because I recognized bits of it! My favorite movie of all time, _Start the Revolution Without Me_, has a brilliant opening sequence using snippets of old movies--and many of them, I discovered, are from this film.

But even without the especial glee of recognizing scenes, this is a thoroughly enjoyable film for those who appreciate swashbuckling costume drama. Or melodrama. There are terrific confrontations, fights, and an awesome chase scene on horseback. There is also oodles of passion and ca-noodling...and shapely John Barrymore showing off his shape in a costume that today's actors wouldn't be caught dead in, I bet.

There's been a lot written about Don Juan in film books about the beginning of pre-recorded sound. First off to respond to an earlier poster who wanted to know how the soundtrack was recorded. It was recorded by the New York Philharmonic w/100 piece orchestra in a non-soundproof theater in New York. This theater unfortunately was situated near an overland subway track and vibration from passing subway trains just could not be tolerated. So the recording was done in the middle of the night when no trains were running. It was that simple.

It's amazing that this film not only survives intact but with it's actual pre-recorded scored track, the way 1926 audiences saw & heard it. No new score or modern re-recording of the original. This track is sort of an original sound film heirloom and we're lucky to have it today for posterity's sake. This is the way silent films should be seen music wise anyway. This was the original intention of pre-recorded sound to present to audiences, full orchestral music where they weren't able to listen to it. If you can forgive the primitive process of Vitaphone and appreciate the marvelous sync score for what it is, you can enjoy this sumptuous picture immensely. The 100 piece orchestra really makes it's presence felt. I'm sure the actual score could be re-recorded with modern technology and would be beautiful.

John Barrymore follows in the swashbuckling tradition of his then film contemporaries, Douglas Fairbanks & Rudolph Valentino. It's a great legendary figure for the Great Profile to play, and he and the cast seem to have the time of their lives acting through their scenes. Without giving spoiler away, I think the man sealed in the wall is one of the best scenes in the pic.

A curious thing about Don Juan's production. Warner Brothers then a fledgling newbie studio had just signed Barrymore to a three picture deal and wanted to get Don Juan into production as soon as possible after their winning success with Barrymore in Beau Brummel(1924). However Barrymore, who had some serious clout at the time, wanted to film what would become a bastardized though picturesque version of Moby Dick called The Sea Beast(1926). Thus Don Juan's production schedule got pushed back in order for the Sea Beast to come first. Fortunately for sound film history & Don Juan, this gave the four Warner Brothers time enough to experiment and increase their interest in Vitaphone. The idea then came up to release one of the new feature pictures with an orchestral score in the new Vitaphone process. Don Juan happened to be completed and ready for release in mid-1926 and it was chosen for Vitaphone. One tends to wonder if Sea Beast had been made after Don Juan, that it would have been the one chosen for Vitaphone and we might be listening to a totally different score. It really came down to what film was being released at the time the decision was made to go with Vitaphone.

Alan Crosland proved a very intuitive & inventive director and formed a great professional working relationship with the irrascible Barrymore. Under Crosland's direction Don Juan moves swiftly and is cut, photographed & edited to form a wonderful finished product. Director & Star made three or four long films together and Don Juan is Crosland's prelude to his better remembered though inferior Jazz Singer(1927). Don Juan is quite possibly Crosland's silent masterpiece IMHO.

The only inconsistency in the film is that Pedrillo, Don Juan's trusted assistant, disappears halfway through the film with no explanation. This because actor Willard Louis, who played Pedrillo, dropped dead before the production was finished. But enough of his scenes were completed to include him in the first half of the movie with continuity and without a stand in.

It was great of Turner to release this movie on video in the early 90s but with the recent release of Greed(1923) on DVD, it would be nice if a DVD of Don Juan could be fixed up with some bonus material explaining the making of as well as the historical significance of the movie. Such a film as this deserves that

This is a fun film. It has a charismatic lead in John Barrymore, a deliciously evil villains in Estelle Taylor and Montagu Love, and a beautiful young Mary Astor as the ingénue who cures Don Juan of his skirt chasing ways. There's lots of ardent love scenes and swashbuckling action a la Douglas Fairbanks.

The sets and costumes are strange, a bizarre mix of 16th century fashion and art deco. The women sport kiss curls and cupid bow mouths. Modern viewers unused to a thing known as historical context will no doubt laugh at the heavily made up men (especially Don Juan's sidekick; he seems to be wearing more lipstick than Estelle Taylor.) All in all, a good time for silent film fans.

While researching a paper on erotic literature I found many references to Don Juan. This movie, though in black and white and silent did a good job portraying the man who learned disdain for women from his father. The music matched the moods and John Barrymore sure could scowl. The women were quite seductive, but being a movie from the 20's there is nothing graphic about the trysts Don Juan had with the culpable women. The side story of the evil Borgias added to the movie- with its lessons on right and wrong. His salvation in the end comes from meeting a woman who can't be corrupted.

I appreciate the comments made so far on this film but most seem to judge this film in a vacuum and without any background on the silent film genre, a medium quite different from sound films. One commenter even criticized the film for being in black & white. Come now, that's rather silly.

DON JUAN belongs to the great tradition of silent film swashbucklers during the 1920s of which Douglas Fairbanks was the King (and who self-financed his films). Beginning in 1920, Fairbanks effectively switched gears from his modern dress satires of American foibles he made during 1916 to 1919, to literally recreating his boyhood daydreams of being an action hero of Days of Old. The public responded enthusiastically and Doug made a fortune. But his films reaffirmed a kind of rigid moral system and both his character and the heroine were invariably chaste. Clearly, other film makers who were a bit more daring sensed an opportunity to go further than Fairbanks had been willing to go and Warner Bros. struck while the iron was hot in 1926 with DON JUAN.

Compared to the Fairbanks films such as Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), Thief of Bagdad (1924), and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925), which are to this day excellent films, DON JUAN seemed like a revelation with its sexually overt protagonist and equally overt female characters (when Lucretia Borgia first sees Don Juan, a close up shows her clearly eyeing his crotch!). In addition, John Barrymore (aided occasionally by a stunt double) provided a sufficient number of athletic stunts that would satisfy most Fairbanks fans. DON JUAN was and remains a most exhilarating film with a unique conclusion that combines a chain reaction of swashbuckling events.

I must take exception to the most recent commenter's claim that actor Willard Louis, who played Juan's servant Pedrillo, died mid-point in filming. Poor Mr. Louis indeed perished from typhoid fever but either after filming had been completed or at least after his work was completed. He appears throughout the film and his presence during the film's final moments would have been unnecessary. However, if the previous reviewer wanted to question Joseph Swickard's disappearance from the film (he played Mary Astor's father), I would agree that his sudden departure from the story was strange. However, Mr. Swickard lived and appeared in films for many more years so perhaps in DON JUAN he was merely the victim of the film editor who needed to tighten up the story. At any rate, it is a great film and the original Vitaphone music score interprets the action so well that all the young composers who are hired by Turner Classic Movies to provide new scores to silent films ought to be required to see - and hear - DON JUAN to fully comprehend the relationship between silent film and its musical accompaniment.

I enjoyed "Don Juan" as the first feature-length film with a soundtrack, but I just can't see how the sound could have been recorded simultaneously with the film. There's simply too many cuts, and the sound is too closely in sync, for it to be possible that the orchestra could play while filming was going on. It must have been dubbed afterward—and as a lover of early sound film I am wondering just how. Did they set up a projector at Carnegie Hall and record there? I know Warners had a studio in New York—was it big enough for a complete orchestra? I also noticed that, while the synchronization was quite good, they couldn't pull off the sword fight. For the most part the fight shows the two men separately slashing away, and only a few scenes show the fight as it would usually be done, with both actors in frame. An enjoyable film, a tad longer than it needed to be, and the hisssssss of the soundtrack gets on one's nerves after a while.

Yes, this was the first movie made with a synchronised music score (and some sound effects), but it is much more that that! It is wondrous and spectacular entertainment with brilliant performances and magical camerawork. Like all great silent films there are very few titles because the actors tell the story without words. And what actors they are! John Barrymore is dashing as Don Juan, but he also gives the man great emotional depth - and the scene where he transforms his face while masquerading as a villain reveals not just talent but genius! Remember how he turned from Jekyll to Hyde with no make-up in the 1920 film? He does a similar thing here.

But where would Don Juan be without beautiful women? And here we have three of the most beautiful women ever to grace the scene. Estelle Taylor as Lucrezia Borgia - beautiful but deadly. Mary Astor - bewitchingly young and charmingly innocent. Myrna Loy - exotic and evil, and exquisite!

And the camerawork is superlative. The sword fight and the horseback battle are two of the most excitingly filmed sequences I have ever seen. And the music score is excellent.

This is a wonderful movie.

And who was that incredible actor playing the jealous husband who goes mad? Never seen such brilliant mad acting!

This is a good example of a silent adventure film with a talented star (John Barrymore) in a role to which he is perfectly suited. However, the primary reason it is remembered today is that this was the first feature film to use the Vitaphone system. In other words, it was the first film to have a synchronized sound track, even if all it did at the time was provide orchestral accompaniment and sound effects such as swords clashing. It's a shame that is what it is mainly remembered for, because the film is great entertainment. Barrymore not only entertains the audience with his athleticism, he gives great depth to the role of the wealthy cad who believes that woman gives man only three things - "life, disillusionment, and death" - until he meets a woman (Mary Astor) whose behavior challenges his lifelong beliefs.

Another interesting thing about this film is that two of the female stars are playing roles that seem unusual for them if you are familiar with their later work. Mary Astor, at age 20, is playing an innocent in this film. The finely chiseled features she developed as she got a little older had her playing good but hardened women or femme fatales. Myrna Loy plays the sneaky aid to Lucrezia Borgia, where she is best known as playing the heroine in her talking picture roles once she got to MGM.

The irony of this film is that by 1926 the camera work is able to help make the the sword fight and the horseback battle two very exciting sequences because the Vitaphone soundtrack was not tightly synchronized to the action on screen. Once the synchronized speech phase of sound on film began, such mobile action films as these would not be possible for awhile. Highly recommended, it's just too bad it is not available on DVD.

Technically speaking, this is a wonderful film. It was one of the first films with a synchronized score created to accompany it (on a separate disk) and the cinematography and sets were amazing for 1926. As a result, it's quite beautiful to watch. Unfortunately, when it comes to the script and acting, the film leaves a lot to be desired. While it is not true that all silents featured overacting, this one featured many awful performances by today's standards--with overly melodramatic scenes again and again. Subtle this film sure ain't!

From a historical standpoint, the film is of dubious value. It's true that the Borgia family was indeed quite awful. The patriarch of the family, Pope Alexander VI, fathered several illegitimate children, gave his sons high positions in the Church and was quite the amoral schemer. However, while these "peccadilloes" are many and widely accepted as true as were the awful schemes of his son, Caesar, the real-life Lucretia may not have been the evil poisoning slut you saw in the film--this is open to much debate among historians. But I suppose that it does make for some entertaining moments--too bad Alexander VI never was seen in the film--he would have provided the film some much needed excitement.

As for Don Juan, he was unfortunately a fictional character. Oddly, while this film is set in one of the Italian states in the late 15th century, the film THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (with Errol Flynn) was set over a hundred years later! However, considering that Flynn and the star of this film, John Barrymore, were best friends, womanizers and serious alcoholics, it seems very fitting that both took on this same role.

In my most humble of opinions, this is one of the greatest silent movies ever made. The story line, the sets, (the set designer deserves special credit) the photography, the rapid pace and hesitation when called for, everything combined made for and hour and a half of pure enjoyment. And it was so enjoyable to see one our great talents at his best. There will never be another John Barrymore. And in this film there was something not too often seen in silent film. There was just not movement, there was ACTING. GREAT ACTING. And wait for the chase scene. Absolutely terrific effects. I recommend this film to anyone who is a real fan of films, silent or sound. And as an added thought, there was that beautiful musical score played so dramatically by the New York Philharmonic.

John Barrymore stars as "Don Juan", who (as young lad, Philippe De Lacy) is taught by his father (Mr. Barrymore, also as Dad Jose) how to handle women - Love 'Em and Leave 'Em! Learning his lesson well, Barrymore spends much of his time with various women. Willard Louis (as Juan's pal Pedrillo) is especially useful in fending off husbands and other strangers, and doesn't seem too interested in competing with Barrymore for female attention! All goes well until Barrymore is smitten with Mary Astor (as Adriana della Varnese); something about Ms. Astor makes Don Juan want to change his lifestyle, and stick with one woman. But, the reigning Borgias stand in his way - and, Estelle Taylor (as Lucrezia) wants Barrymore, while Montagu Love (as Donati) claims Astor...

Notable for Barrymore's turn as Juan, but better for its soundtrack - the original synchronized sound effects and score are as originally utilized in 1926; and, it works much better than musical soundtracks composed a century later. Barrymore's best scene involves his impersonating a dungeon torturer, nearer the end of the film. Some parts of the story are difficult to understand; for example: What happens to Pedrillo? Why does Juan accuse a certain husband of killing his wife? Perhaps to put him in a later escape scene? which is also difficult to comprehend. Some of the actors read their lines so well, title cards are not needed; however, the acting is not always great. Still, there is enough of everything in "Don Juan" to make it a classic.

******** Don Juan (8/6/26) Alan Crosland ~ John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Montagu Love

Just saw this at The Paramount Theater in Seattle with Dennis James at the organ. This is an excellent example of what Hollywood was doing so well at the time. The costumes and sets were outstanding, the cast was incredible—Mary Astor was truly archetypal, ethereal and believable as the swooning heroine, Barrymore at his best as a swashbuckling ladies man. This is both a complex story of the "Don Juan" syndrome and a story of suffering and redemption. Several incredible sequences including the horse-mounted sword fighting between Barrymore and a horde of pursuing soldiers at the climax. After which Juan and Adriana head "east" (into the rising sun?) for the safety of Don Juan's native Spain. Don't let others dissuade you, if you get the chance see this movie!

It's obvious that converting this filmed-as-silent opus to synchronized-score-& effects was an afterthought. The synched sound required a constant speed, and 24 frames per second was the new sound standard. Unfortunately, the picture was shot at a slower silent rate, and the speeded-up sound presentation has jerky and unnatural movement that detracts from the artistry and grace of this handsome production and makes the drama less effective. Many of us have become so accustomed to seeing silent films run at the wrong speed that "Don Juan" can be taken in stride, but I for one find it almost unwatchable. Don Jose's death, and the climactic swordfight with Count Donati later on are positively grotesque at this speed. Fortunately, as with many silents available on YouTube, one can adjust the speed to 75% and the music doesn't really suffer by it.

This is another example of an early sound film that is worth viewing just to get a sense of how advanced film was in the mid-20s with the ability to synchronize a musical score to film. Otherwise, it's not quite up to what we expect of entertainment in a story about DON JUAN and his exploits, which was done years later (in tongue-in-cheek style) with the dashing Errol Flynn in THE ADVENTUES OF DON JUAN.

The performances are what one would expect during this transition period from silent film to sound--the acting is stilted, stage bound and overly theatrical. I was never a great admirer of JOHN BARRYMORE as an actor and his performance here left me feeling there was room for a lot of improvement in his screen technique. MARY ASTOR, although young and demure enough, never makes a strong impression as the dewy-eyed leading lady.

The prologue seems to set the tone for the rest of the story. It unfolds like a Greek tragedy with Don Juan's father entombing a man he catches having an adulterous affair with his wife. When a woman in his court later stabs him fatally, he tells his son to take his revenge on women by adopting a love 'em and leave 'em attitude.

Then the main story begins and the tone becomes playful. Unfortunately, nothing in the story proper has any particular twist on the Don Juan story, at least at the start where the Vitaphone Orchestra busily chronicles his amorous dalliances with three women in a playfully amusing way. But as the story progresses, the constant tempo of background music begins to get on the nerves, never ceasing to stop emphasizing the heavily persistent score.

After a good forty-five minutes, I was beginning to resent the background score as much as the paltry scenario which only begins to shift gears when it gets to the Borgias and their involvement with Don Juan.

A very youthful looking MONTAGU LOVE sporting a mustache, looks much like Nelson Eddy in his heyday, and MYRNA LOY has a small role as a handmaiden of the court.

Summing up: Overall, it's a rather dull version of the Don Juan legend, interesting only as a film of historic value because of its transition via Vitaphone to a sound background score.

Silent titles and film technique makes it still a product of the silent period. The story itself is uninspired by the Don Juan legend and, unfortunately, Barrymore is more effete than robust in his manner of portraying the great lover.

DON JUAN (Warner Brothers Classic of the Screen, 1926), directed by Alan Crosland, with screenplay by Bess Meredith, stars John Barrymore in one of his most notable performances of the silent screen era. Other than being a swashbuckling adventure inspired by Lord Byron, DON JUAN has the distinction of being the first feature film with Vitaphone recorded musical accompaniment by the New York Philharmonica Orchestra. Virtually a silent production, DON JUAN also includes sound effects (door knocking, swashbuckling sword hitting) but no spoken dialogue that would occur later in other experimental films as THE JAZZ SINGER (1927) leading to the dawn of sound.

Opening title: "The tale they tell of Don Juan, immortal lover and the doubter of women, is bold with life and color -- a merry, insolent tale slashed with intrigue -- yet its beginning is as gray as the old Spanish castle of Juan's earliest memories" PROLOGUE: SPAIN - Don Jose De Marana (John Barrymore), with a wife, Donna Isobel (Jane Winton) and son, Don Juan (Yvonne Day), leaves his family on a proposed mission, but in reality, suspecting his wife's infidelity, intents on sneaking back to the Marana Castle and surprise her. After receiving the signal, Don Jose returns and learns the truth - thus ordering servants to seal her lover, Leandro (John Roche) inside the room surrounded by stone blocks, and casting his wife out of his life forever. Years later, Don Jose, having raised his boy (Philippe De Lacy) alone, has had numerous affairs with various young ladies. This all ends by he being stabbed by a jealous mistress. Before dying, Don Jose warns his son to take all from women and yield at nothing. STORY: "ROME - The mighty Vatican towering heavenward above a seethe of corruption," leads to introduction of basic characters, including Cesar Borgia (Warner Oland) and his sister, Lucrenzia (Estelle Taylor), the inspiration of his vicious crimes. They invite Orsinis Duke De La Varness (Josef Swickard), his daughter, Adriana (Mary Astor) and Don Juan (John Barrymore), a young Spanish grandee graduate of the University of Pisa, to their ball gathering. Accompanied by Pedrillo (Willard Louis), his faithful servant, Don Juan, having romanced many young women, takes an interest in Adriana, the woman responsible for his change of opinion of women engraved to him by his embittered father. Because of her forced marriage to Count Giano Donati (Montagu Love) to save her father from execution, Don Juan mistakes her father's devotion to his betrayal, returning his distrust of women, followed by Don Juan's arrest for an accused death of one of his married mistresses, and Adrianna held prisoner at the tower of the Borgia palace for refusing to go on with her promised marriage to Donati.

For its time, DON JUAN was an important project (clocked at 114 minutes) with lavish sets and period costumes along with a huge cast consisting of Helene Costello (Rena); June Marlowe (Trusia); Phillis Haver (Imperia); Hedda Hopper (Marchesia Rionaldo); and future film star, Myrna Loy (Maia). While DON JUAN could have been played by Douglas Fairbanks or Rudolph Valentino, John Barrymore makes his Don Juan portrayal his own. Fairbanks did get to play the aging lover in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF DON JUAN (London Films, 1934) while Errol Flynn, another famous swashbuckler, assumed the role in THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (Warner Brothers, 1948). Both are not scene-by-scene retelling to the Barrymore classic. In spite the story set in another century with ladies in 1920s headdress, many of the performers appear in heavy make-up and lip-stick, even the actors right down to child performer DeLacy. The most famous sequence includes the well-staged swashbuckling scenes between Barrymore and Montagu Love, but its the Vitaphone scoring that helps make this silent edition of DON JUAN fast-paced and enjoyable. Take notice how much Barrymore resembles his Mr. Hyde facial expression lifted from his earlier DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920) during his disguise sequence pretending to be Nehri (played briefly by Gustav Von Seyffertitz).

DON JUAN began broadcast on cable television on Turner Network Television (TNT) starting with its Silent Night (December 24, 1989) Christmas Eve Silent movie presentations along with BEN-HUR (1925) and THE WIND (1928) on the schedule. This was later followed by regular showings on Turner Classic Movies. DON JUAN was also available on video cassette as part of its Legendary Silents series, and years later, on DVD. Regardless of its age and campy presentations, DON JUAN continues to become one of the classics of the silent screen. (***)