“My dear friend, there’s a little bit of Don Juan in every man, and since I am Don Juan, there must be more of it in me!” – Don Juan (Errol Flynn), the film’s closing line.

The Adventures of Don Juan (1948) directed by Vincent Sherman, screenplay by George Oppenheimer, and Harry Kurnitz (William Faulkner, of all people, is supposed to have made an uncredited contribution to the final script.)

One of Don Juan de Marana’s (Flynn) romantic affairs in Elizabeth I’s England creates a major diplomatic incident. The Spanish Ambassador, an old family friend, orders Juan back to Spain. In the hope of redeeming him, a letter of introduction to the King and Queen also goes. The calculating Duke de Lorca (Robert Douglas,) is plotting to ignite a war of conquest against England. Once presented at Court, Don gets appointed Master of the Fencing Academy and finds (surprise, surprise) that he is most attracted to Queen Margaret (Viveca Linfors) and at odds with the Duke. Intrigue, mishaps, romance, and adventure ensues.

The Adventures of Don Juan (hereafter referred to as TADJ) could also be considered The Adventures of Errol Flynn as the film plays on his “In Like Flynn” notoriety. Light-hearted with tongue firmly in cheek, the early scenes depict Don’s romantic entanglements and the troubles they can create. Only in the second half do things take a far darker turn with Don and the Queen ensnared in the Duke de Lorca’s machinations.

TADJ is a big-budget film: three-strip Technicolor; with incredible, colorful costumes; several massive sets; and a Max Steiner score. Warners had planned the project for Errol Flynn since 1939. Flynn himself pushed for it. John Barrymore played the Don in a 1926 silent film. Flynn’s hero worship for Barrymore was a considerable impetus for him. But The Sea Hawk (1940) and the war intervened. In 1945 the production was revived. Issues of story/scripting, (with several different writers and directors attached,) and an art director’s strike pushed the actual filming to not begin until early 1947.

Captain Blood (1935,) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938,) and The Sea Hawk (1940) are the pinnacle of Flynn’s swash’nbuckle films, but TADJ is a big colorful splashy fun adventure. and the last of Errol Flynn’s classic to near-classic movies.

TADJ is also the last of Errol Flynn’s lavish big-budget vehicles. The film got mostly positive reviews and did big box office in Europe, but the U.S. returns, although it turned a profit, were less than expected. Flynn’s Warners films hereafter would not front a top budget, writers, or directors.

Errol Flynn, nearing 40 in TADJ was already showing a bit of puffiness from his “Wicked, Wicked Ways.” He barely made it to 50. Flynn continued to make films through the rest of the 40s and 50s, some of them quite good (The Roots of Heaven), or at least above average (Against All Flags, The Master of Ballantrae.)

However, his massive consumption of alcohol only continued to grow. He was rumored to have imbibed at least 2 liters of vodka a day. When banned from drinking on set, he would inject vodka into oranges. If you didn’t get what you needed from Flynn that day by lunchtime, you were not going to get it. He would be too drunk to carry on. When he died in 1959 at 50, his autopsy showed that he had the liver of a 75-year-old.

Errol Flynn was one of those actors I latched onto when watching old movies on our old black & white 13″ RCA TV when I was a kid. He was electric in Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood. His dark side was nowhere visible to me in those films. Flynn was a much better actor than often given credit for, and in The Adventures of Don Juan, he is very on the mark. Give it a go if it pops up on your radar.