Adventures of Don Juan (1948) on Netflix
Passed19481h 50mActionAdventureRomance
Sent home to Madrid after a scandal, Don Juan de Maraña is appointed fencing instructor by Queen Margaret. He falls in love with her and stays loyal to King Philip III.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.0/103,869 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Gossip about his love affairs has followed Don Juan de Maraña across Europe, and a scandal in London sends him home to Madrid. Count de Polan, the Spanish ambassador there and an old friend of his family, writes to Queen Margaret asking her to give him a chance to repair his name. She appoints him to teach fencing at the Royal Spanish Academy, where he does well. Court intrigue threatens the Queen, and Don Juan comes to love her in secret while serving her and King Philip III.
Cast
- Jean Shepherdas Donna Carlotta
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Errol Flynn's ill health repeatedly halted shooting: he was hospitalised in January, the production shut down a third time on 6 February for a fortnight, and by March he had missed 64 days of filming.
- After three months Errol Flynn refused to make the film with director Jean Negulesco, so Jack Warner told him, "Johnny I cannot make Don Juan without Errol Flynn but I can make it without you," and reassigned Negulesco to Johnny Belinda.
- For the famous leap from the head of a long staircase, Errol Flynn was doubled by stunt expert Jock Mahoney; Flynn's idol John Barrymore had done a similar leap himself in the silent Don Juan (1926).
- A planned 1945 shoot was postponed because costumes were hard to source in a general post-war shortage and an industry strike delayed set construction and painting; on May 9 the film was postponed indefinitely.
- In March 1945, with Raoul Walsh announced as director, Warner Bros. sought Claudette Colbert for the female lead.
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold was to score the film, but the delay to 1947 meant he had retired from scoring films; Max Steiner replaced him and wove several Spanish songs into his score.
- The film's score was adapted years later by composer Ian Fraser for the George Hamilton swashbuckling comedy Zorro, The Gay Blade (1981), and a portion was used in two scenes of The Goonies (1985).
- Adventures of Don Juan is the last of 13 films in which Alan Hale appeared with his close friend Errol Flynn; Hale died on January 22, 1950, just over a year after its theatrical release.
