The Private Life of Don Juan
Directed by Alexander Korda
UK, 1934
London Film Productions
First viewing
Lobby card featuring Merle Oberon and Douglas Fairbanks
Don Juan: “All girls are different. All wives are alike.”
An aging Douglas Fairbanks plays an aging Don Juan in this pleasant comedy. Don Juan is tiring after 20 years in the saddle and when an imposter is killed in a duel happily attends his own funeral. The only problem is that when he wants to reclaim his identity, no one will believe him. Merle Oberon is top-billed as a fiery Spanish dancer although Benita Hume has the bigger part as a woman plotting to keep the Don as her own. I loved the Spanish flavored score. Fairbanks looks pretty tired but carries the film with his humor. He was a very good sport! This was his last film. He would die in 1939 at age 56.
Excerpts – scenes of Merle Oberon with Douglas Fairbanks
