Adventures of Don Juan

I see that The Adventures of Don Juan is on TV tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM on TCM. I recorded it the previous time it was on, so I recently sat down to watch it and do a post for tomorrow's airing.

Errol Flynn plays Don Juan de Maraña, the famous Spanish lover of legend. In this telling of the tale, Don Juan starts off in England in the later years of Elizabeth I's rule. He's seducing a lovely young Englishwoman, which in and of itself wouldn't be a big deal, except that she's engaged to be married to some Spanish nobleman, who finds the two in her chambers, forcing Don Juan to make a hasty retreat.

The English understandably don't want him any more, so the ambassador, Don José de Polan (Robert Warwick), who is a friend of Don Juan's, comes to his aid. Don José writes a letter of recommendation to the monarch, Philip III (Romney Brent) and his wife Queen Margaret (Viveca Lindfors), to get Don Juan a job in Spain and possibly get back in people's good graces.

Don Juan and his sidekick Leporello (Alan Hale) return to a country that's got quite a bit of intrigue, although he does not yet realize it. Philip has grown weak and, while Margaret is trying to advise him, she's a woman and the real power behind the throne is the Duke de Lorca (Robert Douglas). He's trying to consolidate his power, and when Polan is set to come back to Spain, Lorca has his second-in-command Alvares (Raymond Burr) kidnap Polan and torture him for information.

Don Juan has a job as a fencing instructor, which brings him into relatively close contact with the Queen; Don Juan finds himself falling in love with her although he realizes he can never have her so he needs to try to keep his feelings for her a secret. But along the way, he discovers Lorca's plot, while Lorca, discovering Don Juan's dalliances since he's returned to Spain, decides that now is the time to strike, arresting Don Juan and making the king little more than a figurehead. But you know Don Juan is going to escape....

Watching The Adventures of Don Juan, I couldn't help but think of Errol Flynn's earlier movie, The Adventures of Robin Hood. Apparently Warner Bros. first came up with the idea for another Don Juan not long after Robin Hood. But plans fell through a couple of times before it finally got off the ground at the end of 1947 (apparently, in part, because Robin Hood had had a successful re-release).

Flynn tries, but unfortunately at times he really looks like he's aged the nine years since Robin Hood, and then some, with Hale having aged even more. For the most part, however, the movie is a reasonable success, if not as grand as Robin Hood. You'll be entertained, but the movie probably could have been quite a bit better.

The Adventures of Don Juan received multiple DVD releases, but it seems to be out of print. It is, however, available on Prime Video if you do the streaming thing.