Alexander Korda

The Private Life of Don Juan

The Private Life of Don Juan

Douglas Fairbanks Sr. makes his big-screen swan song with Korda’s deliciously satiric deflation of the Don Juan myth. After having faked his own death and escaped Seville, the aging lothario returns, only to find that he has been promptly forgotten; perhaps Merle Oberon’s raven-haired beauty can coax him back into business. Don Juan was a rare “talkie” for Fairbanks, and a shrewd poking at the actor’s own persona.

Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1934
  • 87 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • English

Available In

Collector's Set

Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda’s Private Lives

Alexander Korda’s Private Lives

DVD Box Set

4 Discs

$41.96

Out Of Print
The Private Life of Don Juan
Cast
Douglas Fairbanks
Don Juan
Merle Oberon
Antonita
Gina Malo
Pepitta
Benita Hume
Dona Dolores
Binnie Barnes
Maid
Melville Cooper
Leporello
Credits
Director
Alexander Korda
Story and dialogue
Frederick Lonsdale
Story and dialogue
Lajos Biro
Based on the play L’homme à la rose by
Henri Bataille
Cinematography
Georges Périnal
Editing
Stephen Harrison
Settings
Vincent Korda
Special effects
Ned Mann
Musical compositions
Ernest Toch
Musical direction
Muir Matheson
Costumes
Oliver Messel

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The Kordas

Director, Producer, Production Designer

The Kordas
The Kordas

During sound cinema’s first full decade, the Hungarian-born Korda brothers—Alexander, Zoltán, and Vincent—built a British empire. The mastermind behind their legendary company, London Films Productions, was producer, director, writer, and eventual mega-mogul Alex; born Sándor Kellner, he became interested in the art of silent cinema as a teenager in his home country, writing criticism and even founding a movie magazine before finding success making his own films all over Europe. In the late twenties, following a short stint in Hollywood, Alex was sent to England to head up Paramount’s British Production Unit; in 1932, he established London Films and brought aboard his younger siblings, Zoltán as a writer/director and Vincent as a production designer. Their first big hit was The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), which earned Charles Laughton an Oscar and the Kordas international attention. The rest of the thirties held highs (The Rise of Catherine the Great, Elephant Boy) and lows (The Private Life of Don Juan) for the company. But its films—often about historical personalities (Rembrandt) or the exploits of the British Empire abroad (Sanders of the River, The Four Feathers)—remain exemplars of a grand period of British cinema. In the forties, the Kordas only grew in stature—due not only to such immensely popular titles as The Thief of Bagdad and That Hamilton Woman but also to the selection of Alexander, the first film director to be so honored, for knighthood.