Don Juan (1926 film)


Don Juan is a 1926 American romantic adventure film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. The film is inspired by Lord Byron's 1821 epic poem of the same name. The screenplay was written by Bess Meredyth with intertitles by Maude Fulton and Walter Anthony.
Don Juan stars John Barrymore as the hand-kissing womanizer. The film has the most kisses in film history, with Barrymore kissing Mary Astor and Estelle Taylor 127 times.

Plot

In the prologue, Don José, warned of his wife's infidelity, seals his wife's lover alive in his hiding place and drives her from the castle; abandoned to his lust, he is stabbed by his last mistress, and with his dying words he implores his son, Don Juan, to take all from women but yield nothing. Ten years later, young Don Juan, a graduate of the University of Pisa, is famous as a lover and pursued by many women, including the powerful Lucrezia Borgia, who invites him to her ball. His contempt for her incites her hatred of Adriana, the daughter of the Duke Della Varnese, with whom he is enraptured; and Lucrezia plots to marry her to Count Giano Donati, one of the Borgia henchmen, and poison the duke. Don Juan intervenes and thwarts the scheme, winning the love of Adriana, but the Borgia declare war on the duke's kinsmen, offering them safety if Adriana marries Donati; Don Juan is summoned to the wedding, but he prefers death to marriage with Lucrezia. He escapes and kills Donati in a duel. The lovers are led to the death-tower, but while Adriana pretends suicide, he escapes; and following a series of battles, he defeats his pursuers and is united with Adriana.

Cast

Don Juan premiered August 5, 1926, at the Warners' Theatre in New York City, New York preceded by a program of other shorts demonstrating Vitaphone.
TitleYear
Hon. Will H. Hays, President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Who Will Address You1926
New York Philharmonic - Overture to "Tannhäuser"1926
Mischa Elman - "Humoresque" and "Gavotte"1926
Roy Smeck The Wizard of the String in "His Pastimes"1926
Marion Talley - "Caro Nome" from "Rigoletto"1926
Efrem Zimbalist and Harold Bauer - Theme and Variations from "The Kreutzer Sonata"1926
Giovanni Martinelli - "Vesti La Giubba"1926
Anna Case in "La Fiesta", Soprano Solo, Assisted by The Cansinos, Spanish Dancers, and the Metropolitan Opera Chorus1926

Production

, an early film matinee idol, had starred in a Broadway production based on the Don Juan legend in 1921. This play ran only 14 performances at the Garrick Theatre. The soundtrack for the film was performed by the New York Philharmonic. George Groves, on assignment from The Vitaphone Corporation, was charged with recording the soundtrack to the film. He devised an innovative, multi-microphone technique and performed a live mix of the 107-string orchestra. In doing so he became the first music mixer in film history.

Reception

The film was a box-office success being Warners' biggest grossing film to date with earnings of $1,693,000 despite negative reviews from New York film critics. According to Warners records the film earned $1,258,000 domestically and $435,000 foreign.
Opening night tickets cost $10 and it was the first film on Broadway to charge over $3 for a regular ticket with the top prices at $3.30 each night. In the five performances over the weekend, it grossed $13,787 with people literally fighting to get in and tickets changing hands for $5.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
A print of Don Juan, including its Vitaphone soundtrack, still survives and is preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Home media

In 2011, the film, along with the original Vitaphone sound shorts, was released on manufactured-on-demand DVD by the Warner Archive Collection.