tadpole-596-918256 Review of Don Juan

Don Juan (1926)

You probably need a degree in hydraulic engineering . . .

[7/10 · 6 March 2014]

. . . to understand how DON JUAN's escape from a Borgia dungeon could have happened. Since I lack such a diploma, I cannot fathom how this scene is any more plausible than that James Bond flick in which half of Venice collapses into the canals toward the end due to an elevator malfunction. I also noticed that the original print I just watched lacks many of the "synchronized sound effects" with which Warners Bros. sound technicians later enhanced select snippets of DON JUAN for their "25 Years of Sound" celebratory documentary shorts. Apparently, these studio flunkies were so lacking in imagination that they could not conceive of a later generation that would be able to compare the original DON JUAN studio release to their fraudulent "spiffed up" version. As Pope Alex wrote, "What a tangled web we weave when first we endeavor to deceive." Of the three characters actor John Barrymore tackles in DON JUAN, I like his brief cameo as a stand-in for Borgia Family torturer Neri the best. He is convincing then; less so as a lover, and still less as a duelist.