"DON JUAN."

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19032, 21 June 1927, Page 16

"DON JUAN."

A MASTERPIECE .OF ART AND BEAUTY. After a lapse of io.me few hundred years tho name and fame of Don Juan is as fresh and untarnished to-day as ever was, if the name of eo profligate a genius ever was untarnished. Nearly all the great creative geniuses of the world have essayed a Don Juan, Mozart's opera, "Don Giovanni, being ■ unquestionably the most artistic and voluptuous of them all. , Tolstoi, G. B. Shaw, Arnold Bennett, Lord Byron, Moliere, and do Balzac have all given more or less colourful versions of the original, but it has really remained for the screen to dilineate that fascinating and graceless character, with, any . measure of permanent suo c.ess', and •' one says that with full acknowledgment to the achievement of Mozart. The screen, in presenting "Don Juan has turned out a most exquisite cameo of what is at once entrancing beauty and the most intense drama, and this picture haa been secured for a limited season at the Grand Theatre, opening on Monday next _ It is a drama set in the Renaissance period when the famous Borgia family ruled half Italy py virtue of their poisoned cups and their diabolically brilliant politics, and the picture is a wonderfully successful attempt to portray all the license and all the unscrupulousness and splendour of those gorgeous times. "While, in exteriors, a colourful pageant, a succession of billowing women and conspiring cavaliers, yet it remains foremost a very human story, in which human emotions and passions run riot, and a hundred famous historical personages once more Btrut their hour. In the title role is seen John Barrymore, who shares the dual ■ distinction of being fhe world's greatest dramatic actor and the screen's most finished exponent of the "perfect lover," and "Don Juan" is a play that is frankly based on the love theme. It is love in the daya when love was a fine art, and the very name, Don Juan, has ■ co/ne to be definitely associated with the gentle passion for all time. His amours have led him to be regarded as the personification of romantic ardour and irresistible passion, and the screen has produced its piece-de resistance with the maximum of discretion and at ths same time with the maximum of emotional iire, and the ensemble makes for a glorious and thrilling accomplishment. For actual, material beauty and richness, "Don Juan" lias far outstripped its contemporaries. Set in an era- when luxury and lavishness knew no bounds, and when all the greatest painters and sculptors were adorning the palace of the great, the film is generously with all the art of those times, while, on its purely story-telling viewpoint have been lavished all the astutest and most poetic minds in the nrofession. It is a bold and romantic tale, with Barrymore giving a like performance. A hundred sinister and ennobling sentiments work to make the play the vivid and human triumph it is, with all the virtue and refined savageTy of the age to give it seasoning The Borgias stalk majestically through i the storv, lending an atmosphere of dread I and evil asoect to their actions, while many a famous name is introduced to give added colour to the bold exploits of the Don. A bevy of exceedingly beautiful feminine stars attend Barrymore in this production. Estelle Taylor contributes a matchless periormance as Lucrezia Borgia, who is still known to posterity as the world's most evil woman, I and Miss Taylor is artist enough to give the conviction strength. Good girls were a ■ novelty in Renaissance, Italy, and Don Juan was the last person to believe in the i existence of any other kind, so vrhen Adriana, a graceful portrait by Mary Astor, walks into his life, the intensity of the drama is heightened, and a more brilliant turn is given to the story. Helen Lee Worthing, June Marlowe. Phyllis Haver, Myrna Loy, and Helene Costellce are a few O! the lovely actresses who lend their grace and charm to the production. "Warner | Oland'a Caesar Borgia is a triumph of subtlety, while his equally vicious kinsman, Donati, is given an admirable interpretation by Montsgu Love. Thus "Don Juan' comes to the local screen in all its kaleidoscopic beauty and emotional intensity, a tiiumphant reply to those critics who affirm that screen production is not a fine art, and the most magically romantic version of the life and loves of the most intriguingpersonality of mediaeval history. An "A certificate has been issued with "Don Juan, therefore the .film is for adult audiences. I On Thursday morning the box plans will i open at The Bristol Piano Company, where I it will be necessary for intending patrons to book their seats.