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317 Chapter 19 The Private Life of Don Juan The joyous Juan has left the world, The sad Juan is his heir. —Nikolaus Lenau The Don Juan of the legend does not exist. He is more seduced than seducing. I will show you what the sort of man who gets the reputation for being a Don Juan is really like. —W. H. Auden The Private Life of Don Juan brings us to the final destination of Fairbanks ’s four-film odyssey—and the culmination of his meditations on the conflicts and compromises facing artists and husbands. We have now arrived at legend-haunted Old Seville. Who would blame us if by now, like Fairbanks himself, we are a bit cynical and travel-worn after our encounters with the windmill-tilting Quixote and the globe-trotting Crusoe? But now another mythic figure awaits: Don Juan. When Fairbanks and Douglas Jr. set sail to Europe in 1933, the trip aroused a storm of controversy. Father and son were described as believing that they could get along without Hollywood. Doug Jr., moreover, was getting interested in his own career as a producer.1 The initial purpose of the trip was to form a British film company that would produce pictures for United Artists distribution rivaling the American product. Newspapers and magazines openly rejoiced at having acquired Sr.’s services and hinted that he might become a British citizen.2 Plans were announced for three pictures—one about Czar Peter III and Catherine of Russia, starring Doug Jr.; one called Exit Don Juan, starring Sr.; and a third, a Zorro story, Artists and Husbands 318 costarring them both. Other rumors linked Sr.’s name with one Lady Sylvia Ashley. She was the former Sylvia Hawks, a chorus girl who married Lord Anthony Ashley, son and heir of the Earl of Shaftesbury. Events bore out at least some of these rumors. Sr.’s business plans with Korda included discussing a partnership for him in United Artists. Korda wanted to secure American distribution for his films. United Artists had a large and costly distribution arm but could not provide a sufficient number of pictures to cover the overhead. Korda and his London Films company might supply those needed pictures. It was Sr.’s idea to sponsor Korda’s entrance into UA as a partner. Then, on January 1, 1934, it was announced that Fairbanks had joined the board of London Films. From then until 1944, Korda and Sam Goldwyn attempted to buy out Fairbanks and his associates at UA, a move that was never consummated. As for the growing involvement between Fairbanks Sr. and Lady Sylvia Ashley, matters came to a head when Mary Pickford filed suit for divorce on December 8, 1934. The following February, Lord Ashley obtained a divorce from his wife, and Fairbanks and Sylvia were married on March 7, 1936. Father and son did indeed star in two films, respectively, Exit Don Juan (retitled The Private Life of Don Juan) and Catherine the Great. It is very interesting, perhaps significant, that the films reveal striking parallels. Jr. Douglas and his third wife, Lady Sylvia Ashley, in 1936. The Private Life of Don Juan 319 and Sr. both portrayed weak and reluctant husbands married to dominating women.3 Both were directed by Alexander Korda—Paul Czinner got the nominal credit for Catherine—who the year before had directed a satire on marriage, The Private Life of Henry VIII; both were written by Lajos Biro; both were designed by Vincent Korda; and both were released in 1934, within a few months of each other. There were differences, of course: in the role of the wicked, doomed Grand Duke Peter of Russia, the twentyfour -year-old Fairbanks Jr. gave an acclaimed and nuanced performance that not only helped establish him as an actor independent of his father, but clearly signaled that the best years of his career lay ahead of him. By contrast, as the dashing, but aging Don Juan, the fifty-one-year-old Fairbanks Sr.’s performance was an amusing, albeit bittersweet valedictory to his own career. The Private Life of Don Juan was made at Elstree and premiered in London on September 5, 1934. It was adapted from L’homme a la rose (1920), by Henri Bataille (1872–1922), and written for the screen by two writers long associated with Korda, the aforementioned Lajos Biro and Frederic Lonsdale. 4 Bataille’s three-act play, according to a review at the time, was...

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