John Barrymore Gallery 

Don Juan

Only those who were actively identified with the actual writing and filming of "Don Juan" ---the Warner Brothers' masterpiece of the screen in which John Barrymore plays the greatest lovers--can have any adequate conception of the laborious research, painstaking care and slavish attention to details that marked every step taken in the vast project.

In its costuming, in architectural design of the massive and beautiful settings, in fidelity of chracterization, "Don Juan" is as true to the times in which the action is placed as past records can make it. Before Miss Meredyth, who wrote an original screen version of the legend, began work on her script, there was carried on by the research staff of Warner Brothers an exhaustive investigation into the customs, fashions and foibles of the Spainards and Italians of the XV Century.

 

Bess Meredyth wrote the screen story of "Don Juan." Miss Meredyth also wrote the script for "Sea Beast," and prepared the continuity for John Barrymore's third Warner Brothers picture, a forthcoming screen play based on the famous opera, "Manon Lescaut."

Many acts of daring and courage occurred during the filming of the various scenes besides those which registered on the screen. In the filming of a love scene in a the beautiful little dressing room of Adriana (Mary Astor), as Don Juan came through the tall recessed window, the enormous pane of glass shattered into hundreds of pieces, showering over him. Barrymore went right on with the scene as if nothing were happening, while the cameraman fell to the ground. It was just luck that Barrymore came through the scene without harm.
Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore in the film Rasputin.
Professional fighter Jack Dempsey with John Barrymore on the set of Don Juan.
Lionel, Jack and Ethel with John Drew Barrymore.