Don Juan

The film is almost an opera, but not quite. The plot closely follows the libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, of Mozart's "Don Giovanni." (Da Ponte came to the US in 1805 and became a professor at Columbia University.) The notorious libertine and lecher Don Giovanni (Danova, sung by Poell), after many conquests of otherwise virtuous ladies and multiple other villainies, finally gets escorted to Hell by the statue of celebrated Commendatore (Hennings, sung by Frick), murdered father of one of his female victims. The dubbed arias--albeit shortened and rendered in German--are all Mozart, but unfortunately, the visuals are superior to the sound quality. The sets and costumes ...