stunt in DON JUAN

On Oct 17, 11:52 pm, "mack" <macke....RemoveThis@dslextreme.com> wrote:
> Does anyone know whether Barrymore made the breathtaking leap down the
> stairway in his fight with Montagu Love? Or whether it was Montagu Love
> who was landed on? It's quite spectaculer in any event.

There was a previous posting here that indicated that John Barrymore
did the stunt, something I doubt, even if wires were used. Just my
opinion, but Barrymore wasn't tall enough or in good enough physical
condition to make the stunt look good. John Carradine commented when
he first saw Barrymore, he was surprised that Barrymore didn't look as
tall in person (at 5'7") as on the screen. In 1948's Adventures of
Don Juan, Jock Mahoney doubled for Errol Flynn and made the leap down
the grand staircase look easy. But Mahoney was 6'4" and in great
shape. In 1926 when he starred in Don Juan, Barrymore was 44 years
old and a pretty heavy drinker. Even in 1926, Hollywood technicians
were expert in creating the appearance that the star did his own
stunts. Paul Malvern, discussing how he doubled Barrymore in the
rooftop flight across Paris in 1927's The Beloved Rogue (In the Hazard
of the Game segment of the Hollywood series) tells how the stunt was
split into parts then shown edited together. Malvern, a former circus
acrobat, was up to the task of putting on striped tights and flying
through the air off a springboard to be the stunt double for Barrymore
in Don Juan. All of this is speculation. One solution to the
question would be if someone finds outtakes of the filming of this
scene, very unlikely but you never know for sure.

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