More than 60 years after his death, Errol Flynn remains the platonic ideal of the cinematic swashbuckling star. For another example of this, we go to 1948’s Adventures of Don Juan.

Set at the dawn of the 16th century, Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Maraña (Flynn) serves as a diplomatic liaison in England. However, his womanizing ways cause a controversy and he finds himself back home in Spain.

There Don Juan finds himself smitten with Queen Margaret (Viveca Lindfors), a ruler trapped in a loveless marriage to King Phillip III (Romney Brent). As these two deal with their potential romantic entanglements, Don Juan also uncovers a plot by the scheming Duke de Lorca (Robert Douglas) to monopolize power.

That sounds like a potentially solid story. With a mix of intrigue, romance and action, Juan boasts the ability to turn into a lively and compelling tale.

However, this doesn’t quite prove true. While Juan manages moderate entertainment value, too much of it feels cliché.

This disc’s box art relates that Don Juan represents Flynn’s first swashbuckling character in nine years. I actually suspect this means 1940’s Sea Hawk, as I find nothing “swashbuckling” from Flynn in 1939.

Whether eight or nine years, Flynn had been away from this sort of role in a while. I don’t know if fans felt excited to see him reprise a part like this, but Flynn himself appears less than thrilled.

I won’t claim Flynn sleepwalks through Juan, but he fails to bring much energy to the part. Not yet 40 at the time of the production, we can’t blame his age, so I must suspect that Flynn simply lacked enthusiasm for a return to the characters that worked for him in the 1930s.

It also seems possible that Flynn’s hard-living ways caught up to him. Flynn looks puffy and older than his years, and all the substance abuse of this period appeared to grind him down.

Whatever the case, Flynn does deliver some of his natural charm. However, he fails to offer much verve or excitement, as he really seems bored with the part much of the time.

This tone extends to much of the production, for a lot of Juan comes across as half-hearted. The film attempts a mix of genres but can’t pull off any of them in a convincing manner.

Actually, Juan proves more comedic than anticipated, as the film plays the lead’s romantic entanglements for laughs much of the time. This feels like a mistake, as it becomes more difficult to take Don Juan seriously as an all-time great lover when so many of these scenes shoot for campy chuckles.

The movie makes the “palace intrigue” side of things bland and less than coherent, while the romance between Don Juan and Queen Margaret lacks sparkle. Flynn and Lindfors fail to connect in a meaningful manner, so that part of the tale never ignites.

None of this makes Don Juan an actual bad movie, as it comes with mild entertainment value at times. However, it doesn’t develop into anything memorable, as it just feels like it operates on cruise control too much of the time.

Adventures of Don Juan appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The disc offered a delightful Technicolor presentation.

In terms of sharpness, the movie usually demonstrated nice delineation. If any softness appeared, it remained too modest to make a difference, so this turned into a distinctive image.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and no edge enhancement became apparent. Grain remained appropriate, and no specks, marks or other defects showed up at any time in this fresh presentation.

Colors were strong, as the hues tended to be vivid and full. They lit up he screen.

Blacks seemed deep and dense without too much heaviness. Shadow detail worked similarly well, as dimly-lit shots were appropriately clear and thick. I found little about which to complain here and thought the Blu-ray brought the movie to life in an impressive manner.

The DTS-HD MA monaural audio of Don Juan appeared fine for its era, and speech felt appropriate. The lines showed age-related thinness, but they were always perfectly intelligible and without edginess.

Effects resembled the dialogue. Those elements lacked much depth but they were without notable problems.

Music was acceptable for its age, as the score tended to be a bit tinny. There wasn’t much range to the music, but again, that stemmed from the limitations of the very old source. This became a perfectly adequate mix for its vintage.

As we shift to extras, we find an audio commentary from director Vincent Sherman and film historian Rudy Behlmer. Both recorded separate running, screen-specific chats that got edited together.

Sherman provides some production specifics and anecdotes. Behlmer functions in the traditional film historian role, so he gives us facts about the flick as well as those involved.

I’ve always liked Behlmer but this doesn’t become one of his stronger efforts, perhaps because of the split in time. Behlmer dominates the chat and gives us some good notes, but he doesn’t seem quite as involved as usual, and the track sputters at times.

Sherman appears less frequently, and he gives us some decent memories, though nothing terribly insightful. Though erratic, this still becomes a good enough discussion to earn a listen.

Under the banner of Warner Night At the Movies, we get a collection of extras that attempt to reflect the cinematic experience circa 1948. This means we find a newsreel about the year’s Miss America contest (1:07), a “Joe McDoakes” comedy short called So You Want to Be On the Radio (10:47), a Technicolor travelogue short titled Calgary Stampede (18:10), and a Bugs Bunny cartoon named Hare Splitter (7:09).

“Play All” lets us run these components in a batch. I always enjoyed the “Warner Night At the Movies” idea and it continues to be a fun addition to the disc.

The disc completes with the movie’s trailer.

After a brief break, Errol Flynn returned to the kind of swashbuckling role that made him a star. Unfortunately, he appeared disenchanted with his place in Adventures of Don Juan, and the end result became a pretty mediocre mix of romance, comedy and action. The Blu-ray boasts excellent visuals, appropriate audio and a mix of bonus materials. While the movie does little for me, at least Warner Archives makes it a terrific Blu-ray.