In this historical drama set in Spanish controlled Flanders, Anita Berber plays the wife of the regent, the Duke D’Arzac. She is the real engine behind the story; Flanders’ debt and corrupt management are her doing, and her husband, like all the other men, is just a puppet. She wants to take total control, eliminating the young duke destined to sit on the throne one day. The romantic adventures of the man from Marana that take up the first part of the film are just a long preamble to this troubled upstart’s conspiracy. As critics at the time noted, the exposition of the film’s first part is a little bit too long, but later on the narrative rhythm becomes faster, making the film’s ending truly thrilling. Both the acting and the photography were judged excellent. Overall, the work is of excellent quality, put- ting it a notch above average films from the era. The film was successful enough that it was re-distributed in Austria in October 1927 with the more transparent and catchier title Don Juan.

Paolo Caneppele