Adventures of Don Quixote

Adventures of Don Quixote (1933) is the English title of a film adaptation of the classic Miguel de Cervantes novel, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, starring the famous operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin.

Although the film stars Chaliapin, it is not an opera; however, he does sing three songs in it. It is the first sound film version of the Spanish classic. The supporting cast in the English version includes George Robey, René Donnio, Miles Mander, Lydia Sherwood, Renée Valliers, and Emily Fitzroy. The film was made in three versions -- French, English, and German -- with Chaliapin starring in all three versions.

The producers separately commissioned five composers (Jacques Ibert, Maurice Ravel (who wrote three songs), Marcel Delannoy, Manuel de Falla and Darius Milhaud) to write the songs for Chaliapin; each composer believed only he had been approached. Ibert's music was chosen for the film, but this caused him some embarrassment as he was a close friend of Ravel's. Ravel considered a lawsuit against the producers. He dropped the action, and the two composers remained close friends.

Convinced by reading many books that the quest for all things good and pure come above materialism, Don Quixote sallies forth with his faithful servant, Sancho, to right wrongs and free the downtrodden. Attacking a flock of sheep whom he thinks are villains and infidels, Quixote cries for justice; Sancho sees only sheep. Jousting with a windmill which he mistakes for an malodorous ogre, Quixote's lance gets stuck in the sails and he is carried aloft and dumped unceremoniously on the ground. At the end of the adventure, a spiteful church official, at the behest of the Duke (Miles Mander), burns Quixote's books, the source of his lunacy; and Quixote, his face all kindness and horror, looks tragically upon the bonfire as at the loss of his Promised Land. Even the milkmaid Dulcinea, whom Quixote exalted as a great lady, weeps at the loss of Innocence.