Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles. His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.

Alexander Korda’s The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) provided Messel with his first opportunity to design costumes for a film production. Based on the legendary character Don Juan, Messel designed eighteenth century style costumes with a Spanish feel. Sennwald, writing for the New York Times, gave the film a lukewarm review but praised the designs ‘Chiefly it is interesting for its visual distinction and for its gallery of ravishing ladies' (New York Times, 10 December 1934).

Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) played Don Juan. Sennwald was unmercifully critical 'The bounding one’s current return to the screen has about it a lamentable air of anachronism … the microphone is ruthlessly unkind to him. Neither in voice nor theatrical skill is he gifted to read lines.' (New York Times, 10 December 1934)