Svengali

Svengali (John Barrymore) is an eccentric mystical music teacher/pianist who makes his daily bread giving singing lessons to aspiring students in Paris. His long hair, forked beard, and piercing eyes make the unusual instructor a prime target of ridicule among the local townsfolk. One day a stunning and earthy young model named Trilby (Marian Marsh, perfectly cast and the living picture of the girl you heard about in the song "You're Sixteen") makes her way into the life of Billee (Bramwell Fletcher from the 1932 MUMMY), and wins his devotion. But like all the red-blooded men in this tale, the sly Svengali takes a liking to her himself, and hypnotizes the girl into following him. It's always exciting to discover an old classic from Hollywood's Golden Age that still captivates. SVENGALI is only borderline horror at best, yet it remains a true gem, an absorbing achievement in every way: from the powerful lead performance of Barrymore, to the delicious beauty of 16 year-old Marian Marsh, to the bizarre set designs of Anton Grot, to the wonderful direction by Archie Mayo. This is when movies were movies. *** out of ****

John Barrymore tackles the delicious role of Svengali, the evil musician who casts a spell over pretty young Trilby, an artist's model (portrayed by Marian Marsh). The chief reason to see Archie Mayo's production is the unique set design by Anton Grot (who, I am speculating, was rather inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). Also of note are the splendid special effects, still impressive even after all these years. All of the hypnosis/possession sequences are remarkable, as great attention is paid to the piercing, penetrating eyes of Svengali as he mesmerizes the hapless ingenue. The weak link here is the lukewarm Bramwell Fletcher, playing Trilby's true love. He registers blandly, and behaves more as the passive mollycoddle than as the proactive hero.

I've only watched the film once – by way of Roan's fine if not outstanding DVD - and this happened fairly recently. SVENGALI follows its source novel ("Trilby" by George Du Maurier) pretty closely, which is rare for horror film-adaptations of the 1930s. Apart from John Barrymore's appropriately mesmerizing leading performance (here revisiting the genre after a whole decade), I recall one particularly amazing tracking shot demonstrating Svengali's hypnotic powers over Trilby, and there are even brief flashes of nudity (remember this was a Pre-Code film, but also that our heroine is a model)! Barrymore followed SVENGALI with the thematically-similar THE MAD GENIUS (1931) but, unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to watch that one

An exceptional classic film. In a storyline very similar to Dracula, the strange Maestro Svengali (John Barrymore) falls in love with a young girl (Marian Marsh) and uses his powers of hypnotism and mind control to seduce her. Erie, eye catching, strangely romantic and a little twisted, Svengali was everything Dracula should have been. The film is a masterpiece of visuals. The slanted, disproportionate sets and imaginative camera work give many scenes a dreamlike feel. John Barrymore is perfect as the title character. He does not play Svengali as a flatly evil man, but gives him charm, humor and vulnerability. He causes us to pity him for his unrequited love almost more than we fear him for his actions. The talent of the supporting cast does not go to waste either. Marian Marsh gives a good performance as Trilby, the object of Svengali's desire, and Donald Crisp and Luis Alberni provide some comic relief as a couple of struggling artists. Complete with a dark, somewhat open ending, this movie has all the right touches. Svengali is better and more effective than a horror movie without quite being one itself.

Such a story could only be committed to celluloid during the precode era. John Barrymore, as Svengali, makes us empathize with him as we are presented with a very complex villain.

The opening twenty minutes or so of the film are pretty much light-hearted fare as Svengali is presented as a fortune-hunter when it comes to his women pupils and also a very creative panhandler when it comes to his British artist acquaintances also living in the artists' section of Paris. By chance, Svengali meets artists' model Trilby. Trilby is a bit of a dual-natured creature herself. She has the language and bearing of a free spirit, yet she also has angelic delicate features and sports a gendarme's coat that seems to say "No Trespassing!". Svengali is captivated, perhaps for the first time in his life, with another human being, not just with what that human being can do for him. The movie takes a sharp turn into darker territory when Svengali uses his hypnotic hold on young model Trilby to turn her into a singing sensation. He can make her do anything he wants through his hypnotic powers - even marry him. However, when he lets her out of her trance she feels nothing for him. There is a particularly touching scene in which Svengali talks to "the real" Trilby and she says that she has tried to love him but simply does not. Frustrated, he quickly puts her into a trance, and his marionette parrots back her love for him. Heartbroken, he realizes all that is happening when she speaks her affection is that he is talking to himself. As time passes it is interesting to see how Svengali ages, as the weight of holding back Trilby's true will seems to be slowly killing him. The ending is not sewed up neatly at all, and it is a bit shocking to see how it breaks off.

The best parts of this film are John Barrymore's great performance as Svengali and also the art design. If you've ever seen The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, the art design is quite similar to that, especially in the first part of the film in Paris. The windows and doors all have odd shapes and angles, as the visual style of the whole film takes on a nightmarish and surreal quality.