Svengali

Apparently this is the tenth(!) screen version of George Du Maurier's "Trilby" but only the second one I have watched myself thus far – the other being the classic 1931 John Barrymore version from Warner Brothers entitled SVENGALI, of course. Presently, I will also be getting to the similarly-titled modernized TV version of 1983 starring Peter O'Toole and Jodie Foster but, for the record, there are two more adaptations I am most interested in, which are Maurice Tourneur's Silent original TRILBY (1915; which is available on DVD from Alpha!) and the "BBC Play Of The Month" TV version from 1976 with Alan Badel. Anyway, back to the version at hand: apart from the truly wretched copy I got saddled with (comprising constant combing and intermittent freezing issues!), I quite liked this handsomely-mounted and literate (if clearly stage-bound and clumsily edited) adaptation that benefits greatly from two excellent central performances: albeit a last-minute replacement for the ailing Robert Newton and clearly overweight for the role of the insufferable Svengali, Donald Wolfit's bizarrely effective combination of Bela Lugosi's looks and Frankie Howerd's voice earned him a nod at the British Film Awards; on the other hand, the overage but beautiful Hildegarde Neff is suitably moving as the innocently sensual gamine Trilby. The rest of the notable cast includes Terence Morgan (as Little Billy), David Kossoff (as Gecko), Noel Purcell (as Trilby's father), Michael Hordern (as Morgan's disapproving minister uncle) and, as starving Parisian painters, Alfie Bass, Harry Secombe and Michael Craig!

One of several big screen adaptations of du Maurier's TRILBY, this was notable for utilising the author's original illustrations in costume, and to some extent, settings. It also had the benefit of a characteristically flamboyant and forceful performance from the great Donald Wolfit. He's able to engender a small degree of sympathy for the grubby and boorish Svengali (including his frustration, as a classical musician, with Trilby's continual rendering of a rather wan little ditty, 'Alice, Where Art Though?' later to form the aptly dowdy signature tune to OPEN ALL HOURS). He's compelling whenever the film focuses on him, despite more than a touch of Frankie Howerd in places. Unfortunately it concentrates rather too much in the early stages on the ageing English art students, and not helped by some crude editing, the story doesn't grip as it should. Hildegarde Neff brings beauty, intelligence and a sense of vulnerability to Trilby, but she comes over as about as Irish as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, whose sublime lyric soprano tones are heard on the soundtrack. Terence Morgan can make little impact as Billy, and despite being good to look at, with the colour and atmosphere of the early Hammer horrors, the whole enterprise is lacking in drive, with too many short scenes on cramped sets. The finale at Covent Garden where Svengali dramatically relinquishes his hold on Trilby is especially disappointingly handled, with the director failing to build any tension or sense of occasion, then allowing what remains to fall flat.

One of those films that has its moments, but falls firmly into the 'could have been so much better' category.

Donald Wolfit gets my vote as Best Animated Cartoon character of 1955. He cracks his fingers before 'playing' the piano, just like Bugs Bunny!

I think this Svengali dies of overacting.

There is a special bonus in this film: an uncredited (and very young) Jeremy Brett appears as a very happy art student in two sequences. He has a few lines and some nice closeups, and even gets to sing along with Harry Secombe on "Alice Where Art Thou". A curious concept.

Hildegarde Knef is very beautiful and the film is nicely art directed, except when she wears the Dior gowns. And the 'art' is pure Fifties kitsch. Some of the dialogue is so hilarious you will be yelling along with it, ROCKY HORROR-SHOW style.

A bit over the top with the acting but this may have been deliberate to give it a certain theatre like feel as film acting is usually more subtle than as done on the stage, for a far away audience.

Beautifully shot in glorious saturated colour and the sets were extremely well done with seemingly no expense spared. I failed to spot some of the actors, later to be very much well known, in minor roles here.

There has been several fairly recent instances of singers, performers etc. Being controlled by very much like Svengali managers so the plot is in no way hard to believe.

A very interesting film worth watching.

Several masterpieces have been transformed because the female lead became pregnant. A less select band emerged quite differently because the director or one of the actors fell off the wagon while the film was being made (Derek Bond, who here plays The Laird, was himself himself summoned a few years later to replace Dennis Price when he showed up legless at the start of shooting 'Wonderful Life'). Robert Newton's replacement in the title role by Donald Wolfit probably made the film duller, but Wolfit was far scarier than the charming old soak would have been.

Since Frederick Pusey's sets were based on the wise decision to base the look of the film on the original engravings (which accounts for all the authentically Victorian whiskers worn by most of the men and the false nose worn by Wolfit) it's a handsome film. Even more handsome is Hildegarde Neff (as she then was) as Trilby; who sportingly sang badly until transformed both by Svengali and the substitution of Elizabeth Schwarzkopf's voice on the soundtrack.

But just as she was too human to be convincing a couple of years earlier in the title role of 'Alraune' (in which she was created by Erich von Stroheim, no less), big strapping Knef is too robust to make a convincing Trilby.