Svengali

SVENGALI is a British-made version of the classic story about the evil hypnotist who creates a famous singer out of a young and untalented girl. In essence this tale is Rasputin in the music world, and it's quite a fun and eventful storyline.

The main reason to enjoy this film is the performance of Donald Wolfit (BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE) in the title role. He seems to be channelling Bela Lugosi in both look and voice throughout the movie, and his hammy style of acting is a lot of fun; the other actors in the production feel flat by comparison.

The film as a whole isn't perfect - there's a little too much sappy romance going on, and events are never as exciting or dramatic as the producers would hope for - but the lush colours and costumes of the mid 1950s give this the look and feel of an early Hammer Horror outing. Hildegard Knef (later of Hammer's THE LOST CONTINENT) is fine as the youthful protégé, and it's fun to see Terence Morgan (CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB) before he got typecast as the bad guy.

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.

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!

A better example of over-acting you will struggle to find in this overly theatrical adaptation of George Du Maurier's 1894 novel "Trilby". Hildegard Knef is a young, impressionable, girl who falls under the spell of the almost Rasputin-esque Donald Wolfit in the title role. He hypnotises her to rid her of pesky headaches, and give her the voice of an angel - and soon she becomes an international star of the opera. Robert Newton was originally slated for the lead, but I can't imagine he could have done better than Wolfit, who has the maniacal look (eyes, especially) and pithy dialogue down to a T. The support from Terence Morgan - as her much younger beau "Billee Bagot", Paul Rogers, David Kossoff and the truly wonderful singing of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf keep this entertaining enough, but the staging and style are just to limiting to let this version of a really menacing and evocative story soar.

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.