secondtake Svengali (1931)"Svengali" is a strange strange film, half nightmare, half plain old German Expressionism thrown into an inventive Warner Bros. set. It's amazing at its best, and the set design and photography both got Oscar nominations. The plot that gets built up of increasingly new elements, comic outsiders (Englishmen who believe in bathing every day) and a overtly beautiful blonde model and her apparent love match (they have just met), until the crux of it clarifies--the title character is a madman who can hypnotize people at will.John Barrymore in his archly long, dramatic is a creep, appropriately. When he hypnotizes, his eyes turn to these large glowing white orbs. He has fallen in love with a model and starts to control her, which her fiancé only gradually realizes. Other people just find Svengali a quirky artistic type, and see no harm in him at first.The setting is odd--clearly shot on a studio lot rather than a real Parisian artists colony, it nonetheless is meant to be some kind of rambling set of rooms that are more or less attached, or near each other. For the whole first half, the main characters never really leave the irregular, sometimes offkilter chambers, which look like there were adapted from "Caligari" itself. The light and the framing, and the interesting very shallow depth of field, combine to make a mysterious and really beautiful effect. The Barrymores, as a group, are amazing, but their theatricality, especially John's, doesn't always transfer well to modern movies. In a way, it's this leading man who cuts into the disarming surrealism and horror overall, simply because he's so campy. This might be just a matter of changing tastes, because his effect reminds me rather a lot of Bela Lugosi in "Dracula" which was released the same year (a few months earlier). The story of Dracula is more archetypal and wonderful for the ages, but in my view (I've seen both movies recently) this is much better filmed. The photography, lighting, and blocking (the way the actors move) are more fluid and involved. Archie Mayo, the director, has a handful of completely wonderful films to his up and down career (click on his name to see). As much as this one has some obvious and forced sections, and a plot that doesn't quite involve the viewer as you would hope, it's a really well made, well constructed movie. For 1931 it's sometimes a pure wonder.

jotix100 Svengali is an impoverished singing professor, of Polish extraction, down on his luck. Living is Paris in precarious conditions, he forces his way into the flat of Taffy, and the Laird, two Englishmen painters. He seizes the opportunity for a bath and borrows clothes that turn him into a more distinguished person.The unexpected appearance of Trilby, a model that has been sent to the English painters, produces a change of heart in Svengali. He cannot have the beautiful girl on his looks alone, so he decides to use his mental powers to cast a spell on the unsuspecting young woman. This will change them forever; Svengali will use Trilby as his trophy because he finds she has the right bone structure in her mouth to be a great singer.Trilby, who was attracted to a young friend of the Englishmen, Billee, until to his shock, he finds her posing nude for a group of painters. Overnight, Trilby becomes a singing sensation with Svengali taking her throughout Europe. The spell works out for a while, but Trilby begins to have problems and Svengali cancels her appearances. It is in Cairo, where Billee had followed Trilby and Svengali that she is able to break the spell she has fallen under.Archie Mayo directed this classic 1931 production. The great John Barrymore, almost unrecognized in his appearance, makes a wonderful take on the legendary man with magical powers. Marian Marsh, one of the screen early beauties is seen as Trilby O'Farrell. The restored DVD had an excellent picture and sound qualities. The supporting cast included Donald Crisp, Bramwell Fletcher, Luis Alberni and Lumsden Hare.What was remarkable in this feature was the art direction of Anton Grof. For the time it was made, and with the resources of the time in which it was filmed, one cannot help being impressed by the sets that were used in the film. Barney McGill was the cinematographer and the musical score is credited to David Mendoza. Archie Mayo directed with an eye for detail the classic novel by George DuMaurier.

calvinnme 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.

missrebeckah This is a phenomenal movie. Great acting, great story, cool cinematography. Really worth the watch, and don't watch the 1983 remake with yucky Jodie Foster. Gag. She can't hold a candle to everything Marian Marsh brings to the character. Beauty, charm, grace, innocence and vulnerability. I can't believe Jodie could be hypnotized, and I can never "forget" the star, or she's always Clarice to me. John Barrymore is THE man. He's an amazingly good actor, and amusing to boot. That beard is so funny looking I can't take my eyes off it. He has the presence of a real star, yet we get lost in the character because he is such a GOOD actor. And look at how HUGE the hallways are in those Paris studios. And the costumes! A definite classic. Watch it, you'll love it.Read more of my public domain movie reviews at: http://pdmoviereview.blogspot.com/