A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It's been many years since I read DuMaurier's "Trilby." I was a young man them, probably much more impressionable than I am now. I didn't know that there had been a movie made based on the book – let alone several versions. When I came across the title on IMDb I read the summaries and comments on all of them. It seemed to me that only one came close to the book – this 1931 Warner Brothers film, named after the villain of the story. Comparing the casts, one also could come to the conclusion that this would be the best of the films.John Barrymore does an excellent job as "Svengali." Marian Marsh is very good as Trilby, and this is her first starring role after a few uncredited roles in films. The rest of the cast are fine in their roles. I did notice that the ending was different, if in the same vein.The film didn't seem to be as sinister as I recalled Svengali from the book. Perhaps the front of gentleness displayed by Barrymore here assuages somewhat the terror of his character's demonic side. I don't recall if his character had a gentle or sweet side in the book.The filmmakers did an excellent job in setting the story with the stark appearance of the lodgings and spacious empty hallways in the beginning. Once Trilby comes under Svengali's spell, it seems that the film moves very quickly to the end. I thought there was a little more to the intervening years in the book.This was a very good portrayal of one person controlling another, especially with dark powers. DuMaurier's villain's name soon transposed into common language. A manipulating person who seeks to control someone is referred to as a Svengali.

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.

Wow. Creating opera singers in Paris was at one point, apparently, all the rage in literature - we have Christine Daae coached by the Phantom of the Opera and here, we have Trilby becoming an opera star under the tutelage of the great Svengali. This 1931 film stars John Barrymore in the title role, Marian Marsh as Trilby, along with Bramwell Fletcher as Billee, Trilby's boyfriend, and Donald Crisp.The poor, unkempt, dirty Svengali becomes obsessed with the artist's model Trilby. He hypnotizes her and takes over her mind. Though her boyfriend (Bram Fletcher) and the artists believe her dead, five years later, Svengali, now prosperous and clean, appears in concert with his wife, the phenomenal Mme. Svengali, the great opera star. After performing "The Mad Scene from Lucia," she leaves the theater, and her friends recognize her. Just one small problem - Svengali has a weak heart, and he is more and more losing control over her. And now that Billee has seen her, he keeps showing up.This is a classic film, thanks to the performance of Barrymore and the great sets, which, as many people have mentioned, were inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Barrymore brings great humor and a vulnerability to an overtly scary role, and Marsh is adorable. Seventeen years old here, she retired at the age of 30, except for some TV appearances, and died at the age of 93. Blond Bramwell Fletcher, who often appeared on stage throughout his career, is Trilby's love interest. Eleven years after this film was made, he married Barrymore's daughter Diana.Had this film been made a few years later, it might have been a touch better. The actors and studio were still getting used to the sound process, so the rhythm of the dialogue is a little off. Nonetheless, this is an excellent film, and I'll take any opportunity I can to see the great Barrymore.

A bit old fashioned, Svengali still holds the interest throughout because of its star the great John Barrymore. It's one of his best screen roles.Not noted for his personal hygiene, Svengali is a rogue of all trades, a teacher of music and singing, a good magician, and a master at hypnotism. Apparently only women seem to succumb to the mesmerizing however, or he prefers to use it on them only.He's not a man with too many scruples as we see when he casually tosses Carmel Myers aside after she leaves her husband for him. But when it comes to a new pupil, Trilby O'Farrel, it's not quite clear who the one is who is enslaving who.Tone deaf, but with a throat and palate Barrymore discovers could be the voice of a great singer, he weaves his greatest mesmerizing spell upon the unsuspecting Marian Marsh as Trilby. She becomes his greatest success, but he must never leave her side. He also with his abilities takes her away from struggling artist Bramwell Fletcher.Svengali received two Academy Award nominations, for Art Direction and Cinematography. John Barrymore did not receive one, a pity in my humble opinion. One person who really appreciated Barrymore's performance was his brother. You can clearly see traces of John's Svengali in Lionel Barrymore's Rasputin in Rasputin and the Empress.John Barrymore also got to work with Bramwell Fletcher in this who became his posthumous son-in-law. A few months after Barrymore died in 1942, Fletcher married Diana Barrymore for a few years. His character in the film Too Much, Too Soon about Diana Barrymore's tragic life is played by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.I wouldn't mind seeing an updated version of Svengali, perhaps one with a gay twist. Turn that one over in your minds. Until then this one will do nicely.