Svengali (1931)

Not as weird as I'd hoped it would be. Svengali is a pre-code Hollywood motion picture based on the 1894 gothic horror novel Trilby by the Frenchmen George du Maurier. A wonderfully made up John Barrymore stars as Svengali, a (Polish?) composer, con man, and expert hypnotist. Svengali gets besotted of one Trilby O'Farrell (Marian Marsh), a beautiful, young, professional artist model. He steals her away from her intended (Bramwell Fletcher) and through his hypnotic powers turns her into a leading musical deva. Svengali is a more interesting character then just a stock villain in that now that he has his prize, he can't seemingly bring himself to enjoy her cranially. He has a sense of guilt, though it is strongly implied for a movie of the time that Trilby had been a lose woman before. There is some oddly fascinating chemistry going on between Barrymore and Marsh, so effective was it that Warner Brother rushed another, similar Barrymore/Marsh pictures The Mad Genius into theaters before the end of the year. An odd piece, makes me a little curious about the novel. ***