I'd always wanted to see this famous story, and the much-praised John Barrymore. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past all the outrageously bogus fake beards on everybody, plus the preposterous fake nose Svengali sports, the imitation Yiddish accent, the crude caricatures of the expostulating Italians and so on. Kinda wrecks it for us moderns who are used to decent production . Remember when Spencer Tracy refused to grow a stubble beard for"The Old Man and the Sea?" The director protested that hero was at sea without shaving for a week and had to grow a beard. Tracy said, "I'll ACT the beard." If only Barrymore had made the same choice.
Review of Svengali
