And that is good to know. John Barrymore (Svengali) plays the title role of a music composer who is in search of love, money and fame. His first victim is Carmel Myers (Madame Honon) who divorces her husband to be with him but makes the fatal mistake of walking away without a financial settlement from her ex-husband. Well, that's no good to Barrymore - "see you later". Or maybe that should be "see you never again"! Enter young model Marian Marsh (Trilby). Bingo - she's perfect. The only drawback for Barrymore is that she's in love with smarmy Branwell Fletcher (Billee). The sickly, sweet spelling of his character's name - Billee - tells you everything you need to know about him. Yuck! Anyway, can Barrymore save Marsh from a ghastly life of suffering with sappy Fletcher. Let's hope so, eh......
Barrymore is very entertaining as Svengali. He commands the role and leads the audience through the plot. Marsh is wooden but manages to score more highly than the exaggeratedly over-keen Fletcher. He really is bad. However, he does become more welcome towards the end of the film when he starts to threaten Barrymore by always showing up to concerts. His presence in the audience is enough to trouble the great Barrymore. The film has a supernatural tinge and I love the ending.
It took me 3 goes to watch this film in its entirety. I kept falling asleep. On the 2nd time, I resumed the film from where I had nodded off and guess what? It was the part of the film where Barrymore is hypnotizing Marsh and saying "Go to sleep"! Ha ha. So it works. I got hypnotized through the TV. Goodness knows what I've been up to!
Barrymore is very entertaining as Svengali. He commands the role and leads the audience through the plot. Marsh is wooden but manages to score more highly than the exaggeratedly over-keen Fletcher. He really is bad. However, he does become more welcome towards the end of the film when he starts to threaten Barrymore by always showing up to concerts. His presence in the audience is enough to trouble the great Barrymore. The film has a supernatural tinge and I love the ending.
It took me 3 goes to watch this film in its entirety. I kept falling asleep. On the 2nd time, I resumed the film from where I had nodded off and guess what? It was the part of the film where Barrymore is hypnotizing Marsh and saying "Go to sleep"! Ha ha. So it works. I got hypnotized through the TV. Goodness knows what I've been up to!