Svengali (1931)

A singing teacher (John Barrymore) with a disreputable reputation has hypnotic powers. He takes an ordinary girl (Marian Marsh) and by hypnotizing her is able to turn her into famous singer. But it devils him no end to know her heart belongs to another man (Bramwell Fletcher). Based on the 1894 novel TRILBY by George Du Maurier, this may be an uneven film (to put it mildly) but it contains one of Barrymore's best film performances. One can almost smell the stink coming off of him. He even manages to bring a a touch of pathos to his sinister maestro. As a stage actor, Barrymore was a legend but his film career is spotty and here, one can see a bit why he was considered one of the great actors of the American stage. As Trilby, Marian Marsh is lovely and charming but its Barrymore who fascinates us. As cinema, it's pretty hoary and the director Archie Mayo can't quite hold our interest when Barrymore isn't around (which fortunately isn't very often). With Donald Crisp and Luis Alberni.