Rating: 3/5
— Do you know what we did last? — Don’t you remember? — I’m, uh, referring to the music Svengali (John Barrymore) is a musician who can manipulate people. He often uses it to get money, but when he meets Trilby (Marian Marsh), he uses his hypnosis to control her and make him a singer for his performances.
Trilby is a model looking for work. She shows off her feet, and Billie falls in love with her. But Billie is heartbroken when he sees Trilby modeling nude for a painting.
He believes that Trilby has left him, but Svengali has taken Trilby as his wife and given her a new identity.
Svengali gains and loses control over Trilby, but he can’t seem to make her love him.
Barrymore’s prosthetic nose is giving Bradley Cooper in Maestro. Supposedly, they stripped the Jewish association with Svengali, but that’s false.
The sets have strange dimensions, feeling close to German Expressionism but with less dramatic lighting.
Being Pre-Code, we see a fair bit of Marian Marsh’s legs and feet. It’s hard to justify in some places — they just wanted to look at her feet.
This movie is complicated to appreciate because of its antisemitism. Svengali’s control over Trilby, however, made me think of producers who controlled young actresses in Hollywood by hooking them on heroin (see Judy Garland). That icky feeling gave this movie some power, however unearned it may be.
That Maestro reference is going to date this review fast.