I'm not a believer in telepathic communication, so the plot had a strike or two against it from the start. The film has an uneven tone in that there is too much comedy in the first part due mostly to John Barrymore (he's a terrible ham, although fun at times). Considering he caused the suicide of one of his pupils, it somehow seemed out of place. Perhaps it was to show how sinister and unfeeling he was, but it didn't work for me. After Svengali meets Trilby, there was almost no comedy. The acting of the two protagonists, Marion Marsh and Bramwell Fletcher was passable, but not exceptional. However, the sets and photography were splendid. There's one sequence that stood out for me. It starts with an extreme close-up of Barrymore's eyes with those cups in them to make it eerie, as he starts his telepathic communication with Marsh. The camera pulls back through a window until the entire house is in view and then moves laterally past several houses until Marsh's house is in view. It moves slowly through her window until we see her in close-up, and she awakens. The camera expressed the idea of telepathy beautifully, and nothing was ever out of focus.
Svengali
(1931)
A fantasy weak in plot and acting, but with splendid sets and photography.
13 October 1998