Svengooli

Svengali (1931) isn't usually considered a classic horror movie, but I don't know why not. It makes a good one.

We meet Svengali (John Barrymore) in a garret in Paris. He is a music teacher, with long hair, a long pointy nose, and a straggly beard. His vocal student, a middle-aged woman with little talent - she sings the kind of thing you hear in Three Stooges shorts. She then confesses her love, and tells him she has left her husband for him - without taking a cent in settlement. He fixes her with his glowing stare, and throws her out. 

Later, when we find out she has killed herself, Sven and his violinist pal, Gecko (Luis Alberini), decide to go sponge off of some English acquaintances, old artists Donald Crisp and Lumsden Hare. They are having a bath and decide to bathe Svengali as a joke. So they dump him in the tub fully dressed and go to meet their younger (better looking) fellow artist Bramwell Fletcher. 

Sven gets out of the bath and steals one of the artists best suits, right when Trilby (Marian Marsh) waltzes in. She is a model, and seems to be wearing nothing but a military coat. Mistaking Svengali for one of the artists, she poses for him, singing a little air. Svengali decides that, although she can't sing, she has a perfect mouth cavity for a soprano, and decides to make her a star. Meanwhile, Fletcher gets a look at her and falls in love.

Svengali is able to use his burning, hypnotic gaze to make her sing brilliantly. Her debut is a big success, and it really is quite astounding - I wonder who did the vocals for the performance. But Fletcher starts showing up at performances to shame Svengali, causing him to break the concentration needed to control Trilby. He flees across Europe and they wind up performing in an Egyptian cabaret. The hypnosis seems to be taking a toll on Svengali. Also, he has fallen in love with Trilby, which she doesn't reciprocate - unless he commands her under hypnosis, which he says is "just Svengali talking to Svengali".

Directed by Archie Mayo, the movie has a very German Expressionist feel. The sets are full of crooked halls and massive beams at odd angles, with massive shadows. Svengali and Gecko are strangely humorous characters, considering how dangerous Svengali is. Of course, Luis Alberni is always good for a laugh. There's more than a hint that Svengali is a dirty Jew, but never explicit enough to be able to call it anti-Semitic.

More importantly, Marsh never wears the narrow-brimmed hat that took the name of her character Trilby. To bad.