Tag Archives: john barrymore

Retrospective: Svengali (1931)

21 Friday May 2021

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This 90 year old film starring John Barrymore in the titular role was based on the novel Trilby by George du Maurier. It essentially is a tale of a swindler character who lures women to him through the use of hypnosis and profit from their fortune. The term ‘svengali’ actually means someone who can control or mesmerise someone for sinister means.This has left some debate around the categorising of Svengali as a horror film, which admittedly has a thinly veiled occult theme due to Svengali’s abilities, 

We learn that Svengali’s motives are nefarious early on the piece when he cruelly snubs Honori, a young lady that has left her husband to be with him, but with no money or talent for Svengali to sponge off, he influences her into running off and allegedly take her own life.

Barrymore relishes in this cavalier attitude that he carries around with him and brings a larger than life demeanor to his performance that is engaging to watch. This infectious nature is apparent when engaging with the other characters around him, who either shrink away for fear of being controlled or are instantly drawn to him like a moth to a flame.

So when Svengali falls for the young Trilby (Marian Marsh) he decides to manipulate her to his will. Especially when she doesn’t return his love, as she has eyes for another, Billee (Bramwell Fletcher).Once ensnared, Svengali then persuades Trilby to fake her own suicide and reun away with him to Paris.
In Paris they set up a new life and Trilby becomes a successful singer and they both live off the fruits of her success.

Billee meanwhile refuses to give up and continues to pursue them in the hopes that he can win her heart back.

Svengali follows a fairly simple plotline but did win critical approval when it was released, which included an Academy Award nomination for the cinematography and set design. It didn’t, however, resonate with the audience at the time and failed to draw people into the cinemas.
Svengali was also surprisingly dark for its time as there is no happy ending to the film. Instead the movie encircles its leads towards a bleak conclusion. This in part was in kee[ping with the movies of the time, labeled Pre-Code, before there was an official approval process. This allowed some filmmakers to produce some questionably deep subjects for the era, especially moving into crime stories such as Public Enemy. For this, Svengali does stand out along with Barrymore’s performance.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Invisible Woman (1940)

10 Wednesday Jun 2020

Posted by in retrospective, Universal Horror

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiPqzcLgjs0

In 1940 Universal Pictures bookended the calendar year starting with The Invisible Man Returns and then ending with The Invisible Woman.
While the former took on the tone of a crime thriller, the latter took the series in an entirely different direction, comedy.
This would also be an indication of Universal Classic Monsters future, leaning away from the macabre and into humour.

With The Invisible Woman it is indicative of its time when it comes to the bawdy comedy at hand with a little bit of screwball rom com in the mix ala Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, also released in the same year.
Here the two leads that are at odds with one another are wealthy lawyer Richard Russell (John Howard) and Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce), a feisty, smart and determined department store model.
When we meet Kitty, she gets fired from her job for basically speaking her mind and with the promise of money learns of a wild scheme by local scientist, Professor Gibbs (an ageing and always excellent, John Barrymore) who claims that he has invented an invisibility device.
Gibbs in need of a guinea pig gets one in Kitty, who is surprised to see that the mad professor’s invention actually works and what’s more, she can turn it to her advantage and seek revenge on her misogynistic former boss. 

Before long, we’re headlong into a crime caper with a mob boss, Blackie Cole (Oscar Homolka) seeking to use the invisibility device for his own gain. Kitty must use her guile and new-found abilities to stop Cole in his devious plans. 

The Prognosis:

The Invisible Woman is definitely a film for its time and even though some of its subject still resonates today, the style and mode of its delivery may be stifling for some.
I for one welcome this old-school, nostalgic road trip that the 40s delivered to the silver screen enjoying it all the way and for a third instalment, I personally connected with this one more than The Invisible Man Returns.
It would be interesting to see how it would have been handled as a dark comedy. At the time of writing, Elizabeth Banks is set to direct a new version of The Invisible Woman and being a veteran of the comedy and horror scene, it will be interesting to see if she plans to marry these two genres for a modern audience and continue the trend set by Whannell… and it does bode the question, Will we see the return of Elizabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass?

  • Saul Muerte