SVENGALI / Warner Bros. - 1931

Welcome everbloody, to Wednesday Oldie Moldie B+W Bijou Theater Flicktime, here at the Dungeon... Today's feature is a very nice production from Warner Bros. in 1931, less than 2 years after the introduction of sound in movies!..

John Barrymore (The Great Profile) stars as Maestro Svengali, he falls in love with a 17 year old model, Trilby (Marian Marsh), then hypnotizes her to sing and eventually she marries him! There are even brief flashes of nudity, it's a Pre-Code film! After SVENGALI, Barrymore followed with another similar film the same year, THE MAD GENIUS. Warner Bros. paired him and Marsh in that one too!

Music in Svengali is classical oriented as you will soon hear. Uncredited music director is David Mendoza, he has 94 credits and worked from 1925-46 with titles like SWEET KITTY BELLAIRS, THE NAGGERS AT BREAKFAST, GOING WILD, I LIKE YOUR NERVE, THE MAD GENIUS, KISSING TIME, NO CONTEST!, GYPSIE SWEETHEART, NUTVILLE, MELODY MASTER: RAH, RAH, RADIO.. HIGH, WIDE And HANDSOME, RHYTHMITIS, THE BACKYARD BROADCAST, SHEIK TO SHEIK, TOOT SWEET, ATTIC OF TERROR, STOCKS AND BLONDES, ZERO GIRL, TOYLAND CASINO, THE HUMAN BOMB, PUBLIC JITTERBUG NO. 1 and SEEING RED!.. Great titles!!

So, on wif' da show!.. Tabonga' pet, Ralphie The Tarantula, took vitamins this morning and he say he ready to be pushin' that big old red 'GO' button and start our Eariffic Earclip 4 tudae...

And, he dood it, so here's ...SVENGALI!

Start with Maestro Svengali looking for singer. This lady sound like hurt animal, and it grate on eardrums! Not great... grate!

He tell her she stink!

She get so upset, she drown self in river!.. Story is part comedy.

John can really ham it up here, singing in the tub is a natch!

He look like some kind of psycho Abraham Lincoln!

The super sexy 17 year old art model, Trilby!! Remind Tabonga of back when he was in art school and could smoke in class!

Svengali notice that she gots a beau!

Through telepathic control, he imposes his will on Trilby's mind...

His thoughts travel to her bedroom over Caligari-style miniature sets by great set artist, Anton Grot!

The spell works and she joins him.

Luckily, we get a nice pre-code look at Trilby in art class!!

After the marriage, they tour together...

Trilby and Svengali are followed around by her ex, he knows their schedule because of newspaper announcements.

At the end, Svengali dies in the pulpit and she follows him to the grave!