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Svengali (John Barrymore) is a starving composer in France whose main
raison d'être seems to be to get the money he doesn't earn himself out of
others. Then though he meets lovely model Trilby (Marian Marsh) and falls
for her - and since she is a very open-minded person, she shows some
innocent interest in him as well, especially since he seems to have the
power to make her headaches go away via hypnotism. However, Trilby soon
seriously falls in love with Billy (Bramwell Fletcher), a starving artist
from upstairs, and he responds to her accordingly. The two are already
making plans for their wedding when Billy walks in on one of her modelling
session, finding her posing nude for a group of painters. Trilby never
told Billy she was a nude model becaus she didn't think it that
important, but for him it changes everything, and when he breaks up with
her, it also breaks her heart. In her desperation, Trilby pays a visit to
Svengali, who puts her under his hypnotic spell and fakes her suicide. Five
years later: Svengali has since turned into a successful musical director,
but his greatest asset is of course his wife, a perfect singer - and it's
of course Trilby, who under hypnosis has turned into an opera diva. When
Svengali's tour through Europe makes a stop in Paris, Billy is in the
audience, and he is surprised and almost shocked to see Trilby, whom he
still loves after all, alive and kicking, and he tries to get in touch
with her, but Svengali's power over her is still too great - but it starts
to crumble, because keeping Trilby in line is extremely straining on a
physical level. Billy is determined to get Trilby back, so he follows
Svengali's touring schedule, and every time Svengali spots him in the
audience, he cancels the concert - so after a while, all big concert
promoters drop him and he and Trilby are reduced to perform at a
Cairo-nightclub as an added attraction - but even there, Billy shows up.
Svengali is by now incredibly strained from maintaining the hypnotic
control over Trilby, and from running from Billy, and thus he finally sits
down and talks to the man, promising to set Trilby free after this, his
last performance ... and consequently, Svengali dies on stage during this
performance. This film might not offer too much in story and
what it offers seems to come straight out of a penny dreadful, and it's
rather low on suspense as well - but it's a fascinating film nevertheless,
with John Barrymore giving a compelling performance, a brooding atmosphere
that's maintained throughout, and of course some wonderful, almost
expressionist sets. Well worth watching.
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