Film Snail

Svengali
Svengali

5.9

Svengali

NR·1954·100m

Summary

A man hypnotizes a young woman into being an opera singer.

Crew

Director, Screenplay

Noel Langley

Novel

George du Maurier

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

November 21, 2022

5

A better example of over-acting you will struggle to find in this overly theatrical adaptation of George Du Maurier's 1894 novel "Trilby". Hildegard Knef is a young, impressionable, girl who falls under the spell of the almost Rasputin-esque Donald Wolfit in the title role. He hypnotises her to rid her of pesky headaches, and give her the voice of an angel - and soon she becomes an international star of the opera. Robert Newton was originally slated for the lead, but I can't imagine he could have done better than Wolfit, who has the maniacal look (eyes, especially) and pithy dialogue down to a T. The support from Terence Morgan - as her much younger beau "Billee Bagot", Paul Rogers, David Kossoff and the truly wonderful singing of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf keep this entertaining enough, but the staging and style are just to limiting to let this version of a really menacing and evocative story soar.

Media

No Videos to show.

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

paris, france
mannequin
painter