Svengali is a drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

/horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 starring John Barrymore

John Barrymore

John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...

, Marian Marsh

Marian Marsh

Marian Marsh was an American film actress, and later, environmentalist.-Early life:Violet Ethelred Krauth was born on October 17, 1913 in Trinidad, British West Indies , the youngest of four children of a German chocolate manufacturer and his French-English wife.Due to World War I, Violet's...

, and Bramwell Fletcher

Bramwell Fletcher

Bramwell Fletcher was a British stage, film, and television actor....

, directed by Archie Mayo

Archie Mayo

Archie Mayo was a movie director and stage actor who moved to Hollywood in 1915 and began working as a director in 1917....

, written by J. Grubb Alexander

J. Grubb Alexander

Joseph Grubb Alexander was an American screenwriter of the silent era. He wrote for 98 films between 1916 and 1932....

, and released by Warner Brothers. It is based on the gothic

Gothic fiction

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...

 horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 novel Trilby

Trilby (novel)

Trilby is a novel by George du Maurier and one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle after Bram Stoker's Dracula. Published serially in Harper's Monthly in 1894, it was published in book form in 1895 and sold 200,000 copies in the United...

(1894) by George du Maurier

George du Maurier

George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...

. The film was originally released on May 22, 1931. Warner Brothers was so pleased by the box office on this film that the studio hurriedly reteamed Barrymore and Marsh for another horror film The Mad Genius

The Mad Genius

The Mad Genius is a drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, and in small roles, Boris Karloff and Frankie Darro. The film is based on the play The Idol by Martin Brown, which opened in Great Neck, New York but never opened...

, released on November 7, 1931. The region 1

DVD region code

DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

 DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 of Svengali was released on October 17, 2000 by the Roan Group.

Plot

The ending of the novel is changed in this film to a highly dramatic one by having Trilby die after Svengali is stricken with a fatal heart attack, instead of dying of a mysterious illness a few days later. She faints after he collapses in the stage box, but Svengali revives long enough to gasp, "Oh God, grant me in death what you denied me in life- the woman I love". Trilby then dies, followed by Svengali. In the film Billee survives.

Cast (in credits order)

• John Barrymore
  John Barrymore
  John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
  
   as Svengali
• Marian Marsh
  Marian Marsh
  Marian Marsh was an American film actress, and later, environmentalist.-Early life:Violet Ethelred Krauth was born on October 17, 1913 in Trinidad, British West Indies , the youngest of four children of a German chocolate manufacturer and his French-English wife.Due to World War I, Violet's...
  
   as Trilby O'Farrell
• Donald Crisp
  Donald Crisp
  Donald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
  
   as The Laird
• Bramwell Fletcher
  Bramwell Fletcher
  Bramwell Fletcher was a British stage, film, and television actor....
  
   as Billee
• Carmel Myers
  Carmel Myers
  Carmel Myers was an American actress who worked chiefly in silent movies.Myers was born in San Francisco, the daughter of an Australian rabbi and Austrian Jewish mother. Her father became well-connected with California's emerging film industry, and introduced her to film pioneer D. W. Griffith,...
  
   as Madame Honori
• Luis Alberni as Gecko
• Lumsden Hare
  Lumsden Hare
  Lumsden Hare was an Irish born film and theatre actor. He was also a theatre director and theatrical producer....
  
   as Monsieur Taffy
• Paul Porcasi
  Paul Porcasi
  Paul Porcasi was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 142 films between 1917 and 1945.He was born in Palermo, Sicily and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Broadway...
  
   as Bonelli

Awards

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Art Direction

Academy Award for Best Art Direction

The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...

 by Anton Grot

Anton Grot

Anton Grot was a Polish art director. He was born in Kelbasin, Poland and died in Stanton, California.-Awards:Grot was nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Art Direction:* The Sea Hawk...

, and one for Best Cinematography

Academy Award for Best Cinematography

The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

by Barney McGill.