The Mad Genius is a drama film directed by Michael Curtiz

Michael Curtiz

Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early creditsas Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész...

 and 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...

, Donald Cook

Donald Cook (actor)

Donald Cook was an American stage and film actor.Born in Portland, Oregon, he originally studied farming but later started business with a lumber company. He joined the Kansas Community Players and through this received an offer of stage work...

, Charles Butterworth

Charles Butterworth (actor)

Charles Butterworth was an American actor specializing in comedy roles, often in musicals. In his obituary, he was described as "the man who could not make up his mind". Butterworth's distinct voice was the inspiration for the Cap'n Crunch commercials from the Jay Ward studio...

, and in small roles, Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff

William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...

 and Frankie Darro

Frankie Darro

Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist.-Early life:Darro...

. The film is based on the play The Idol (1929) by Martin Brown, which opened in Great Neck, New York

Great Neck, New York

The term Great Neck is commonly applied to a peninsula on the North Shore of Long Island, which includes the village of Great Neck, the village of Great Neck Estates, the village of Great Neck Plaza, and others, as well as an area south of the peninsula near Lake Success and the border of Queens...

 but never opened on Broadway.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 was so pleased by the box office returns for Svengali

Svengali (1931 film)

Svengali is a drama/horror film starring John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, and Bramwell Fletcher, directed by Archie Mayo, written by J. Grubb Alexander, and released by Warner Brothers. It is based on the gothic horror novel Trilby by George du Maurier. The film was originally released on May 22, 1931...

(1931), also starring Barrymore and Marsh, that they rushed The Mad Genius into production, and released it on 7 November 1931.

The Mad Genius tells the story of an itinerant puppeteer (Barrymore) running the life of a male ballet dancer (Cook), as opposed to Svengali, where Svengali (Barrymore) ran the life of a female singer (Marsh).

Cast

• 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 Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov
• 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 Nana Carlova
• Charles Butterworth
  Charles Butterworth
  Charles Butterworth, Ph.D. is a noted philosopher of the Straussian school and currently a professor of political philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park....
  
   as Karimsky
• Donald Cook
  Donald Cook (actor)
  Donald Cook was an American stage and film actor.Born in Portland, Oregon, he originally studied farming but later started business with a lumber company. He joined the Kansas Community Players and through this received an offer of stage work...
  
   as Fedor Ivanoff
• Luis Alberni as Sergei Bankieff
• 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 Sonya Preskoya
• Andre Luguet
  André Luguet
  André Luguet was a French film actor. He appeared in over 120 films between 1910 and 1970.He was born in Fontenay-sous-Bois, France and died in Cannes, France.-Selected filmography:* The Mad Genius...
  
   as Count Robert Renaud
• Frankie Darro
  Frankie Darro
  Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist.-Early life:Darro...
  
  as Young Fedor