Trailer
Plot summary
Svengali and Gecko share rooms in Paris, where Svengali gives singing lessons. A singer he instructs tells him she has left her husband and will take no money from him; his fixed stare drives her from the room. Svengali and Gecko go to the studio of the English artists the Laird, Taffy and Billee, looking for a meal. On their way out they meet Trilby, a milkmaid and artist's model. Svengali takes an interest in her, while she gives her heart to Billee. Pretending to cure a headache, he puts her into a hypnotic state, and from then on his thoughts alone hold power over her. Billee sees her posing nude for a group of artists, and they quarrel.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Svengali (1931)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Warner Bros. initially wanted Evelyn Laye for the role of Trilby, but accounts differ on why she did not take it, citing either a return to England or exhaustion and sanitarium treatment; after testing many candidates including big names, the studio hired relative unknown Marian Marsh.
- John Barrymore cabled his ideas for the film to Warner Bros. from his yacht, specifying that Svengali "must be funny and get lots of laughs."
- The script was unfinished when filming began: screenwriter J. Grubb Alexander wrote the scenes one at a time, according to daily production notes from the Warner Bros. shoot.
- On February 14 the production moved to Universal City, where Warner Bros. rented Universal's Phantom Stage, originally used for The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
