This film is an ideal companion piece to Barrymore's other mad manipulator "Svengali". It is just as eerie but unfortunately all but unavailable on the video market. I saw it one time on the late show and it stayed with me all my life. It is really an exaggeration of the relationship between impresario Diaghilev and his protégé Nijinski but it also inspired (is there a better word?) the Powell-Pressburger ballet epic "The Red Shoes". Funny how one story gets around...
Review of The Mad Genius
