That's what Groucho Marx said in "A Day At The Races", and I wonder if John Barrymore's Svengali was one of his inspirations for that line. Seriously, with that thing, it took me about half an hour to realize that this wasn't intended as a comedy. There is one traveling shot, where the camera circles around Svengali and then flies outside his house and into the house of Trilby, which is genuinely impressive, and the "hypnotizing eyes" effects are successful, but the story is slow-as-molasses, and Barrymore's performance doesn't date well; it constantly calls attention to itself, as if it's the performance that matters and not the film that it serves. ** out of 4.
Review of Svengali
