I'm sure you know, or have heard of, those parents who live vicariously through their children. They could be athletes who had their careers cut short due to injury, actors who never made it big, or simply a parent who has big dreams for their children in some other profession. Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov (John Barrymore) had such dreams for his adopted son, Fedor Ivanoff (Donald Cook).
Vladimar was born with a lame leg therefore he could never become the dancer he desired to be. Instead he made wooden dummies and made them dance by pulling the right strings. When he saw a young Fedor running away from his abusive father/guardian/boss he saw in Fedor the dancer he always pined to be.
Vladimar poured his heart, soul, ambitions, and obsession into Fedor and Fedor accepted it all. He was the greatest ballet dancer in all of Russia, if not the world.
Vladimar saw trouble on the horizon when Fedor fell in love with another dancer named Nana Carlova (Marian Marsh). For Fedor to remain great he could love nothing but dancing. Women were fine for recreation and relief, but they were not to be fallen in love with. No matter how hard Vladimar tried to impress that upon Fedor, he still fell in love, and Nana loved him.
Then Vladimar tried something that he had to reasonably expect to fail. He tried to chase off Nana in hopes that with her out of the picture Fedor could refocus on dancing. Maybe it's my years of movie watching or common sense, but once a person is in love, simply removing the object of that love does not refocus the individual in love. Out of sight, out of mind does not work in the case of love. If anything, you only cause angst, pain, and longing which is probably worse than the lack of commitment from the individual.
So, Vladimar caused himself a worse problem by trying to get rid of Nana because, as I suspected, Fedor went with Nana. He was in love, so if she had to leave, he was leaving. Vladimar was so convinced of his own wisdom and knowledge that he suffered under the weight of his own hubris.
"Mad Genius" was one of the better movies dealing with obsession--particularly the obsession of the artist. John Barrymore was wonderful in the role of Vladimar although the character reminded of his role as Svengali. Both were older, bearded foreigners and he employed the same accent for both. They were also both obsessed (Svengali with a woman and Vladimar with dancing), into arts (Svengali was a conductor), and controlled someone else (Svengali used hypnotism while Vladimar used his position). Coincidentally Marian Marsh was also in the movie "Svengali" alongside John Barrymore. "Mad Genius" and "Svengali" were eerily similar, but just different enough to set them remarkably apart.
Free on Daily Motion.
Vladimar was born with a lame leg therefore he could never become the dancer he desired to be. Instead he made wooden dummies and made them dance by pulling the right strings. When he saw a young Fedor running away from his abusive father/guardian/boss he saw in Fedor the dancer he always pined to be.
Vladimar poured his heart, soul, ambitions, and obsession into Fedor and Fedor accepted it all. He was the greatest ballet dancer in all of Russia, if not the world.
Vladimar saw trouble on the horizon when Fedor fell in love with another dancer named Nana Carlova (Marian Marsh). For Fedor to remain great he could love nothing but dancing. Women were fine for recreation and relief, but they were not to be fallen in love with. No matter how hard Vladimar tried to impress that upon Fedor, he still fell in love, and Nana loved him.
Then Vladimar tried something that he had to reasonably expect to fail. He tried to chase off Nana in hopes that with her out of the picture Fedor could refocus on dancing. Maybe it's my years of movie watching or common sense, but once a person is in love, simply removing the object of that love does not refocus the individual in love. Out of sight, out of mind does not work in the case of love. If anything, you only cause angst, pain, and longing which is probably worse than the lack of commitment from the individual.
So, Vladimar caused himself a worse problem by trying to get rid of Nana because, as I suspected, Fedor went with Nana. He was in love, so if she had to leave, he was leaving. Vladimar was so convinced of his own wisdom and knowledge that he suffered under the weight of his own hubris.
"Mad Genius" was one of the better movies dealing with obsession--particularly the obsession of the artist. John Barrymore was wonderful in the role of Vladimar although the character reminded of his role as Svengali. Both were older, bearded foreigners and he employed the same accent for both. They were also both obsessed (Svengali with a woman and Vladimar with dancing), into arts (Svengali was a conductor), and controlled someone else (Svengali used hypnotism while Vladimar used his position). Coincidentally Marian Marsh was also in the movie "Svengali" alongside John Barrymore. "Mad Genius" and "Svengali" were eerily similar, but just different enough to set them remarkably apart.
Free on Daily Motion.