Donald Wolfit was a last-minute replacement for actor Robert Newton, who left three weeks into filming and can still be seen in some long shots.[2][3][4]
Plot
After being fired from working as a barmaid in Paris bar, Trilby O'Ferrall is hired by the sculptor Durian as a model. She encounters three British painters living next door, including the sensitive Billy Bagot with whom she gradually falls in love. She also encounters the street musician Svengali, but does not much like him. Billy wants to marry Trilby, but his wealthy family do not approve. He is also distressed when he discovers her posing nude for a class of art students. He is knocked down in the street by a carriage and suffers from ill health, returning to London.
In the meantime, Svengali takes control of Trilby's life, after he is able to cure her of a headache. Despite the fact that previously she has only been able to badly sing the parlour song "Alice, Where Art Thou?" which she learnt from her Irish father, he now coaches her and transforms her into a magnificent opera singer by his mesmerising technique. She becomes an international success, performing in capitals across Europe and led by the domineering Svengali she forgets Billy completely. However, when he attends a performance of hers in London, the spell is shattered and instead of performing classical opera to the expectant crowd she sings "Alice, Where Are Thou?" in her old voice.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Svengali is a fairly faithful screen adaptation of du Maurier's Trilby, and is very handsomely dressed, mainly following the author's original illustrations ... Hildegarde Neff's Trilby is handsome but spiritless, and her Irish accent is doubtful, while Terence Morgan makes a colourless hero. Donald Wolfit, however, is most successfully cast as Svengali. To match the splendidly macabre appearance intended by du Maurier, he gives a performance of uninhibited bravura, with moments even of grandeur. To have managed, in addition, touches of pathos is a praiseworthy achievement. Unfortunately, however, the script and direction do not match up to this one performance; and, fairly or not, du Maurier's story re-appears in this version as a badly dated, over-coloured and somewhat tedious melodrama."[5]
Under the heading, "Sixth Filming of Novel Fails to Hypnotize", The New York Times critic described the film as "a stylized curio that seems out of place in the atomic age [...] as old-fashioned as side whiskers and bustles".[6]
Variety called the film "a heavy, sombre and dated melodrama."[7]
Kine Weekly wrote: Hildegarde Neff, skilfully dubbed by Madame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, [...] has beauty and intelligence as Trilby, and Terence Morgan is a handsome, perfectly-mannered, though somewhat ingenuous, Billy. The rest, too, are first rate. There is no conscious striving for effect, but even so the story steadily builds up to a spellbinding climax in which music plays an important part. Moreover, its lavish décor cleverly captures the spirit and the mood of its gaslight period.”[8]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Flatulent remake which does have the virtue of following the original book illustrations but is otherwise unpersuasive."[9]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959David Quinlan rated the film as “average” and wrote: “Wolfit’s chew-the-scenery style suited to this role, but otherwise unsuccessful.''[10]
DVD Talk, comparing it to the 1931 John Barrymore version posited that "the 1954 British film fleshes out the characters of Trilby and Billy considerably and adds a lot of color and subtlety, but the results suggest that a more flamboyant approach might have worked better than the lush but tame version that resulted. The Eastmancolor production aims for an evocative atmosphere akin to John Huston's gorgeous Moulin Rouge (1952), photographed in Technicolor by Oswald Morris. Svengali was made on a fraction of that film's budget, though does look handsome for what it is."[3]
References
^"Svengali". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
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