THE MAD GENIUS: a RETROSPECT to John Barrymore
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Warners’ Edward G. Robinson, will now go THE MAD GENIUS: A RETROSPECT to John Barrymore. No reason is given for the switch, but surely Warners, delighted by By Greg Mank Svengali, wants a follow-up similar in style and scope. For 1931 moviegoers, beholding At Last! Barrymore on the screen is akin to 2010 audi- The Great John BARRYMORE ences watching a rock star—a crazy, unbridled At His Zenith! talent, shooting off sparks of what Greta Garbo –Warner Bros. Publicity for later hailed as the man’s “divine madness.” The Mad Genius, 1931 Barrymore himself had discussed film- ing Hamlet for Warner Bros., but The Genius Monday, March 9, 1931. impressed the studio as the perfect vehicle Bella Vista is an estate, almost fairy- to follow Svengali—fresh enough to avoid tale in its extravagance, nestled on a seeming a carbon copy, and melodramatic mountain in Beverly Hills. In the pre-dawn enough to allow the star to explode in his darkness, the virtual castle, with a tower, frenetic fashion. pools, and aviary, glistens under a waning While Svengali traced back to George Du full moon. The entranceway gate bears a Maurier’s venerable 1894 novel Trilby, many coat of arms, personally designed by Bella stage productions, and at least three film Vista’s master and revealing his repellent versions, The Genius has no such pedigree. Marian Marsh as Trilby and John Barrymore as the title character in Svengali self-image: a serpent wearing a crown. (1931). Warner Bros.’ high hopes for this film’s popularity inspired production It’s based on a Broadway-bound play by As the master arises, he probably doesn’t of The Mad Genius. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) Martin Brown entitled The Idol, which had wash—he rarely does. More likely he climbs starred William Farnum in the summer of his tower and looks at the view of the moonlit Of course, it could never live up to the Svengali. The buzz around Hollywood insists 1929 and had ignobly died out of town. The Pacific. Maybe, as is his custom, he visits his delirious hype—yet in many ways, The Mad that John Barrymore is delivering his mas- basic difference from Svengali is its modern aviary of over 2,000 birds and greets Ma- Genius is a truly fascinating film. Released terpiece screen performance. The company 1931 setting—and a sex change. Rather than loney, his king vulture from South Africa. late in 1931, the legendary year of Lugosi’s has fervently burst into applause at some Svengali hypnotizing a young milkmaid into He often feeds breakfast to Maloney in the Dracula, Karloff’s Frankenstein, Fredric of his scenes. His “Trilby,” Marian Marsh, becoming a great diva, Tsarakov—a genius garden—dangling worms from his mouth March’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Barry- is delivering a breakout star portrayal—at with a clubfoot—transforms a young male for Maloney to fly down, snare, and enjoy. more’s own Svengali, this uber-melodrama least according to the Warner publicists. And waif, Fedor, into the ballet star he himself Only one problem: The liquor frequently on is rich in blessings. It boasts a picturesque Dracula, Universal’s vampire shocker star- might have been, if not for his deformity. the master’s breath, even in the morning, leading lady in Marian Marsh (fresh from ring Bela Lugosi, has just opened three days Warner Bros. blueprinted The Genius as intoxicates Maloney. One of the strangest Svengali) and stylish direction by Michael previously at Broadway’s Roxy Theatre and almost a Svengali alumnae reunion: spectacles in Hollywood, as described by the Curtiz (prior to his work on Doctor X and is a giant hit—surely good news for Svengali. Marian Marsh, 17-year-old discovery master’s servants, is the sight of a drunken Mystery of the Wax Museum). Also in evi- The New York Times of February 15 an- who was playing Trilby in Svengali, was cast vulture flying crookedly over Bella Vista. dence are splendid Expressionistic sets (by nounces that The Genius, originally slated for as Nana, the ballet dancer who runs afoul of He might behold his many treasures, such Anton Grot, also of Svengali), dashes as the black copper armor he wore as Richard of racy pre-Code humor, a dope ad- III, or his dinosaur egg. He might say good diction subplot, and a spectacularly morning to the angelically blonde Dolores, his wild and wicked finale that offered former leading lady and third wife, whom he the star a magnificently over-the-top affectionately calls “Jiggie- Wink.” Although a death scene. There’s even a bonus stained glass window at Bella Vista presents curio: Boris Karloff, only months the couple almost as archangels, she’s a tor- ebrated “Great Profile,” which he favors as Svengali, is happy to be playing yet an- away from Frankenstein, stalking ment to him, as most of the ladies in his life in his films. When he looks full-face into a other epic villain as he arrives at Warner Bros. through the rainy night opening in have been, all the way back to the stepmother camera, the effect is startling, mainly due to Studio, 5858 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. a menacing, unbilled bit. who seduced him when he was ten. Rumors his eyes—like the eyes one sees in paintings There he will begin work this morning on Most of all, The Mad Genius is a of Dolores’s promiscuity so agonize him that of the saints, and in photographs of serial what will be his final film there. baroque, John Barrymore feast day— he’s actually placed bars on the windows. killers. At 49, he’s still a very striking man, The release title film: The Mad Genius. Hollywood’s most Byronic actor on the Long after his death, Dolores will live on an and currently “on the wagon,” more or less. loose, complete with a clubfoot. avocado ranch, oblivious to the fact that her ex- A chronic alcoholic since age 14, he’s never Once…ONLY ONCE In The Life Why was it produced? What husband’s prized ancient religious icons—that fully abstinent, and there are the Prohibition of Every Star Comes a Picture So happened behind the scenes of its she’d snared when they divorced—were now mornings and nights when, with no liquor Great—It Remains his Outstanding bizarre, abbreviated shooting? And forsaken in her flooded cellar. available, he drinks Dolores’s perfume. Screen Triumph…. No Matter How why did the 1931 public, in love with He might or might not visit his baby His driver takes him into Hollywood, Many Great Successes Precede or monsters, ultimately reject it? daughter “Dede”; he’d desperately wanted for which he has coined many irreverent Follow. For twenty years John BAR- a son and has jocularly described his child nicknames—including “Hollywoodus-in- RYMORE has been waiting for the He’ll thrill you as a madman. Bramwell Fletcher (well remembered by horror fans as the archaeologist to the press as looking “a little like Lon Latrina” and “The Flatulent Cave of the story that would give full expression Sear your soul as a genius! who goes mad in The Mummy) as Little Billee, with Marian Marsh’s Trilby Chaney.” He dresses habitually in his bat- Winds.” The actor who’d played Hamlet as to his genius…to make his supreme —Warner Bros. publicity and John Barrymore’s Svengali. Fletcher would marry Barrymore’s daughter Diana in 1942. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) tered Homburg hat, rakishly cocked over (in his own words) “a ranting, pious pervert” contribution to posterity. It has come one eye, and a long, dirty sashed overcoat; and had reveled on screen as Dr. Jekyll and at last with The MAD GENIUS. February 15, 1931. Warner Bros. studio makeup men will tend to his cel- Mr. Hyde, Captain Ahab, and, most recently, —Warner Bros. publicity, 1931 has a week of shooting left to complete 36 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #28 WINTER 2011 37 and abetted (as is Marian for his directorial virtuosity and mangling Marsh) by a dance double. of the English language. Then there’s Adolph Bolm, “The next time I send a no good son of famed Russian ballet direc- a bitch to do something, I go myself!” once tor, who had danced in the ranted Curtiz. 1922 experimental filmDanse Svengali wraps at Warners on Febru- Macabre. Bolm will stage “The ary 21, 1931. Only 16 days later, The Genius Spirit of the Factory” in tune begins shooting. to Mossolov’s “In a Soviet Iron Foundry” as the musi- He Creates the Frankenstein cal highlight of the film. But That Destroys Him! the major new face—and a —Warner Bros. publicity rather glowering one it is— is the director. Rather than Svengali’s chubby, practical The company call on March 9 is for joke-playing Archie Mayo, 8:30 a.m. The set is the Marionette Tent, the man in charge is Warners’ on Stage 7 at the original Warner Studio formidable Hungarian wolf- on Sunset Boulevard. hound Michael Curtiz—fated On time are Charles Butterworth (as to win an Oscar® for Casa- Karimsky, Tsarakov’s comic hanger-on), E. blanca and become a legend Percival Wetzel’s puppet troupe, and Barry- Warner Bros. believed Marian Marsh would become a major star via Svengali and The Mad Genius. (Courtesy of Photofest) Tsarakov as she falls in love with Fedor. She’s Marian Marsh, who bore a strong resemblance to blonde, lovely, and—as everyone remarks— Barrymore’s wife, Dolores Costello, had very happy greatly resembles Dolores Costello Barrymore.