Svengali - Hypnotic Enslavement as Entertainment

Arguably, the one film that best presented the hypnotic sexual exploitation of a woman was "Svengali." Originally a 1927 German silent film, it was remade in the US in 1931 by Warner Bros, starring John Barrymore as Svengali and Marian Marsh as Trilby, a women covertly taken over by her hypnotist. While somewhat theatrical in its acting and directing, overall it was actually quite an accurate accounting of how an unsuspecting person can be taken over by a devious person through covert hypnotic suggestion.

Warner Bros produced this film in 1931

 

Marian Marsh and John Barrymore in the 1931 hypnosis film, "Svengali."

 

Svengali (1931)

 
 
The Notion That Mortal Man Would Ever Dare Enslave a Beautiful Woman as a Sexual Slave...
 

This dark themed movie became strangely popular and was actually remade in 1954 by MGM studios, this time with Hildegarde Neff playing the role of Trilby.

 

MGM Remade this film in 1954

 

Svengali clip (1954)

 
 

1927 German Original

 

Svengali was first produced as a 1927 German silent drama film directed by Gennaro Righelli and starring Paul Wegener, Anita Dorris and André Mattoni. It is an adaptation of the novel Trilby by the British writer George Du Maurier about an artist's model who falls under the spell of a mysticist who turns her into a leading opera singer.

Cast
Paul Wegener - Svengali
Anita Dorris - Trilby
André Mattoni - Maler Billy
Teddy Bill - Maler Leard
Hans Brausewetter - Maler Taffy
Paul Biensfeldt - Modell Martine
Alexander Granach - Geiger Gecko
Alice Torning - Martines Frau
Hertha von Walther - Tänzerin Sascha
Irma Green - Studentin
Hermann Picha - Caféhauswirt
Emil Heyse