The Mad Genius. 1931. USA. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Screenplay by Harvey Thew, based on the play The Idol by Martin Brown. With John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, Frankie Darro. 35mm. 89 min.
It was based on a play, but The Mad Genius arrived on screen bearing a marked resemblance to Svengali, also made at Warner Bros. earlier in the same year, in which Marian Marsh played the doomed Trilby to John Barrymore’s indelible version of the title role. The lesser-known Mad Genius is still a good film, propelled by the delirious visual daring of director Michael Curtiz and cinematographer Barney McGill. Marsh couldn’t dance, but her blend of dewy innocence and tensile strength gave her ballerina character unexpected interest. Warner was grooming Marsh for stardom, but the back-breaking pace at the studio wore her down to the point that she left for Columbia Studios. There she did have some leads—including one in Josef von Sternberg’s version of Crime and Punishment (1935)—but, having stepped off the merry-go-round, she found it hard to climb back on. Marsh finished her career in low-budget efforts, and she retired in 1942.