The Mad Genius *** (1931, John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, Boris Karloff, Frankie Darro) – Classic Movie Review 12,691

Michael Curtiz’s hysterical, wildly entertaining 1931 Warner Bros drama film The Mad Genius stars John Barrymore as crippled puppeteer who turns a boy into a great ballet dancer who falls in love with a young woman the puppeteer also loves.

‘Sweeping the Screen to New Horizons as the Man Who Thought He Could Play God With Men’s Souls and Women’s Bodies!’

Director Michael Curtiz’s hysterical, wildly entertaining 1931 Warner Bros American pre-Code black and white drama film The Mad Genius stars John Barrymore and Marian Marsh, with Donald Cook and Charles Butterworth co-starring, and Frankie Darro and Boris Karloff (uncredited) in small roles.

It was made and released just before Boris Karloff became a star in the 1931 Frankenstein. Curtiz hired the Camberwell, London-born Karloff because he thought he was Russian!

Produced and released by Warner Bros. the film is based on the 1929 play The Idol by Martin Brown, which was staged in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, but did not make Broadway.

Perhaps The Mad Genius lacks subtlety – it’s impressively stagey and hammy – but it does not lack lusty, campy entertainment value, and Barrymore is priceless in his over the top turn, as usual the most interesting thing in the film. Co-stars Marian Marsh and Donald Cook are nowhere near as interesting.

John Barrymore plays the crippled puppeteer Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov, frustrated he can never dance ballet. So he adopts a runaway protégé, Fedor Ivanoff (Frankie Darro as a boy, Donald Cook as an adult), to make him into the greatest dancer in the world. When Fedor falls in love with young dancer Nana Carlova (Marian Marsh), Tsarakov fears she will ruin Fedor as a dancer, tries to separate them and fires Nana from the ballet troupe. The duo flee to Paris. Of course the puppeteer is also in love with the young woman.

In the 1931 film Svengali, released earlier the same year, Barrymore plays the title character who similarly manipulates the life of woman, a female singer also played by Marsh. Pleased at the box office for Svengali, Warner Bros rushed The Mad Genius into production, and released it on November 7, 1931.

Art director Anton Grot re-creates the visual style of German Expressionist films, and uses muslin ceilings on the sets.

The cast are John Barrymore as Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov, Marian Marsh as Nana Carlova, Charles Butterworth as Karimsky, Donald Cook as Fedor Ivanoff, Luis Alberni as Sergei Bankieff, Carmel Myers as Sonya Preskoya, Andre Luguet as Count Robert Renaud, Frankie Darro as Young Fedor, Mae Madison as Olga Chekova, Harry Wilson, Lee Moran, George Marion, and Boris Karloff (uncredited) as Fedor’s Father.

The Mad Genius is directed by Michael Curtiz, runs 89 minutes, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Harvey F Thew and J Grubb Alexander, based on the play The Idol by Martin Brown, is shot in black and white by Barney McGill, and is scored by David Mendoza, with art direction by Anton Grot.

Release date: 7 November 1931.

It probably broke the bank at Warner Bros. On a budget of $441,000, the box office was $400,000. Hence it was Barrymore’s last film for Warner Bros. Warner Bros had planned the role of Nana for the popular Myrna Loy, which might have given the film a needed box office boost.

David Mendoza conducts the Vitaphone Orchestra.

Adolph Bolm staged the ballet dances. Charles Weidman (uncredited) is the dance double for Donald Cook.

It was made and released just before Boris Karloff became a star over at Universal. In a neat connection, Vladimar talks about creating a dancer from the runaway boy Young Fedor, he mentions Frankenstein monster. The boy’s father is played by Boris Karloff who went on to star as Frankenstein monster in the 1931 Frankenstein. The Mad Genius premiered on 7 November 1931 and Frankenstein premiered on 19 November 1931 (in Detroit, Michigan).

The Mad Genius, Moby Dick (1930) and Svengali (1931) were in litigation until April 1959 because of they were part of the estate of John Barrymore who had a financial interest in them when they were produced. It was first televised in August 1959 but is has remained a rarity till recently, showing on Turner Classic Movies..

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,691

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