The Mad Genius (1931) is an American pre-Code drama film[3] produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and directed by Michael Curtiz. The film stars John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, and in small roles, Boris Karloff and Frankie Darro. The film is based on the play The Idol (1929) by Martin Brown, which opened in Great Neck, Long Island but never opened on Broadway.[4]
| The Mad Genius | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
| Written by | Harvey Thew J. Grubb Alexander |
| Based on | The Idol 1929 play by Martin Brown |
| Starring | John Barrymore Marian Marsh Donald Cook Charles Butterworth |
| Cinematography | Barney McGill |
| Edited by | Ralph Dawson |
| Music by | David Mendoza conducting the Vitaphone Orchestra |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $441,000[1] |
| Box office | $400,000[2] |
Plot
editA crippled puppeteer, Ivan Tsarakov (Barrymore), is frustrated that he will never dance ballet. He adopts a protégé, Fedor Ivanoff (Darro as a child, Cook as an adult), whom he makes into the greatest dancer in the world. Fedor falls in love with a dancer, Nana Carlova (Marsh), but Tsarakov fears that she will ruin Fedor as a dancer. He tries to separate them and ultimately fires Nana from the ballet troupe. Fedor runs away with Nana to Paris, but Tsarakov has blacklisted him, and he cannot get ballet jobs and is reduced to working in a cabaret. Nana begs Tsarakov to give Fedor his job back. Tsarakov agrees, if Nana will leave Fedor and marry another man; she agrees. Fedor returns embittered; he sees Nana on opening night and realizes that she still loves him; he refuses to dance. Tsarakov threatens to kill him, but the ballet master, under the influence of drugs that Tsarakov has given him, kills Tsarakov. Fedor is reunited with Nana.
In the film Svengali, released earlier the same year, Barrymore played the title character who similarly manipulated the life of a female singer, also played by Marsh.
Cast
edit- 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
Production
editWarner Bros. was so pleased by the box office returns for Svengali (1931), also starring Barrymore and Marsh, that they rushed The Mad Genius into production, and released it on November 7, 1931.
Box Office
editAccording to Warner Bros., the film earned $278,000 domestically and $122,000 foreign.[1]
Preservation
editThe film survives complete. It is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 13 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
- ^ John Sedgwick, Mike Pokorny, "Hollywood’s foreign earnings during the 1930s", 83 TRAC 1 (1) pp. 83–97 Intellect Limited 2010 p92
- ^ "The Mad Genius (1931) - Genre - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
- ^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films 1893-1993:The Mad Genius
- ^ Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress, () p. 109 c.1978 by The American Film Institute
External links
edit- The Mad Genius at IMDb
- The Mad Genius at the TCM Movie Database
- The Mad Genius at AllMovie
- The Mad Genius at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- trailer available for free download at Internet Archive