Svengali (fictional character)
A Svengali is a person in the background who strongly influences or even manipulates another person, such as an influential manager the artist he oversees. In Anglo-Saxon countries in particular, the term is often used for a puller with bad intentions.
The expression comes from the character of the same name in the horror story Trilby by George du Maurier from 1894, in which the completely unmusical girl Trilby is transformed into a singing diva by the demonic musical genius Svengali under hypnosis. Some films were made based on this model, including a. several silent films (some with the title Trilby ), in 1927 a film of the same name with Paul Wegener (director: Gennaro Righelli ) and in 1931 with John Barrymore as Svengali (director: Archie Mayo ). In 1954 Donald Wolfit played him in Svengali (director: Noel Langley , with Hildegard Knef ) and in 1983 in a television film of the same name in Peter O'Toole (director: Anthony Harvey , with Jodie Foster ).
The Svengali deck is a specially manipulated card game in the art of magic in which the viewer always draws the same card.