THE MAD GENIUS was shot in March 1931. Seeing it apart from SVENGALI, it is a modest and modestly successful picture.  Nowadays it is even regarded as a horror cult classic, although personally I fail to see any horror in the film myself!  Seeing it immediately after SVENGALI, its already modest virtues are diminished.  Most of the production crew is the same, although instead of ARCHIE MAYO, MICHAEL CURTIZ directs.  The sets are again by ANTON GROT. There was also Gordon Hollingshead, assistant director and Barrymore's personal friend, who has been assistant director for 11 Barrymore features.

WARNER BROS. had paid $15,000 to MARTIN BROWN for the rights to THE IDOL (also known as TSARKOV) but credits list the Russian play by DISKOY as the source. Based in some respects upon the life and work of SERGE DIAGHILEFF, world famous master of the Russian Ballet, the character is nevertheless a fictitious creation.  Tsarkov, the BARRYMORE character, does not have SVENGALI's hypnotic powers but otherwise is virtually the same character in a slightly different situation. The object of Barrymore's domination is switched from a female singer to a male dancer.

With the change in sex it is logical to ask if the BARRYMORE character's obsession is homosexual.  In fact, TSARKOV is portrayed as aggresively heterosexual.  Though totally contradictory to the general plotline or other characteristics of TSARKOV, BARRYMORE once again plays him as a Casanova.  He lecherously tells young dancers to come to his office at three o'clock and he'll make them stars.  On being kissed, he tells them to come at two-thirty.

CANADIAN CAPERS!

In 3 of John's talking pictures, he has tried without success to incorporate into the incidental music his favourite popular music, an ancient recording known as "CANADIAN CAPERS."  He was with difficulty persuaded that it could not be incorporated into the music used for the ballet scene. 

There is a less well authenticated story that Barrymore once answered a woman who asked him if he would play HAMLET in modern clothes, by saying, "No madam, but I might play King Lear in the nude."

BUTTERWORTH WRITES HIS OWN "MAD GENIUS" LINES - No one ever attempts to write lines for CHARLES BUTTERWORTH.  The blank faced comedian has the happy knack of supplying dialogue for his roles as he goes along.  He is practically the only comedian in the business who is given this privilege.

BARRYMORE's make-up is not as baroque as it was in SVENGALI.  But the costumes are identically romantic, sometimes simply identical: black tie, black top hat, long black coat with fur collar. 

"SMOKE" KRING, wardrobe expert and who has served Barrymore for 12 features, keeps a mental file of every costume Barrymore has worn in a picture.  Barrymore never forgets a garment used in a picture and frequently wants the same one for some new production.  This happened in MOBY DICK when the star demanded the same old pea jacket that he had used 5 years before in THE SEA BEAST and again in SVENGALI when he wanted the ragged robe made of a paisley shawl, in which he had died in BEAU BRUMMEL.  It happened a third time in THE MAD GENIUS when BARRYMORE insisted upon a certain fur trimmed overcoat which he had worn in SVENGALI and upon a velvet jacket which had pleased him 4 years ago in WHEN A MAN LOVES.

Another veteran in Barrymore's studio service is JOHNNY WALLACE, make-up artist who assists Barrymore in his characterizations.  After 13 pictures,  WALLACE knows every mood and manner of the star, exchanges books and recipes with him, comments on picture roles and is in other regards treated and respected as a friend and companion.

Barrymore is apt to call one of them "old man", his favourite appellation for people of whom he approves.

When it became known that dancers were wanted for the ballet scenes and that ADOLPH BOLM-who,as master and special artist with the original Imperial Ballet, won international renown would train them-the casting offices of the studio were literally swamped.  More than 700 girls applied for 70 places.  The "Ballet Mechanic" and "The factory" are two of the three dances which Mr. Bolm originated for this picture.  The great "Idol" ballet which climaxes the film is even more spectacular than the mechanical one.  Only flashes of any of these are shown on the screen, but for them WARNER BROS. financed and trained a huge Russian Ballet.

MAD GENIUS LIMP FOLLOWS BARRYMORE IN REAL LIFE!  After being forced to limp 8 to 10 hours daily for more than a month because of the heavy shoe he wears in the picture, Barrymore found himself limping around his own premises in his ordinary shoes.  It took him a week to get out of the habit.

1931 was BARRYMORE's best year financially but being in poor health and drinking excessively may certainly have been a contributing factor for boredom.  After strenuous weeks of filming, John and Delores left their year old daughter in the care of an army of caretakers, and set sail for the Alaskan wilds in his schooner yacht, The Infanta.