In Remembrance: Marian Marsh

     Marian Marsh, the blond starlet who starred opposite John Barrymore in the 1931 classic Svengali, has passed away on November 9, 2006 in Palm Desert, CA. She was 93.

     Born Violet Ethelred Krauth on October 17, 1913 in Trinidad, the East Indies, Marsh’s family moved to Boston, Massachusetts when the outbreak of World War One ruined her father’s chocolate manufacturing business. By the mid-1920s, Marsh’s sister Jean became an actress and the family moved to Los Angeles, where she attended Hollywood High School. After brief contracts with Pathe Studios and producer Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., Marsh landed a contract with Warner Brothers Studios at the age of 16.

     Marsh would appear in several uncredited bit parts in various shorts and feature films – most notably Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels (1930) – before being cast as Trilby, the untalented milkmaid who is transformed through the hypnotic power of Barrymore’s titular Svengali into the singing sensation of Paris in the 1931 film adaptation of George Du Maurier’s classic 1894 novel Trilby. Barely 17 years old when the film was produced, she auditioned several times for the part but finally won it after Barrymore remarked on her resemblance to his wife, actress Dolores Costello. Svengali turned out to be a big hit for Warner Brothers, who quickly paired Marsh and Barrymore for a second picture, The Mad Genius (1931), with Barrymore playing a crippled puppeteer who vies with a much younger man for the affections of Marsh’s ballerina.

     Although she would appear opposite some of Warners’ biggest stars, including Edward G. Robinson (Five Star Final) and William Powell (The Road To Singapore, both 1931), Marsh soon found herself beginning to be typecast as a damsel in distress. After the critical failure of Under Eighteen (1932), Marsh and Warner Brothers parted ways. Although she mainly freelanced, she did work under contract at Universal Studios for two years. While at Universal she appeared in such films as the thriller The Black Room (1935) opposite Boris Karloff and the melodrama Counterfeit (1936). She also appeared as the prostitute Sonya in director Joseph von Sternberg’s controversial adaptation of Crime And Punishment, a role many considered the best of her career.

     After her contract ended with Universal in 1936, Marsh appeared in a progressively worsening series of B movies. Marsh’s final film was the 1942 comedy House Of Errors where she appeared opposite former silent comedy star Harry Langdon.