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An occult researcher (John Wainwright) fancies himself the second coming of Svengali and he’s just released a book on the subject. His publisher, Sir Stephen Phillips, knows his secret and has some dark perversions of his own. With some shady connections to the underground black magic circuit (sure, whatever) the publisher begins manipulating things to nefarious ends. Sir Phillips has a habit of performing his own black rites and forcing kidnapped women to bend to his will and becoming sexual objects. A strip-club performer by the name of Trilby catches the eye of both men, with John being a point of lust and Stephen seeing her as being needed to kill him during a sex ritual at the height of climax in order to reincarnate. Yikes. Larry Hankin is wonderful as the magician/mesmerist by the name of Svengali but the surrounding cast does nothing for him. Its focus on skin makes it feel a bit sleazy but its soul-jumping plot leaves a bit to be desired. An alternate Al Adamson version features Dracula posing as a psychiatrist and cuts out almost all of the nudity and violence. It adds John Carradine, a shit-ton of talking, wretched performances and a subplot about a murdered mother, her concerned daughter and a worried father. It’s quite boring. But the original ain’t all that great either… you can skip ‘em both.
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