Svengali and The Blonde. The movie of the novel starring John Barrymore in the title role. {The story of a beautiful artist's model who is transformed into a great singer by Svengali, an (evil) musical genius who possesses strange hypnotic powers.}

In court, the "Svengali defence" is a legal tactic that portrays the defendant as a pawn in the scheme of a greater, and more influential, criminal mastermind.