Svengali is a 1983 American television film based on the 1894 novel Trilby by George du Maurier.
Mitchell Galin helped develop the film. He was working for the producer, read the script, felt it was promising but that it needed a rewrite. He received $10,000 for a new writer and hired Frank Cucci. Galin told Cucci to write the role for Peter O'Toole and that is who wound up being cast.
Filming took place over 20 days. Shortly after filming, director Anthony Harvey had a near-fatal car crash. "I hadn't been in hospital but a week," he says, "when CBS started cutting the movie, seriously harming it. All the more fragile moments are gone and so are the exterior scenes that opened up the story."