Experiment Perilous (1944)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur

Film Review

With his best work at RKO behind him, director Jacques Tourneur found little to ignite his imagination as he was assigned to a mix bag of films that included the dull Soviet propaganda piece Days of Glory (1944) and routine thriller-dramas such as this adaptation of Margaret Carpenter's 1943 novel Experiment Perilous.  It may not exhibit anything like the artistic flair Tourneur showed on Cat People (1942) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943) (whilst working under the guidance of horror maestro Val Lewton) but it is nonetheless a slick and compelling work, with strong performances from each of its three charismatic lead actors, George Brent, Hedy Lamarr and Paul Lukas.  In 1946, the film received an Oscar nomination for its Art Direction and technically it is on a par with Tourneur's best work.

Like his father, the highly regarded French filmmaker Maurice Tourneur, Jacques Tourneur instinctively knew how to use lighting to bring drama and tension to a scene, and this is as apparent here as it is in any of the films he made for RKO.  Tourneur's particular genius was for injecting a seed of menace early into a film and gradually allowing it to grow, almost imperceptivity, to a terrifying crescendo - the best instance of this is his terrifying 1957 horror film Night of the Demon, his masterpiece.  Experiment Perilous pulls off a similar feat, so that what begins as a rather humdrum melodrama ends as a gripping noir thriller, very reminiscent of George Cukor's Gaslight (1944), released six months previously. 

Tragically, Tourneur's efforts are somewhat compromised by an overly elaborate, overly verbose script that makes the fatal mistake of saying too much and not leaving enough to the audience's imagination.  How much more effective the film would have been if there was some matter of doubt as to who the insane party is.  Lukas is fingered as the villain of the piece too early on in the narrative and so the only surprise the denouement has to offer us is its ludicrously dramatic scale.  In all other respects, however, Experiment Perilous is a winner, and one of the more unsettling portraits of mental derangement to come out of Hollywood in the 1940s.

Film Synopsis

Dr Huntington Bailey is on his way to New York by train when he is accosted by an old woman who introduces herself as Cissie Bederaux.  The latter explains she intends to visit her brother Nick and his young wife Allida but for some reason she appears unwilling to lodge at their house.  Bailey agrees to check the old woman into a hotel, but shortly after his arrival in New York he learns that she has just suffered a fatal heart attack.  Intrigued, Bailey pays Nick Bederaux a social call and is at once struck by his wife's fragile beauty.  On his return to his hotel, Bailey realises that he has picked up one of Cissie Bederaux's bags by mistake.  Inside he finds a manuscript recounting the private history of Nick Bederaux.   As he reads this unexpected document Bailey quickly realises that Allida is in the greatest of danger...