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.
© James Travers 2013
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Next Jacques Tourneur film:
Out of the Past (1947)
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...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.