Experiment Perilous (1944)

Directed by Jacques Tourneur; produced by Warren Duff

On a train to New York, Dr Hunt Bailey (George Brent) meets Clarissa Bedereaux (Olive Blakeney), a mature lady who tells him of her family, hinting at certain fears she had about going home. By chance, he hears the next day that Clarissa had died the previous evening, due to a bad heart - which her doctor, so she had claimed on the train, said she did not have. This begins Bailey’s involvement with Nick and Allida Bedereaux (Paul Lukas and Hedy Lamarr), their strained relationship, and the air of danger that pervades their palatial townhouse.

Viewers of this film may note similarities in the premise and plot with the better known Gaslight, the second film version of which was released in the same year as Experiment Perilous. In both motion pictures, an outsider is acquainted with a couple the woman of which believes there is something wrong, perhaps sinister, with her husband. Experiment Perilous is less ominous in its atmosphere, and has more of the feel of a mystery, rather than a psychological drama. But on its own merits, it is rather less than it could have been.

The acting is good on the part of Brent and Lukas, the latter especially filling his rôle well. Lamar is not up to her co-stars’ standards. It is not a bad performance, just an ordinary one, though, considering her prominence, it is noticeable. Supporting players, such as Albert Dekker and Stephanie Bachelor, do well.

The principal fault, however, lies with the plot. It is an instance of the villain inflicting a disadvantage on himself by involving someone who would not otherwise become a part of the situation. It may be supposed that the reason Bailey is asked to watch Allida Bedereaux’s behaviour is to lend credence to the growing belief that she is losing her mind. But to involve a doctor, someone who has studied genuine cases of derangement, to watch a woman who is not actually going crazy is not going to help anyone’s nefarious scheme.

As well, the villain appears to have murdered at least two other people. Why, then, he chooses the slower and much less certain method of trying to drive a person insane is inexplicable. The motive for such an action may be assumed, but it is not made clear. The climax makes it obvious, though, that the villain would resort to violence eventually.

There are incongruities that have nothing really to do with the plot, but which raise distracting questions. For instance, the Bedereaux family, despite their French name, were long-established in Austria, having an estate near Vienna. This was, it’s possible, to explain Lukas’s recognisable (though easily understood) accent - but the actor himself was Hungarian. Blakeney plays Nick Bedereaux’s sister, also raised on the estate in Austria, yet she has no European accent. Ironically, Lamar, who was Austrian, portrays a woman raised in rural New England, and can’t shed her slight Germanic speech. Her character’s given name, Allida, hardly the usual name for an American farm-girl. I don’t know how much of this originated in the novel from which the producer/screenwriter adapted the script, but it could have been solved by a few judicious and harmless changes.

The story is set in 1903, yet the fashions, for both men and women, appear more true to the 1870s. The Edwardian era, whether in Britain or the United States, produced quite a different style of clothes. Those worn by the actors may have been what the studio had in its wardrobes, and did not want to waste.

While the inconsistencies in plot and background are considerable, Experiment Perilous is still a marginally watchable feature, thanks largely to the two male leads. There is good direction, also. It is, however, a movie that should not be questioned too much for one’s enjoyment.