published on May 28, 2024 in blog

Experiment Perilous

Production: RKO. Director Jacques Tourneur; Producer Warren Duff; Screenplay Warren Duff; Camera Tony Gaudio; Editor Ralph Dawson; Music Roy Webb; Art Director Albert S. D'Agostino, Jack Okey
Crew: (B&W) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1944. Running time: 90 MIN.
With: Hedy Lamarr George Brent Paul Lukas Albert Dekker Carl Esmond Olive Blakeney

Plot [from the novel by Margaret Carpenter] centers around Paul Lukas' mansion in the 1903 era. The elderly Lukas has been married to the young and beautiful Hedy Lamarr for about a decade, holding her in close confinement and restraint as he would any other possession. She, in turn, is continually dominated by fear of strange influences which can be felt but not seen.

Plot [from the novel by Margaret Carpenter] centers around Paul Lukas’ mansion in the 1903 era. The elderly Lukas has been married to the young and beautiful Hedy Lamarr for about a decade, holding her in close confinement and restraint as he would any other possession. She, in turn, is continually dominated by fear of strange influences which can be felt but not seen.

George Brent, a young doctor, originally is projected into contact with the family through chance meeting with Olive Blakeney, elderly sister of Lukas, who’s returning from several years in a midwest sanitarium. She comments on the unseen influences at the family home, and declares against staying there. But she dies on arrival while having tea, and Brent accepts invitation some days later to meet Lamarr and inspect the place that intrigues him.

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Picture unfolds in both straightline and flashback techniques. It covers a lot of territory and sets, and depends mainly on dialog to put over its dramatic unfolding. Despite these handicaps, picture carries good pace of suspense.

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