{"id":9643,"date":"2009-09-20T11:00:24","date_gmt":"2009-09-20T18:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9643"},"modified":"2021-01-28T15:11:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T22:11:52","slug":"experiment-perilous-1944","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9643","title":{"rendered":"Experiment Perilous (1944)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been living that diary tonight &#8212; living the strange, distorted lives of Nick and his sister.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Experiment-Perilous-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Experiment-Perilous-Poster-128x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"128\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-66562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Experiment-Perilous-Poster-128x300.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Experiment-Perilous-Poster-55x128.jpg 55w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Experiment-Perilous-Poster-115x270.jpg 115w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Experiment-Perilous-Poster.jpg 322w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 128px) 100vw, 128px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA psychiatrist (George Brent) falls in love with a woman (Hedy Lamarr) whose husband (Paul Lukas) is possessively jealous of her.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gaslighting<\/li>\n<li>George Brent Films<\/li>\n<li>Hedy Lamarr Films<\/li>\n<li>Jacques Tourneur Films<\/li>\n<li>Jealousy<\/li>\n<li>Paul Lukas Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nReleased the same year as <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=31131\">George Cukor&#8217;s <em>Gaslight<\/em> (1944)<\/a>, this Victorian-era melodrama by Jacques Tourneur (his first A-level picture for RKO studios) is similarly concerned with the deadly ramifications of marital distrust and psychological manipulation. Its opening sequence, taking place on a train, is reminiscent of Hitchcock&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=7983\"><em>The Lady Vanishes<\/em> (1938)<\/a>, as George Brent encounters and befriends a mysterious older woman (Olive Blakeney) who offers him her &#8220;special brand of tea&#8221;. Blakeney is superb in her all-too-brief supporting appearance, but her character is killed off in order to set in motion the chain of events that will eventually lead to Brent&#8217;s infatuation with Blakeney&#8217;s lovely sister-in-law, the equally mysterious Allida Bedereaux (Hedy Lamarr, giving a haunting performance). Unfortunately, despite plenty of atmosphere, the rest of the story remains disappointingly conventional: the mystery of who exactly is insane &#8212; Lamarr or her husband &#8212; is resolved fairly early on, so that the bulk of the narrative is simply concerned with Brent&#8217;s obsessive quest to rescue Lamarr from her controlling husband. Fans of Tourneur will want to check this film out, and it&#8217;s certainly worth viewing once &#8212; but it&#8217;s not a must-see title. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> The film&#8217;s title is taken from the following provocative quote by Hippocrates (voiced by one of the characters): &#8220;Life is short, art is long, decision difficult, and experiment perilous.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hedy Lamarr as Allida<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/experiment-perilous-lamarr.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/experiment-perilous-lamarr.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9645\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Olive Blakeney as Cissie<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/experiment-perilous-blakeney.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/experiment-perilous-blakeney.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9646\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Tony Gaudio&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/experiment-perilous-cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/experiment-perilous-cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9647\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but it&#8217;s worth viewing once. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0036807\/www\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/139\/experiment-perilous#articles-reviews?articleId=193628\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been living that diary tonight &#8212; living the strange, distorted lives of Nick and his sister.&#8221; Synopsis: A psychiatrist (George Brent) falls in love with a woman (Hedy Lamarr) whose husband (Paul Lukas) is possessively jealous of her. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Gaslighting George Brent Films Hedy Lamarr Films Jacques Tourneur Films Jealousy Paul Lukas Films Review: Released the same year as George Cukor&#8217;s Gaslight (1944), this Victorian-era melodrama by Jacques Tourneur (his first A-level picture for RKO&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9643\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9643"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66564,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9643\/revisions\/66564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}