Redundant and unnecessary.

An Exercise In Nonsense

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

So-so melodrama has a decent cast and a great director but somehow never takes off. Part of the problem is it's one of those movies where everybody talks like they're trying to be quotable. Like every line should be delivered like a poem. Also, Tourneur's direction is a bit of a disappointment. I'm a fan of his but this is a rather pedestrian workmanlike effort by him. George Brent and Paul Lukas are fine actors but here both seem miscast, particularly Lukas. Then there's Hedy Lamarr. I've never been a huge Hedy Lamarr fan. Of all the screen goddesses of the golden age she leaves me rather cold. I've enjoyed some of her films but she's not a favorite of mine. I find her acting OK, although it's strained in this picture. She seems stretched beyond her limits and her portrayal makes Allida seem mentally slow.It's a fairly by-the-numbers flick in the Gaslight mold. But Gaslight was better in every respect. Obviously fans of Hedy Lamarr will probably enjoy it more than I did. So take that for what it's worth.

Film-Noir is at its best when placed in a contemporary present time template. The period pieces struggle to fit into the modern sensibility of the genre. That said, there are some directors and films that can pull it off and deliver these off center psychological presentations.This one is a smooth looking ominous study of driven insanity that is an oft used narrative of twentieth century fixation on mental illness and psychiatry. Set during the time of Freud and Jung this pathological study was in its infancy and lent itself to broad concepts and yet proved diagnosis.There is a brooding atmosphere with doom laden despair. An urgency of impending impact on the innocent and the gullible. It is a film filled with barely a smile or upbeat behavior where everything and everybody is bursting inside but contained in the periphery. This is the suspense and the anxiety that is even more so because of the Victorian pleasantries and repressed emotions that culminate in a determined need for venting as the fear simmers and the release is a welcome relief. The Director's take on all this is the usual unsettling couching of style and pacing that is slow, suggestive, and stimulating.

I wasn't sure how I'd react to this film. The title is a bit awkward and very often period films are enough off-the-mark in the set department to make me dissatisfied. But, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed "Experiment Perilous." I won't deny that there are some plot holes: Why does Nick Bederaux have a strong German accent while his sister sounds totally American despite their having been raised together? For that matter, why does his wife, a Vermont country girl, have a Mittel European accent? But I chalked this up to suspension of disbelief and after a bit I forgot about it.George Brent is his usual excellent, understated self and Hedy Lamarr, whose films I've not been very familiar with, was also very good. Ditto, Albert Dekker and Paul Lukas. In a film that could easily tempt anyone to overact, I found all the performances credible. Other reviewers have compared the film to "Gaslight," but I find "Experiment Perilous" more subtle, less overwrought.And the period sets? More believable than usual in this kind of film. I've been looking at a lot of turn-of-the-century New York City photos over the past year or two and it looked to me like the art director tried to get at least the exteriors right. For example, near the beginning of the film, when Bailey first visits the Bederaux home with Claghorn, you catch a glimpse of the Madison Square Garden tower in the distance down Madison Ave., a satisfying detail.My recommendation: catch this one if you can.

Yes, step right up to buy the Brooklyn Bridge. And how about Paul Lukas as the scion of a wealthy New York family with a French name? What came over the people who cast this ramshackle event? George Brent is plausible as a doctor. The others: No.And what was with movies in terms of portraits? Hedy Lamarr certainly was a gorgeous woman. Yes, the portrait of her, through which she is introduced to us, looks like the work of a quick-sketch artist in Provincteown. It supposedly hangs in a museum but it has artistic merit of 2 on a scale of 1 to 100.The movie is well directed and beautifully filmed. And it isn't boring -- though it is predictable. It could so easily have been better, though, it's kind of a shame.