CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

LeonLouisRicci 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.

MartinHafer In 1940, the British version of GASLIGHT debuted. Until very recently, most people didn't even know that it existed, as Hollywood execs bought up all the prints and remade it into an Oscar-winning film (the 1944 version with Ingrid Bergman). When the more famous version debuted in 1944, EXPERIMENT PERILOUS also appeared in theaters and BOTH films are very, very similar. Both films concern a seemingly normal husband who is insane and is trying to drive their wives insane--and it just doesn't seem like a mere coincidence that they both were made at about the same time. Despite the lack of originality, EXPERIMENT PERILOUS is still an excellent film--though I naturally have to knock off a point for being derivative.As far as the acting goes, it was generally exceptional. I particularly liked Paul Lukas, as the insane husband bent on manipulating and destroying his wife, Heddy Lamar. While sounding like Bela Lugosi (after all, they were both Hungarian), he was menacing and exciting to watch.As for George Brent, we was his usual competent and interesting self--sort of an "everyman" character and he did a good job. The only negative can't be blamed on Brent but the writers. That's because at the end of the film, there is a really dumb and clichéd moment-something you know cannot possibly happen. That's because in the huge confrontation scene with Lukas, Brent beats him up and kicks away the gun---but he never bothers to pick up the gun and runs to the next room. Then, as the cliché goes, Lukas returns again and it's yet another fight. In real life, you'd either keep the gun or just shoot Lukas to end the threat once and for all! Hedy Lamarr was the weakest of the main characters, as she was given a typical Hedy Lamarr role. Hollywood insisted on casting her as a zombie-like lady who went through wardrobe change after wardrobe change. Of course she was a beautiful woman, but these sort of "Barbie doll roles" did little to challenge this highly intelligent woman. Sadly, despite having a brilliant mind, you'd never know it from most of the scripts she was given.I do have a mild complaint, though, about the producer not doing his job well in casting the film. Lukas was a Hungarian and Lamarr was Austrian--yet they played parts that made no sense. First, Lukas spoke with this accent but his sister sounded like a typical American. Second, although Lamarr hid her accent better than most European-born American starlets (such as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich), she did NOT sound like a lady from Vermont!! I think Hattie McDaniel or Marjorie Main sounded more like New Englanders than Miss Lamarr! Mentioning where she was from was unnecessary for the plot--they could have easily just said she was from "the country" and left it at that.Despite several mistakes here and there and a derivative plot, the film still works because it was exciting and captivated me. Plus, although this was made by a "2nd tier studio" (RKO), it looked great--with the most realistic weather in any 1940s film I can recall--with rain, snow and sleet at different times in the film. That and the set designs and decoration were lovely.Overall, it's worth a look, but my advice is to seek out the original GASLIGHT--it's the best and most original in the genre.

blanche-2 Hedy Lamarr is a beautiful but troubled woman in "Experiment Perilous," also starring George Brent and Paul Lukas. This film has been compared to "Gaslight" as well as other works by Tourneur, including "Cat People." It certainly has elements of both.Brent is a doctor who meets a lovely woman on a train. She says some strange things to him about the home of her brother, where she is going to stay. Shortly afterward, she dies suddenly. When he later meets her brother and his wife, he falls for the wife at first sight. And what man wouldn't - she's Hedy Lamarr. The doctor is soon drawn into a confused and mysterious situation at the house as the husband, Paul Lukas, confesses concerns about his wife.This is a well done, compelling movie where nothing happens until the end, but there is plenty under the surface to keep the viewer interested and guessing. Underlying suspense and tension pervades throughout as Brent becomes more and more suspicious of activities going on at the house, especially when Lamarr asks for his help.The casting is a little bizarre. George Brent exhibits no emotion throughout and is quite wooden. Lamarr is supposed to be a former farm girl and evidently from the U.S., so one questions the accent. She has no expression in her voice or face throughout, which may have been the decision of the director. Lukas is excellent, an affability and charm belying what's underneath. He is a member of a wealthy New York family, yet he has an accent and his sister didn't. So one wonders what dictated this strange casting and why at least the story wasn't changed to accommodate the actors chosen.There's been some discussion as to whether Lamarr could have done "Gaslight" rather than Bergman. Hedy Lamarr with good direction was a decent actress, but not in my opinion a strong enough one for the role in "Gaslight." She was one of the most beautiful women in film and could be absolutely delightful in the right circumstances. Her contribution to film history is more than satisfactory.

Neil Doyle That HEDY LAMARR was one of the great beauties of the screen goes without saying. But whether she had the acting abilities to play a woman being driven slowly out of her mind by a calculating doctor husband (PAUL LUKAS) still remains questionable. There is no evidence in EXPERIMENT PERILOUS to suggest that she would have been up to the demands of the Ingrid Bergman role in GASLIGHT, which she turned down.Instead, she chose to star in this murky melodrama full of flashbacks and with an obscurely motivated script by Warren Duff. While it's by no means a complete failure, neither is it a resounding success.GEORGE BRENT as the friend who comes to Lamarr's aid is as stiff and wooden as ever, using just one expression throughout and obviously not too well connected to his role. Whether this was the director's fault or not, I can't say, but a more persuasive performance on his part would have made the whole thing more effective. PAUL LUKAS gives his usual professional performance as the doctor with an unhealthy perspective on how to deal with his wife and child.Jacques Tourner's direction leaves a lot to be desired. This is a story in the same mold as GASLIGHT, but nowhere as effective with a murky script and a dull payoff for the climax. As for Hedy Lamarr, she was much more at ease in other films, even though this is said to be one of her own favorite films.