Jacques Tourneur directed arguably the greatest noir of all time, 1946's gripping "Out Of The Past". But you'd hardly know it from this ungripping predecessor. It is moody, elegant, dreamy and psychological as all get out. It even features a late Victorian era shrink not named Freud. What it most assuredly is not, at any point, is disturbing, suspenseful or compelling. I guess the basic problem is that it's simply too allusive and suggestive. All the murders that Lukas' character commits occur offscreen so that even though we are told repeatedly that Lukas' wife, played by Hedy Lamarr, is in danger one never FEELS the peril. For this major flaw I'm afraid one has to mostly blame Tourneur, although producer/writer Warren Duff's screenplay is not exactly pitched at a Daniel Mainwaring level (the scribe of "Past"). So enjoy a good Lukas performance and Hedy at her loveliest and try to survive the endless, dull scenes of George Brent sleepwalking through fin de siecle NYC with his suspicions of Lukas' insanity and Hedy's vulnerability. C plus.
Review of Experiment Perilous
