Experiment Perilous by Margaret Carpenter

Cinema and PaintingĪ painting in a film, at any rate, in a classical Hollywood film, seems to me always at a disadvantage by the very fact that it signifies too much (the whole history of art) and too little (merely another image, another view amidst the many others that make up a film): by its very kinship as image, it is already devalued as art while at the same time having to signify a special kind of value, the cultural super-value of ‘Art’. This strikes me as a feature worth commenting on, but let me start with some general points about paintings and the painted portrait in the cinema. (1) In order to provide a frame of reference that will hopefully lend my comments on Experiment Perilous a measure of pertinence in the context of the present topic, I want to signal in many of these films the presence of a painted portrait. In fact, Experiment Perilous may seem a late and derivative example of a constellation which film scholars have begun to analyse quite fully and convincingly. My reading will probably seem a bit perverse, or at any rate, will seem to offer little by way of a generalisation which could help define ‘cinema and painting’, even though in this case, both the book and the film in question clearly belong to cycles, in one case of gothic romance, and in the other of 1940s women’s melodramas where paintings play a narratively significant role. George Brent reprised his role in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on September 10, 1945, co-starring Virginia Bruce.What I propose is to sketch, within the context of ‘film and the other arts’, a reading of an individual film: Jacques Tourneur’s Experiment Perilous (1944), made for RKO, with George Brent, Paul Lukas and Hedy Lamarr, and based on the 1943 novel by Margaret Carpenter. Brent reprised his screen role, and Joan Bennett and Adolphe Menjou co-starred. CastĮxperiment Perilous was presented on Screen Guild Players October 12, 1946.

The kindly Bailey takes it upon himself to attempt to free his new love Allida from the control of the insanely jealous Nick.Ī frenzied gun battle and fist fight in their home, featuring the destruction of several large aquariums, replete with shattered glass, gushing water and floundering fish may be the most memorable (and most often imitated) scene in the film. Nick ( Paul Lukas) keeps Allida (Hedy Lamarr), whom he is trying to pass off as crazy, a virtual prisoner in their London town house, cutting off all contact with the outside world. Shortly afterward, he meets the strange couple and becomes suspicious of Nick's treatment of his wife. Once in New York, Bailey hears that his train companion suddenly died.

She tells him that she is going to visit her brother Nick and his lovely young wife Allida. Huntington Bailey ( George Brent) meets a friendly older lady ( Olive Blakeney).

Experiment Perilous by Margaret Carpenter