Experiment Perilous
1944 US Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Jacques Tourneur
Written by	Screenplay: Warren Duff Story: Margaret Carpenter
Produced by	Warren Duff
Starring	Hedy Lamarr George Brent Paul Lukas Albert Dekker Carl Esmond
Music by	Roy Webb
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release dates	December 18, 1944 (U.S)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Experiment Perilous is a 1944 melodrama set at the turn of the 20th century. The film is based on a novel by Margaret Carpenter and directed by Jacques Tourneur. Albert S. D'Agostino, Jack Okey, Darrell Silvera, and Claude E. Carpenter were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White.^[1] Hedy Lamarr's singing voice was dubbed by Paula Raymond.

In 1903, Doctor Huntington Bailey (Brent) meets a friendly older lady during a train trip. She tells him that she is going to visit her brother Nick and his lovely young wife Allida. Once in New York, Bailey hears that his train companion suddenly died. Shortly afterward, he meets the strange couple and gets suspicious of Nick's treatment of his wife. Nick keeps Allida, who he is trying to pass off as crazy, a virtual prisoner in their London town house, cutting off all contact with the outside world. The kindly psychiatrist Bailey takes it upon himself to attempt to free his new love Allida from the control of the insanely jealous Nick.

A frenzied gun battle in an aquarium, replete with shattered glass, gushing water and floundering fish may be the most memorable (and most often imitated) scene in the film.

• Hedy Lamarr as Alida Bederaux
• George Brent as Dr. Huntington Bailey
• Paul Lukas as Nick Bederaux

• In the movie version this is actually a New York brownstone.

• Production Dates: 12 Jul-early Oct 1944
• According to pre-production news items in Hollywood Reporter, this film was originally to be produced by David Hempstead and star Cary Grant. After Hempstead terminated his contract with RKO, Grant dropped out of the project and Robert Fellows was assigned to produce it. Gregory Peck was then slated to star in the male lead, but a prior commitment to David O. Selznick productions forced him to bow out of the picture
• To create the snow storm sequence, the studio used one hundred tons of ice and six wind machines
• George Brent reprised his role in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on September 10, 1945, co-starring Virginia Bruce.

• Experiment Perilous at IMDb.
• Experiment Perilous at AllMovie
• Experiment Perilous at Senses of Cinema.