Dr. Renault's Secret (1942)

Some things I liked some I did not.

Let's be realistic.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

"Dr. Renault's Secret" is a thoroughly unimpressive yet not completely worthless effort.**SPOILERS**Arriving in Paris, Dr. Larry Forbes, (Sheppard Strudwick) is told that he has to wait in town before traveling to see Dr. Renault, (George Zucco) as he has come to marry Madelon, (Lynne Roberts) his niece. Trapped in the hotel for the night, he is fingered as the main suspect for a murder during the night. Going up in the morning with handyman Noel, (J. Carroll Naish) the three are reconciled and meet up with each other. During the night, he is the target of several murder attempts, but none fall through. Determined to continue on, he decides to continue on with his life, only for another repeat attempt on his life. Now knowing the identity of the killer, he tries to stop him before he succeeds.The Good News: This one has very few good qualities. The film does have a few good chase scenes in here that really get this one interesting. The main one is a particularly long and fun chase that contains a lot right. This one has some really great moments, as it starts off with a great brawl in a laboratory basement that really gets brutal at times, followed by a lengthy and entertaining chase. Starting off with an excellent moment in the bedroom, it continues on into the surrounding woods, out into and completely through a lake and concludes with a simply spectacular confrontation at a windmill. From a nice brawl over the rooftop, to a really brutal kill and some big stunts going on, it has a lot to offer and becomes a lot more entertaining than it really should. This is a lot of fun, and along with the really fun carnival scene, really constitutes the film's good qualities.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot wrong, even though there wasn't a whole lot to it to begin with. The fact is that this is a thoroughly uneventful, dull and really short film. Even though the film is barely an hour long, the film feels much longer due to its inactivity. From the beginning, this one doesn't have a whole lot of action, and saves the few it does have for the very end of the film. Even the few attempts to do so beforehand are really weak and come off as simply dull. The whipping scenes take place mostly as shadows and ruin their brutality significantly, the murder attempts are all broken up through various means that only make them look lucky more than anything, and it all fails badly. The film's dullness is where it really fails, and for being as short as it is, this one becomes a really big flaw that sinks it.The Final Verdict: There's not a whole lot for this one either way, and in the end doesn't stand out or fail at much of anything. If it sounds interesting, give it a shot, but it won't mean much at all either way.Today's Rating-PG: Mild Violence

***SPOILERS*** If anything else the film "The Secret of Dr. Renault" is a Tor de Force for veteran character actor J. Carrol Nash as Dr. Renault's, George Zucco, ape-like and super sensitive, about his looks, handyman Noel.Nash, or handyman Noel, steals every scene that he's in, with a minimum amount of lines, as he actually wins over the sympathy of the audience even though he ends up brutally murdering a number of totally innocent persons. Noel becomes madly protective of Dr. Renault's daughter Madeline, Lynne Roberts, not just because she's beautiful but because she's the only person in the movie who can bring the best, as well as human, side out of him. Being born and brought up as a wild ape in the Javanese jungle Noel despite Dr. Renault's many experiments into making him into a human being is still really a monkey at heart.It's when Madline's fiancée American brain surgeon Larry Forbes, Shepperd Strudwick, show up at Dr. Renault's country château outside of Paris that strange things begin to happen both at Dr. Renault's place and the nearby town. The evidence of the murder of American tourist Mr. Austin, Jack Norton, that happens in the beginning of the movie points to the sensitive but a bit overprotective, in regards to Madeline, Noel who was turned off by a remark that Austin made. It soon becomes very obvious to who murdered Mr. Austin very early in the film and it's not Noel. The police in investigating Dr. Renault's handyman in the Austin murder are sure to find out the real reason that the doctor keeps Nole employed and it doesn't have anything to do with his plumbing and electrical skills.Trying as much as humanly possible to keep the animal in him under control the half-man half-ape Noel in the end give into his animal instincts and goes bananas from the very negative reactions that he gets from the local townspeople. This is in regards to what the townspeople say about his appearance looking like a cross between Mafia Godfather Don Corleone, with his mouth stuffed with cotton balls or candy jaw breakers, and Apache Indian chieftain Geronimo. Noel is also very hurt over the snide remarks said about him in his inability to dance like Fred Astaire as he was plodding all over the dance floor with Madeline during the towns Bastille Day celebrations.In the end Noel makes up for all the bad that he did in the movie by saving Madeline from being kidnapped held for ransom and possibly murdered by Dr. Renault's gardener the also ape-like ,but still human, looking Rogell, Mike Mazurki. Dr. Renault hired the ungrateful Rogell, whom he testified for at his trial, despite him having a long and violent criminal record. Dr. Renault had a bad record himself in picking those whom he employed at his château. It was that sloppiness on his part that lead to Dr. Renault in having his neck broken when he got too overconfident in his pushing, with a bull-whip,the meek and obedient Noel around.Noel now completely taken over by his other self, the wild and uncontrollable ape, throws caution to the wind in going after Rogell who's making his getaway together with the kidnapped Madeline by boat. In the most exciting sequence in the film Noel and Rogell, who's at least a foot taller, slug it out at a deserted watermill with the lovely Madiline's life hanging in the balance.

George Zucco is a scientist and to fans of the horror genre, it's not at all surprising that he's a mad scientist since he's played this in so many low-budget films. His assistant is the rather dim and violent J. Carrol Naish. It's obvious SOMETHING is wrong here, but at first it is a bit vague. Unfortunately, though, the film telegraphs its "dark secrets" and the plot seems awfully familiar, so when things do heat up, it never really gets very exciting. I'm not a genius, but I pretty much figured out the plot after watching the film for 10 minutes.So why, then, did I watch this very bland film? Well, I like the genre and assume those who like these cheesy old horror films would also probably stick it out until the end--especially since this film is less than an hour long. However, if this isn't your style of film, there's nothing about this one that will convince you to watch another.By the way, my wife says I'm too picky, but this was a sloppy film in several places. In one scene, a man is strangled to death but as his corpse is being thrown out a window, the "dead man" visibly moves his arms to give his attacker and easier time tossing him! A short time later, a man is killed in a barber shop where there is a shade drawn over the glass door. But, when the police break the glass to enter, the shade is up, not down!

WARNING! DANGER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! I must confess that I only saw this film for the first time recently on video, having missed it when it was shown on New York T.V. in the early seventies. About all knew about this film was that it featured J. Carrol Naish and George Zucco and was a variation on "The Island Of Dr. Moreau" from a still and a brief mention in Dennis Gifford's "A Pictorial History Of Horror Movies." I had wrongly assumed this was just another cheezey "poverty row" B horror, when actually it was a Fox production (although still a "B") with decent production values in the manner of low budget big studio films. I also discovered the film has a remarkably good performance from J. Carrol Naish. I should have known the former and expected the latter. In many ways the film is surprisingly good and the reasons for its relative obscurity remains a mystery.Most of what makes this film memorable is the performance of J. Carrol Naish as the unfortunate apeman Noel. Naish plays the apeman Noel as a sad, unhappy, and very sympathetic character. I read once where Naish said that an actor owes it to the audience to always give his best performance, even if he thinks the production is beneath him. Naish stated that an actor should always see a given role as a challenge, and Naish takes the challenge head on in this film. Naish was one of thirties and forties best character/supporting players. He always gave a good account of himself whether in prestigious films like SAHARA (1943) or dismal programmers like JUNGLE WOMAN (1944) (See my comments on that film). Most any other actor cast to play an apeman would have probably felt embarrassed, walked through the role, collected their paycheck and never looked back.George Zucco makes the most of his limited screen time. Here he gives his usual suavely sinister-if at times over the top-performance as Dr. Renault. There is some distraction involving an ex-con handyman employed by Dr. Renault played Mike Mazurki. Early on, Noel is kind of a red herring for Mazurki's own murderous activities. The film is set in France, but some the cast, especially Arthur Shields are unconvincing as Frenchmen. Other cast members like Shepperd Strudwick who plays a non-Frenchman are adequate.This film was the last film directed by Harry Lachman. Most of his films were routine studio films with some exceptions including DANTE'S INFERNO and OUR RELATIONS with Laurel and Hardy. He soon retired from films after this and went back to being an artist and opening up a shop in Hollywood that sold unusual antiques. In fact the last film he was connected with was a short documentary about his shop called TREASURE FROM TRASH (1946) in which he appeared as himself. There is one very interesting scene in the film when male lead Shepperd Strudwick sneaks into Dr. Renaults lab and discovers his notes. The transformation is told in narration by Zucco and a series of still photographs capturing Noels transformation from ape to man. E.A. Dupont used a similar scene told in a series of still photographs to good effect in the otherwise dismal film, THE NEANDERTHAL MAN (1953.) (See my comments on that film). The one very weak point in the film is having Noel actually kill two people which we see on screen. There is a murder early in the film (off screen) where Noel is a suspect but its obvious by the films end he didn't do it. Why have a character that ends up becoming the hero at the end commit two murders kind of bothered me.Dr. RENAULT'S SECRET is decent forties B horror film made people who cared about what they were making. It's not an unsung classic of the horror film genre, but it is worth viewing by people who can appreciate good old fashioned horror films.