September and October of each year are, for obvious reasons, a great couple of months for horror fans. All the TV channels shows some of the classic horror films in the buildup toward Halloween, some being discovered by a whole new generation of fans. Some of us have seen them all before and yearn for something new. Sometimes we get that, sometimes not. DVDs have made these two months even more exciting for horror fans. It seems every week this month and next a new batch of great DVDs are being released with some films, like the film I’m looking at today, being released commercially for the first time ever.
The press releases stated that DR. RENAULT’S SECRET is the first horror film ever produced by 20th Century Fox and they may be correct. While Fox had made other thrillers, some with fantastic and horrific themes prior to this film, you really can’t peg any of those previous films as horror. This is a historic piece, how did Fox fare it’s first time out? Not bad, but not great.
The ape man genre has been dead for decades and is virtually forgotten today. Gone are the days of such films as THE=2 0MONSTER AND THE GIRL, THE APE MAN and CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN. This film, while nothing special, is definitely a cut above those films mainly due to the performance of native New Yorker J. Carroll Naish as Noel, the assistant of Dr. Renault. In the 1940’s, when you needed a mad doctor and were working with a limited budget, George Zucco was your man and Zucco again plays a mad doctor experimenting to find a link between man and beast in this Fox programmer.
On a stormy night in France, American doctor Larry Forbes arrives to meet his fiancée. The in climate weather washes out a bridge and Forbes is stranded at a local inn with Dr. Renault’s assistant Noel, a strange looking creature has difficulty communicating with those around him. The people of this small village (who all inexplicably speak perfect English) consider him slow. When a drunk sitting at the bar makes a comment about marriage being a bad thing no matter who the girl, Noel, who is smitten with Renault’s niece (Forbes’ fiancée) grabs and threatens the man. Also stranded at the inn is Rogell, an ex-con employed by Dr. Renault as a gardener. After having a few drinks, Forbes pulls out his wallet and pays the innkeeper, unaware that Rogell has spotted the healthy wad of cash he keeps inside. The innkeeper hands his room key and Rogell hears the information. Forbes heads up to room 10 and finds the that was threatened by Noel sleeping in his bed. He sees that the drunk was supposed=2 0to have room 11, so Forbes switches keys and heads off to sleep in the other room. Later that night, Forbes is awakened by a struggle in the other room. He races over only to find the drunk dead. The police immediately think Rogell is responsible.
The following morning, all three men drive to Renault’s estate. A dog that Noel nearly hits on the road follows them to the estate and later attacks Noel without warning. As the dog is chained up outside, the police arrive to further their investigation of the murder from the inn. It is believed that Forbes was the intended target and the motive is unclear. Forbes begins to suspect that Noel’s seemingly harmless affection for his fiancée may drive him to murder, while the police are still convinced that it was Rogell and the motive was robbery. Later that night, the dog that attacked Noel is hung on the grounds and someone tried to kill Forbes as Forbes was reading a book in the study. Who is the culprit trying to kill Forbes? Are there two ghastly fiends working in concert to get the deed done?
Filmed in 1942 as a second feature to play with THE UNDYING MONSTER, a WOLF MAN knock-off, DR. RENAULT’S SECRET is wonderfully restored for this DVD. The film has been a “grey market” favorite for many ye ars and it’s great to finally see a clean print emerge. The DVD does sport a few special features including a featurette “Horror’s Missing Link; Rediscovering Dr. Renault’s Secret,” a restoration comparison showing how the film looked before and after the restoration process, three galleries (production, advertising and some lobby cards) and the trailer. It is available as part of the new Fox Horror Classics Volume 2 DVD set along with DRAGONWYCK (starring Vincent Price) and CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (starring Bela Lugosi) for the very low retail price of $19.98. Definitely a great piece for collectors of classic horror films and recommended mainly for that crowd only, I don’t think this is a classic horror film for the uninitiated, but worth checking out for those who can appreciate these films.
