Experiment in Evil (1959) (TV) Le testament du Docteur Cordelier (original title)

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writer:

Jean Renoir
(more)

Release Date:

30 June 1961 (Portugal)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Plot Keywords:

Jekyll And Hyde | Jekyll | Human Experimentation | Split Personality | Renoir

Cast

Jean-Louis Barrault	...	Dr. Cordelier / Opale
Teddy Bilis	...	Maître Joly
Sylviane Margollé	...	Jeune fille
Jean Bertho	...	Premier passant
Jacques Ciron	...	Deuxième passant
Annick Allières	...	Voisine
Dominique Dangon	...	Mère de la jeune fille
Jean Topart	...	Désiré
Michel Vitold	...	Docteur Séverin
Micheline Gary	...	Marguerite
Jacques Danoville	...	Commissaire Lardaut (as Jacques Dannoville)
André Certes	...	Inspecteur Salbris
Jean-Pierre Granval	...	Le patron de l'hôtel
Céline Sales	...	La première fille
Jacqueline Morane	...	Alberte
Ghislaine Dumont	...	Suzy
Madeleine Marion	...	Juliette
Didier d'Yd	...	Georges
Primerose Perret	...	Mary
Raymond Jourdan	...	L'infirme
Jaque Catelain	...	L'Ambassadeur
Régine Blaess	...	Femme de l'Ambassadeur
Gaston Modot	...	Blaise
Jacqueline Frot	...	Camille
Monique Theffo	...	Annie
Claude Bourlon	...	Lise (as Claudie Bourlon)
Raymone	...	Mme des Essarts
Françoise Boyer	...	Françoise
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Catherine Rouvel	...	(scenes deleted)
Bernard Fresson	...	Extra (uncredited)
Jean Renoir	...	Himself (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean Renoir

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean Renoir
Robert Louis Stevenson		novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (uncredited)

Original Music by
Joseph Kosma

Cinematography by
Georges Leclerc

Film Editing by
Renée Lichtig

Set Decoration by
Marcel-Louis Dieulot

Costume Design by
Monique Dunand

Production Management
Albert Hollebeke	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Maurice Beuchey	....	first assistant director
Monique Dunand	....	assistant director

Art Department
Yves-André Hubert	....	technician
Jean Serge	....	art assistant

Sound Department
Joseph Richard	....	sound engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
Bernard Girod	....	framing camera operator
Jean Graglia	....	framing camera operator
Pierre Guéguen	....	framing camera operator (as Pierre Guegen)
Pierre Lebon	....	framing camera operator
Gilbert Perrot-Minnot	....	framing camera operator
Arthur Raimondo	....	framing camera operator (as Arthur Raymondo)
Gilbert Sandoz	....	framing camera operator

Other crew
Andrée Gauthey	....	script
Marinette Pasquet	....	script

Production Companies

• Radio-Télévision Française (RTF)
• Société Financière de Radiodiffusion - Sofirad
• Compagnie Jean Renoir

Distributors

• Suomi-Filmi (1966) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Cinefear (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Facets Multimedia Distribution (VHS)
• Lionsgate Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Maple Pictures (2007) (Canada) (DVD)
• StudioCanal (2006) (France) (DVD)
• e-m-s the DVD-Company (2005) (Germany) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Lax (special effects)

Also Known As:

"Le testament du Docteur Cordelier" - France (original title)
"The Doctor's Horrible Experiment" - USA

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1960) | Finland:K-16 (1966) | West Germany:16

Company:

Radio-Télévision Française (RTF)

Trivia:

This TV program later had a theatrical release.

Movie Connections:

Version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1910)

Sometimes the best way to stay faithful to a novel is to change everything

Jean Renoir's Le Testament Du Docteur Cordelier is dismissed by many as a mere TV movie (it even begins with Renoir discussing the film in a television studio: around this time he regularly filmed introductions for TV broadcasts of his films), but despite being visually a little flat due to being shot quickly with multiple cameras both to save time and money and to allow the actors more freedom, it's an intriguing attempt to remove the over-familiarity which curses all other adaptations of its source material. It would be giving too much away to mention exactly which extremely famous novel it's based on (it's not even credited in the main titles), but despite being moved from Victorian Edinburgh to 50s Paris it's in many ways the most faithful screen adaptation to the original mystery structure of the novel. Of course, once you know the title any mystery is gone, so in a strange way changing the names, updating and relocating it is the only way to even attempt to preserve any element of surprise.

Some elements are more successful than others, and while it retains the all-important but oft overlooked front door/back door geography of the good Doctor's house, it's somewhat diminished by both entrances opening on respectable streets rather than occupying the borderline between the upper class streets and the slums. However, it is the only version that points out that far from being the victim of his good intentions, the doctor in question is in fact merely covering up his own very willing part in the crimes rather than trying to put an end to them: his only reason for wanting to end them is to end the pain that HE suffers rather than the pain that is inflicted on others. But the real triumph of the film is Jean-Louis Barrault's performance as Opale, a quite remarkable display of pure physicality offering a mass of twitches, swagger and curious movements that should skirt on the comic yet somehow combine with the character's arbitrary rage and purely opportunistic violence to create a disturbing portrait of malice that's a world away from the hypocritical and ultimately far more monstrous Dr Cordelier's public displays of rigid self-control. It may be a minor film, particularly in Renoir's canon, but it's a major performance that deserves to be much better known.