Dr. Renault’s Secret [Impossible Voyages #20] – Blue Towel Productions

As mentioned previously, in “Impossible Voyages” I’m watching and writing about a run of new (to me) science fiction films to be watched over last year, which has extended to this year (2026). You can read the rationale and ground rules here. In the meantime, we are advancing from 1941 to 1942 with this movie, #20 in this series.

There were some unusual sounding science fiction films released in 1942, including Sirius from Hungary, and Sideral Cruises from France. Unfortunately neither of these projects was easy to find, so I found myself watching the B-movie mystery horror thriller, Dr. Renault’s Secret instead.

Spoilers Ahead

Dr. Renault’s Secret (1942)

Directed by Harry Lachlan

The Story:  The American Dr. Larry Forbes travels to France to meet up with his fiancée, Madeline Renault, only to get wrapped in a story of murder and fear. Madeline’s uncle Dr. Robert Renault has been carrying out experiments on animals, including secretly transforming an ape into human-like being called Noel, who serves as Renault’s manservant. At the same time a criminal named Rogell has infiltrated Renault’s home as a gardener, and plans to kidnap Madeline. First an American traveler, and then a stray dog, are killed by an unknown assailant. No one is certain who is responsible but the fear is that the intended target was Larry Forbes.

However, Renault believes that Noel is responsible (out of jealousy over Madeline, with whom he is in love), and locks him in a cage. Noel escapes and comes to town during a Bastille Day celebration. He is teasingly mocked by some of the villagers for his awkwardness at dancing, and in a rage murders them both. Later, he fights with Renault and kills him as well. Finally, he realises that Rogell has kidnapped Madeline. He pursues her and rescues her, but not before killing Rogell and being fatally shot by him as well.

Starring: Shepperd Strudwick as Larry Forbes, J. Carrol Naish as Noel, George Zucco as Dr. Renault and Lynne Roberts as Madeline. Also starring Mike Mazurka as Rogell, Arthur Shields as police inspector Duval, Charles Wagenheim as his assistant Jacques, Jean Del Val as Renault’s butler Henri, Bert Roach as the Hotel Proprietor where Forbes stays overnight and where the first murder takes place, and Jack Norton as Mr. Austin, the American traveler who is the first victim. Max Willenz is waiter Louis and Charles La Torre is the barber Marcel, the two men who mock Noel and end up murdered for their efforts.

Comments: Dr. Renault’s Secret is an almost quintessential “B Movie”. It’s a low budget horror mystery with a science fiction edge designed to put people into seats and provide them with some diverting entertainment for an hour. And it totally succeeds at this mission! It’s a tight little horror-mystery (clocking in at just under an hour) that is directed all and wastes no time introducing its characters and setting and getting us into the creepiness of what is going on.

A lot of those goings-on don’t feel particularly original with elements cobbled together from this whole era of science fiction and horror. The setting, a nice house near a small village in France, is lifted straight out of a lot of these old monster movies, which took place in nice houses near villages in Germany or Hungary or whatever. Dr. Renault is very similar in terms of what he is up to as H.G. Wells’ Dr. Moreau, just without the isolating benefit of living on an island. The monstrous Noel is a lot like a blend of Frankenstein’s monster and Quasimodo, as he’s been created by a mad scientist, and spends his nights worshipping a beautiful woman and climbing through windows and around rooftops to get where he needs to go.

But even though these things are familiar, the package they are all mixed into is mostly satisfying, and a lot of fun to watch. The movie’s major set-pieces–the village square, the inn, and chateau and the abandoned mill–are all well designed and help to create a good sense of time and place.

The characters are all well drawn and specific, including all the quirky personalities in the village. There are actually a lot of characters running around–police, servants, bartenders and the like–but they all distinct and like they have their own place in the story. And the story proceeds at a gripping pace and hits its beats in a way that is gripping and satisfying…mostly (see below).

I enjoy the cast. Lynne Roberts does a nice job in the relatively thankless role of Madeline, coming across with believable mix of kind and sweet with just a touch of condescension. Mike Mazurka is effectively menacing as the treacherous Rogell. And Arthur Shield’s Inspector Duval is the kind of no-nonsense detective character that I wouldn’t mind seeing dealing with some other mysterious happenings–I can imagine a whole series about the guy.

But the standout here is obviously J. Carrol Naish as Noel, the ape-turned-human. I’d read before watching the film that the guy was going to turn out to be some sort of mutated animal, and I couldn’t help but wonder how that was going to work. Of course, Naish has got some make-up going on but what really makes the character work is the performance. Noel comes across as a being perpetually out of his element–confused, well-meaning, a bit slow on the uptake, but given to moments of rage and savagery. The scene where he gets the upper hand on the dog that attacked him and is about to strangle the life out of it while everyone watches helplessly, is genuinely chilling.

I’m not saying he makes the idea of a human who is really an ape believable, exactly, but he comes as close as I think we could hope someone would. Noel is sympathetic but obviously deeply untrustworthy, just like you couldn’t actually trust an ape, no matter how well-trained it is.

What would I change about this movie? Well, two things, really. The first is the way that the truth about Noel is revealed. It mostly comes out in a scene near the middle of the film, when Renault believes that Noel is responsible for the movie’s deaths so far. Some of the details are vague but most of the major points are made pretty clear. I’d have kept this less explicit–maybe just have Renault using his whip to push Noel into his cage, and along with some vague comments about the fact that he’s been changed by Renault’s experiments. Then, leave all the big reveals for the scene at the climax when Forbes finds Renault’s notes. That scene already plays like it’s a big reveal scene; I thought it’d be a lot more compelling for the audience to learn the truth at the same time as one of the heroes.

The other thing has to do with the story’s mystery, and is what I was referring to about the story beats being mostly satisfactory. Dr. Renault’s Secret is often described as a “horror mystery film” and I think that’s accurate. It starts with the mysterious death of the traveler, Mr. Austin, and even indulges a police investigation, complete with clues and interrogations and so on. Later there are two more mysterious events–the death of the dog, and the unseen would-be murderer who nearly attacks Forbes with a knife. All of this is a big part of the movie, so it’s a bit that none of it ends up fully explained.

Well, actually, it all feels pretty clear to me, but based on my glancing around online, there seem to be some interpretations out that there that aren’t in line with my own views.

To me, it’s pretty obvious that the known criminal Rogell is responsible pretty much all of the things I’ve mentioned. He killed Austin thinking he was killing Forbes for his money (not realising they had switched rooms), he killed the dog to prevent it from barking when he planned to kidnap Madeline, and he attempted to kill Forbes again either for his money or to keep him out of the way from the kidnapping. I’m not saying it’s the smoothest storytelling, but it the solution that fits best everything else that we’ve seen.

The other popular theory of course is that it’s Noel. He had motives as well–Austin had insulted Madeline (whom Noel was devoted to), Forbes was threatening to take Madeline away by marrying her, and the dog had outright attacked him. I’ve seen it said that the brutal murders Noel later commits are the proof that he’s responsible for the earlier ones, but if that were the intention, it doesn’t really fit. Noel does not seem the sort to cry out in a panicked French when he’s startled, he’s not the sort to attack with a knife or to kill a dog by hanging it (although to be fair, who would do that?) More importantly, when asked about it all by Renault he clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, while when Rogell is asked about the same things, he’s obviously evasive.

I don’t know, maybe I’m out of my mind, but it just doesn’t seem like much of a question to me.

So all that to say, I wish the movie had just taken a minute or two to just pay off fully the questions it had set up. Leaving things kind of vague doesn’t come across as a stylistic or storytelling choice, but just an oversight, and sloppy storytelling.

Still, I enjoyed Dr. Renault’s Secret. It’s presents a far out idea in a story that never fails to grip, full of lively personalities and interesting locations and some genuinely horrifying moments.

Other Thoughts:

• This is the second film I’ve watched in this series, after Man Made Monster, in which a dog and its relationship with a monster is important to the plot.

Unfortunately, the dog in this movie comes to a much sorrier end than the cute Corky did last time.

Edited to add

• I was wondering where I knew J. Carrol Naish from and then came across (semi-randomly) information that he played Dr. Daka in the infamously racist Batman serial from 1943. He did a good job there too but of course it’s hard to really consider his performance in light of the fact that he did it in “yellow face.”

Here in Dr. Renault’s Secret, the situation is a bit confusing because he’s playing an ape turned into a human, but a human who is supposed to plausibly be passing for Javanese, at least to the other French and American characters. So is it inappropriate? Err, probably, but it’s a bit of an odder case.