Robert J. Maxwell It's a quickie B movie that has much of 20th-Century Fox's talents hard at work on this story of a mad scientist, George Zucco, who has captured an ape in Java, performed some "nerve graft" surgery on him, and has brought him back to France to live with him and his niece in a château. The nerve grafts don't quite work.Oh, J. Carrol Naish is usually passive enough and he looks human, if only barely, but he's sensitive about being part simian and he's devoted to Zucco's niece. When he hears insults directed at monkeys, apes, or Madelon, even if they're meant as jokes, he gets hijacked by his amygdala and starts murdering people in the little French village. I mean, his pathetic in his devotion to Madelon and in his shame at his Pongid nature, but he goes too far when he starts throwing bodies out of closed windows and strangling Mike Mazurki. Enough is enough. Before the police and the clean-cut Shepperd Strudwick can nail Naish, he's shot mortally by Mazurki and dies with tears in his eyes.That reminds me. J. Carrol Naish was born into an Irish family in New York. He's played men of every conceivable ethnicity on screen and, earlier, on radio. He's been an Indian (both American and Asian), an Arab, and mostly an Italian. Every once in a while, Luigi, The Little Immigrant sneaks out in Naish's Tarzan-level speech. Let me think. The requisite police inspector is Arthur Shields, brother of Barry Fitzgerald, a bred-in-the-bone Irishman. That's two Irishmen. And Mike Mazurki is of Ukranian descent. Zucco is Italian-American. Roberts and Strudwick are both WASPS. If there was a French actor in the cast, I missed him or her.It's not a complicated movie and it's tempo is quick. Events follow one another like the ticking of a clock. The secret isn't a secret for very long. But there are a couple of good scenes. In the village, one of the men who insulted monkeys is a barber. The barber enters his shop during a festival, only to find a sullen Naish sitting in the chair. "I want shave." The barber, having just seen the dead body of the other scurrilous man who insulted monkeys, gulps, and says, "It's a little late for a shave, don't you think, Noel?" "I want shave." Naish is fiercely jealous of Madelon, to whom he is devoted in his apish fashion, and he hates Strudwick for wanting to marry her and take her away to America. At night, when Strudwick is sitting in a chair reading some abstruse scientific material, a conveniently placed sliding panel silently opens in the wall behind him and a dark hand clutching a knife emerges. Something calls Strudwick away just before the knife can plunge into his quivering neck.A promising beginning, with a truck pulling up in front of a French saloon, with rain and gaiety providing atmosphere. Then it collapses. The studio must have been jealous of all the money being made at Universal Studios with cheap crap like "Frankenstein Meets The Seven Dwarfs" and tried to imitate it. You know, monkey see, monkey do?No, no, wait, Noel! I didn't mean that as an insult to monkeys. No, please! ARGHHH.

kidboots "Dr. Renault's Secret" is a remake of "The Wizard" a lost film from 1927 that was in turn based on "Balaoo" a 1912 short story by Gaston Leroux. In "The Wizard" the plot involved a mad doctor (Gustav Von Seyffertitz) using an ape like creature to seek revenge on those he considers responsible for his son's execution. It was more of a comedy horror, with a couple of dumb detectives - a genre that was very much in vogue in the late 20s. "Dr. Renault's Secret" doesn't play it for laughs - in fact it tries to bring a lot of sensitivity to the distasteful subject matter.Dr. Larry Forbes (John Sheppard) arrives in France (the locale of the original Leroux story) to meet his fiancée Madelon Renault (Lynne Roberts), the niece of Dr. Renault (George Zucco) another scientist. He is greeted by Noel (J. Carroll Naish), a zombie like creature who has a strange affection for Madelon. He also meets Rogell (Mike Mazurki), Renault's gardener, who by intimidation keeps the villagers in fear. Next morning one of the guests at the inn is found murdered - he had accidentally fallen asleep in Forbe's room. Suspicion falls on Rogell and he does nothing to show he is innocent. Weird things begin to happen when Forbes arrives at Dr. Renault's. Noel almost has a car accident when he "senses" a dog on the road - the same dog who savagely attacks him before the evening is over.If you watch the original trailer (that is on the DVD I have) it gives almost everything away. Dr. Renault's secret is - he has captured an ape in Java and through experimentation and plastic surgery has tried to make him more human like. J. Carroll Naish engages your sympathy from the start, not only with his plaintive voice which is like a slow motion Peter Lorre but he also carries himself in a hunched fashion with a simian walk. George Zucco is the repellent Dr. Renault, who keeps Noel in a fearful, subservient state with the help of a huge whip. It is interesting that Rogell is part of an experiment as well - a failed experiment because Rogell, coming from a family of criminals, his bad character is ingrained in him and will never change. A spate of murders happen in the village and from the start it is not hard to figure out who it is - with shots of a concerned Noel looking at his hands!!!George Zucco was a British stage actor who earned the nickname at Universal "One Take Zucco". He appeared in so many monster flicks in the 40s ("The Mad Ghoul", "Voodoo Man", "Fog Island") usually for smaller independents that if you look up Mad Doctor or Mad Scientist in the dictionary you will probably find his picture.P.S. The print I viewed was so clear that I could even see strings used as a pulley when Rogell was thrown in the water.Highly Recommended.

sol1218 ***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.

cliff-p I watched this movie on a videotape which was rather dark but I enjoyed the film. I have been watching horror films for 45 years and through the miracle of NTSC imports, I'm trying to catch up with those that I have missed. And I'm seeing some stinkers! This however is a reasonable example of the genre, the standouts being Arthur Sheilds, J.Carrol Naish and Mike Mazurki. Unusually, George Zucco hasn't got much to do in the title role. Noel the ape-man is very fortunate and obviously a skilful driver as he handles the Rolls Phantom II very well and can see round corners (when he avoids the dog). Very useful. Not a film for those who are not connoiseurs. Also not much effort given to the cliche creepy bits, but definitely miles better than a Monogram effort.