The title is a common variation of a line from Hippocrates, the Greek Father of Medicine: "Life is short, art is long, decision difficult, and experiment perilous." The line is recited by Nick Bederaux in the film.
To create all the snow, 100 tons of ice and six snow machines were used.
Hedy Lamarr was on loan to RKO for this film. She'd make only one more film for MGM before leaving the studio in 1945, ending her seven-year contract.
In her admittedly ghostwritten autobiography "Ecstasy and Me", Lamarr said that "the picture I like myself best in is Experiment Perilous...It had a touch of all those popular films like Hantise (1944) and Soupçons (1941) where a husband tortures his wife psychologically. It is a theme that fascinated me, with reverse English. I was often the victim of a husband, but it was my own strength that broke the bonds." Writing that the film was her first on loan-out from MGM, Lamarr noted that "it was the first time I worked at RKO. Everyone treated me like a queen. Never did a movie go so smoothly. One day when John (John Loder, actor and Lamarr's third husband) visited me on the set I was so happy with my working on the lot that I convinced John he should move there from Warner's. He got caught up on my enthusiasm and did. Even after we were divorced, he said it was the smartest career move he had ever made."
In her admittedly ghostwritten autobiography "Ecstasy and Me", Lamarr said that "the picture I like myself best in is Experiment Perilous...It had a touch of all those popular films like Hantise (1944) and Soupçons (1941) where a husband tortures his wife psychologically. It is a theme that fascinated me, with reverse English. I was often the victim of a husband, but it was my own strength that broke the bonds." Writing that the film was her first on loan-out from MGM, Lamarr noted that "it was the first time I worked at RKO. Everyone treated me like a queen. Never did a movie go so smoothly. One day when John (John Loder, actor and Lamarr's third husband) visited me on the set I was so happy with my working on the lot that I convinced John he should move there from Warner's. He got caught up on my enthusiasm and did. Even after we were divorced, he said it was the smartest career move he had ever made."
This film was a prestigious A-budget picture from RKO, stylishly directed by Jacques Tourneur who recently had been moved up from B-movie status based on his successful work for producer Val Lewton on films such as L'Homme-léopard (1943) and La Féline (1942).
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