EXPERIMENT PERILOUS

Gothic roccoco plot with modern trappings, ably done, for --let's say -- the Rebecca market. Contented Dr. Bailey, New York bound, meets an appealing spinster on the plane, learns enough of her story to catch his interest, finds himself obsessed with speculation about her, and suggests that she stay at his hotel. The next morning he learns she has died at her brother's home, and he determines to close the door on the incident. But chance, circumstance and curiosity, plus real apprehension, forbid him to remain inactive and he finds himself drawn deeper into the plot. From newspaper files, from friends, from meeting her brother and his wife, he pursues his search for the whole background of her death, A mixup in luggage, the discovery of her diary, and her brother's insistence that his wife is going mad, ultimately terminate in a melodramatic climax. Logical buildup to a lurid finale, that, because of the plausibility of the telling rings true while in the process of reading. But -- with some objectivity -- you see it for what it is. Entertainment value, solely.