Summary
Docteur Laurent leaves Paris to start a new practice in a French mountain community.
At first, he is treated as an outsider and shunned by the locals. Then, after he
has given a talk on a new pain-free method of child birth, the women of the little village
begin to warm to him. However, some people are determined to oppose his new methods...
Review
Although it now looks a bit too much like a public information film, Le Cas du docteur
Laurent is an engaging film which is worth watching if only for Jean Gabin’s solid
performance. The Gabin of this film is a warm-hearted doctor, a man of principle
who believes he is doing good and is determined to persuade people to go along with him.
The great actor lacks none of the charisma of his earlier years and he appears as probably
the best exponent of psycho-prophylactic child birth the medical profession could have
asked for.
The location filming is exemplary and really does help to create the impression of a remote
village community anchored in its past. The filming of the child birth at the end
of the film must have been quite revolutionary at the time but lends a sympathetic touch
as well as conveniently resolving the moral issue which the film raises.
© James Travers 2002
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