Le Cas du Dr Laurent (1957) - film review

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...

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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