Le Cas du Dr Laurent (1957)
Directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois

Film Review

Although it now looks a bit too much like a public information film, Le Cas du docteur Laurent is an engaging drama that allows the iconic actor Jean Gabin to play a more sympathetic and humane character than was usually the case in the second half of his career. In stark contrast to the stern patriarchal persona that Gabin adopted in later years here he plays a warm-hearted doctor motivated purely by altruism. So convincing is his performance that you could genuinely believe he was an experienced medical practitioner - certainly the best exponent of psycho-prophylactic child birth the medical profession could have asked for. The film's authenticity is heightened by its extensive use of natural locations (Saint-Martin-Vésubie in the Provence region), which lends a realistic portrait of a remote village community anchored in its past.  The filming of an actual child birth at the end of the film would have been quite revolutionary at the time and you wonder how many male members of the audience fainted during the screening.

The film was directed in a suitably low-key manner by Jean-Paul Le Chanois, who had a track record of dealing with the important social and moral themes of the day. A few years previously he had had a massive hit with Papa, maman, la bonne et moi... (1954), which dealt with the very topical problem of the scarcity of housing in post-war France, and before this he had challenged the failings of the French education system in L'École buissonnière (1949) and society's attitudes to single parents in Sans laisser d'adresse (1951). After this succcesful first collaboration with Gabin, Le Chanois would work with the actor on three subsequent films, including the overblown blockbuster Les Misérables (1958) and engaging comedy Le Jardinier d'Argenteuil (1966).

Film Synopsis

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...