Set in German-occupied France during WWII, DR. PETIOT is a chilling portrait of a man driven by greed to commit unspeakable acts. This 1990 French film, released to US home video in 1994, is based on the true story of Dr. Marcel Petiot, who was executed in 1946, accused of over 60 murders
and eventually convicted of 27.
By day, Dr. Petiot (Michel Serrault) is a loving husband and father and a seemingly compassionate doctor, who treats poor patients without accepting payment. By night, he is a vile opportunist who capitalizes on the plight of persecuted Jews. Promising safe conduct to Argentina, Petiot meets his
victims in the dead of night and lures them back to his clinic to await a smuggler who never appears. Instead the doctor, under the guise of providing a vaccination necessary for transit, injects each one with a lethal dose of poison. He disposes of the bodies by chopping them up and feeding them
into his basement furnace. Petiot is paid handsomely by the fleeing Jews who seek his services, and he adds to his plunder by stealing their valuables.
Dr. Petiot's crimes go undetected until billows of foul-smelling smoke coming from his clinic alarm neighbors, and the authorities are summoned. Petiot manages to escape and the story is picked up after some time has passed and he has assumed several different identities. He is working as an
interrogator of Nazi collaborators when he makes his fatal mistake. Angered by newspaper accounts depicting Petiot as a monster, he sends a handwritten letter to the press defending his actions and claiming to have only killed traitors to France. A supervisor notes his odd behavior and compares
his handwriting to the published confession, and Petiot is apprehended.
Despite its grisly subject matter, DR. PETIOT is not a blood-and-guts horror entry. The gruesome details of the murders are thankfully left to the imagination, and though an occasional dismembered head or limb pops up, the effect is never stomach-churning. A light treatment punctuated by black
humor and a lively performance by Serrault mutes the horrific nature of Petiot's crimes. Instead of straight narrative, the film offers snippets of the doctor's life, fascinating glimpses into the psyche of one of history's most monstrous murderers. Serrault gives a spirited performance as the
madman who finds unabashed glee in his work, dancing around the room as he ransacks the luggage of his victims. The sinister impression is heightened by the dark circles under his eyes and the gray cast of the entire film. The score varies from eerie strains, played by an old man on a saw, to the
lively tunes Petiot plays when preparing for the kill.
Mad doctors abound in moviedom, and parallels to DR. PETIOT can be found in DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, 10 RILLINGTON PLACE and Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse movies. An obvious subtext of this film, French complicity in the Holocaust, is treated with perhaps too much delicacy:
the viewer is never compelled to ponder why Petiot's crimes seemed morally outrageous to citizens who were little troubled by the official extermination of Jews in occupied France. (Violence, extensive nudity, adult situations.) leave a comment
