The man who killed in cold blood (aka Traitement de choc) is a thriller written and directed by Alain Jessua in 1973. In the film, Alain Delon plays a doctor involved in a particular rejuvenation therapy within a futuristic clinic. A very interesting theme but one that was poorly developed.
The history of The man who killed in cold blood (France, Italy - 1973) in fact, drags slowly, without tension or twists, toward an ending that can be easily imagined. The horror part of the film in fact resides only in the last minutes of the film, in the revealing sequence about the real "material" used for experimentation.
Of this thriller, the character played by Alain Delon certainly remains imprinted: a manipulative, money-grubbing man who enslaves the poor (in this case, immigrants in his service) and enslaves the powerful (even seducing rich women), promising them the elixir of eternal youth. Argument, this, that has always haunted man.
Like a puppet master, Dr. Devilers thus manipulates the strings of his clients' lives, annihilating their personalities and reducing them to useless, grotesque shells of society (whose system the film itself seems to harshly criticize).
Reeling from a failed romance, entrepreneur Hélène Masson (Annie Girardot) reaches the state-of-the-art clinic of Dr. Devilers (Alain Delon). There, patients undergo a tissue rejuvenation therapy derived from animal experiments, to which distinguished political and financial figures also resort. A relationship develops between Hélène and the doctor, but the woman cannot help but notice the mysterious disappearance of the facility's orderlies.
In the cast: Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Robert Hirsch, Michel Duchaussoy, Gabriel Cattand, Jeanne Colletin, Robert Party, Jean Roquel, Roger Muni, Lucienne Legrand, Anne-Marie Deschodt.
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The man who killed in cold blood is part of Sinister Film's "Horror d'Essai" series. The DVD is distributed by CG Entertainment.
The version offered by the label features Italian and French audio, while the extras section includes a photo gallery.
DVD Edition:
VIDEO: 16/9 1.66:1
LENGTH: 91′
AUDIO: Italian Dolby Digital Dual Mono, French Dolby Digital Dual Mono
N. DISKS: 1
Subtitles: Italian
Extras: Photo Gallery
