The Hospital
| The Hospital | |
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Artwork
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| Directed by | Arthur Hiller |
| Produced by | Howard Gottfried |
| Written by | Paddy Chayefsky |
| Starring |
George C. Scott Diana Rigg Barnard Hughes Richard A. Dysart Stephen Elliott Andrew Duncan Donald Harron Nancy Marchand |
| Narrated by | Paddy Chayefsky |
| Music by | Morris Surdin |
| Cinematography | Victor J. Kemper |
| Edited by | Eric Albertson |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $14,142,409 $9,042,000 (rentals) |
The Hospital is a 1971 satirical film by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Arthur Hiller. It stars George C. Scott as Dr. Herbert Bock. The Hospital was written by Paddy Chayefsky, who was awarded the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Chayefsky also narrates the film and was one of the producers; he had complete control over the casting and content of the film.
At a Manhattan teaching hospital, the life of Dr. Bock (George C. Scott), the Chief of Medicine, is in disarray: his wife has left him, his children don't talk to him, and his once-beloved teaching hospital is falling apart.
The hospital is dealing with the sudden deaths of two doctors and a nurse. These are attributed to coincidental or unavoidable failures to provide accurate treatment.
At the same time, administrators must deal with a protest against the hospital's annexation of an adjacent and decrepit apartment building. The annexation is to be used for a drug rehabilitation center; the building's current occupants demand that the hospital find them replacement housing before the building is demolished despite the building being condemned sometime before.
As Dr. Bock complains of impotence and has thoughts of suicide, he falls for Barbara Drummond (Diana Rigg), a patient's daughter who came with her father from Mexico for his treatment. This temporarily gives Dr. Bock something to live for after Barbara confronts him.
The deaths are discovered to have been initiated by Barbara's father (Barnard Hughes), as retribution for the "inhumanity" of modern medical treatment. Drummond's victims would have been saved if they'd received prompt, appropriate treatment—but they didn't. Dr. Bock and Barbara use a final, accidental death of a doctor at the hospital to cover Drummond's tracks. Barbara then takes her father back to JFK airport to escape back to Mexico, leaving Dr. Bock at his insistence to try and organize the chaotic Hospital.
It was filmed at Metropolitan Hospital Center in New York.
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Wikipedia