Where Does It Hurt? | |
---|---|
Directed by | Rod Amateau |
Written by | Rod Amateau (novel, screenplay) Budd Robinson (novel) |
Starring |
Peter Sellers Jo Ann Pflug Rick Lenz Pat Morita Harold Gould |
Music by | Keith Allison |
Cinematography | Brick Marquard |
Edited by |
Mario Morra Stanley Rabjohn |
Production
company |
Josef Shaftel Productions Inc.
|
Distributed by |
Cinerama Releasing Corporation (1972, original) American International Pictures (re-release) |
Release date
|
September 29, 1972 | (USA)
Running time
|
87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Where Does it Hurt? is a 1972 American comedy film written and directed by Rod Amateau, starring Peter Sellers, Jo Ann Pflug, Rick Lenz, Pat Morita, and Harold Gould. The film is a darkly satirical look at capitalism in a hospital environment.
Sellers plays hospital administrator Albert T. Hopfnagel, who oversees a facility that is more interested in generating revenue than it is in providing sound medical care.
When construction worker Lester Hammond (Lenz) shows up needing nothing more than a chest X-ray, he is immediately admitted and subjected to a battery of tests. Hopfnagel rides the staff to perform more unnecessary surgeries and pad patient bills, while making time with multiple female staff members. When Hopfnagel finally ends up in jail for his devious deeds, he plots a revenge in which he will return to the hospital as a patient and be given an unnecessary operation that he can then sue the hospital over. But the plan backfires.
In a response typical of the film’s reception upon release, TV Guide describes it by saying, “The language is profane, the proceedings inane, and the story insane…If you hate doctors, Mexicans, homosexuals, blacks, females, Catholics, Jews, Italians, Japanese, insurance companies, hospitals, Poles, and humanity, you'll love this movie.” Nonetheless, the film holds a 67% fresh rating, based on 142 reviews, on Rotten Tomatoes.