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The Hospital (1971)

 -  Comedy | Drama  -  31 August 1972 (Mexico)
7.1
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Ratings: 7.1/10 from 3,159 users  
Reviews: 58 user | 10 critic

Black comedy in which a suicidal doctor struggles to find meaning in his life while a murderer stalks the halls of his hospital.

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Title: The Hospital (1971)

The Hospital (1971) on IMDb 7.1/10

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Won 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations. See more awards »

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
Dr.Herbert Bock
...
Barbara Drummond
...
Drummond
...
Dr. Welbeck (as Richard A. Dysart)
Stephen Elliott ...
Dr. Sundstrom
Donald Harron ...
Milton Mead
Andrew Duncan ...
William Mead
...
Mrs. Christie
Jordan Charney ...
Hitchcock
...
Guernsey
Lenny Baker ...
Dr. Schaefer
Richard Hamilton ...
Dr. Ronald Casey
Arthur Junaluska ...
Mr. Blacktree
Kate Harrington ...
Nurse Dunne
...
Marilyn Mead
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Storyline

Herbert Bock is chief of medicine in a major teaching hospital. His wife has left him, he is impotent and his children have both disowned him. He is toying with the idea of suicide when patients begin dying, not from complications, but from the erroneous treatments the Hospital is giving them. People in the wrong beds are given wrong medicines, sent to operating theaters for incorrect surgery, and found in waiting rooms dead of natural causes. Barbara Drummond has come to take her comatose father back to the Sioux reservation where he operates a clinic and they each reach out to each other for emotional support, as a shadowy figure stalks the patients and staff of the hospital. Written by John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

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Watch them operate! See more »

Genres:

Comedy | Drama

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual content and drug references | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

31 August 1972 (Mexico)  »

Also Known As:

Right Smack Into the Wind  »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Barnard Hughes appears in a dual role in this movie. In addition to his role as Drummond, he also plays (under make-up and hairpiece) hysterectomy surgeon Dr. Mallory. See more »

Goofs

In the Emergency Room, the dead patient's eyes and head change positions between the time Mrs. Cushing and Dr. Spezio look at him. See more »

Quotes

Herbert Bock: Now what in hell am I going to tell this boy Schaefer's parents? That a substitute nurse assassinated him because she couldn't tell the doctors from the patients on the floor?
See more »

Crazy Credits

Although Barnard Hughes played two distinct roles, the end credits lists Hughes as playing the role of Drummond but not Dr. Mallory. See more »

Connections

Referenced in The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978) See more »

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User Reviews

"We Cure NOTHING! We Heal NOTHING!"
8 March 2000 | by (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) – See all my reviews

A profoundly disturbing character study more than anything, this film, masterfully written by Paddy Chayefsky, manages to convey such bitterness and disgust in it's point of view, it can not even be topped by the also Chayefsky stamped 'Network'.

Thinly disguised as a black comedy, this is the tale of Herbert Bock, whose family problems and working issues - the huge Manhattan hospital in which he works in is as civilized as a concentration camp - lead him to contemplate suicide.

Then, beautiful Diana Rigg - thee who knows Dame Diana solely as a Bond Girl, does not know her AT ALL - steps into the dreary settings, - Barbara, the character she perfectly portrays, is there to take her mentally ill father, which just happens to be a serial, gospel-bound, murderer, out of the madness of the hospital - , and into George C. Scott's seemingly frozen heart...

Events do not lead to a happy ending. Events do not lead to an ending at all... however, it exposes the never ending cycle life is reduced to. Joy, bliss... several feelings revolving one's own being, no matter what surrounds him... and all these several feelings leading you right back where you've started. It's like Chayefsky was trying to say how meaningless and plodding existing is...

If you can't understand anything I just said, you will, as soon as you hear the last line... "It's like p***ing in the wind... right, Herb?"...


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