The Hospital is a 1971 American absurdist satirical black comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller and starring George C. Scott as Dr. Herbert Bock. It 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.
In 1995, The Hospital was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
At a Manhattan teaching hospital, the life of Dr. Bock, the Chief of Medicine, is in disarray: he has left his wife, 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.
Dr. Bock admits to impotence and has thoughts of suicide, but falls in love with Barbara Drummond, 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 challenges and engages with him.
The deaths are discovered to have been caused by Barbara's father as retribution for the "inhumanity" of modern medical treatment. Drummond takes no personal responsibility, claiming his victims would have been saved if they had received prompt, appropriate treatment, but they did not. Dr. Bock and Barbara use a final, accidental death of a doctor at the hospital to cover Drummond's misdeeds. Barbara makes plans to fly with her father back to Mexico. Dr. Bock at first intends to go with them, but at the last minute, driven by his sense of obligation, he insists on staying behind at the hospital so that it will not descend into total chaos.
Cast
George C. Scott as Dr. Herbert "Herb" Bock
Diana Rigg as Miss Barbara Drummond
Robert Walden as Dr. Brubaker
Barnard Hughes as Edward Drummond (credited) and Dr. Mallory (uncredited) Richard A. Dysart as Dr. Welbeck Stephen Elliott as Dr. John Sundstrom Andrew Duncan as William "Willie" Mead Donald Harron as Milton Mead Nancy Marchand as Mrs. Christie, Head of Nurses Jordan Charney as Hitchcock, Hospital Administration Roberts Blossom as Guernsey Lenny Baker as Dr. Howard Schaefer Richard Hamilton as Dr. Ronald Casey Arthur Junaluska as Mr. Blacktree Kate Harrington as Nurse Dunne Katherine Helmond as Mrs. Marilyn Mead David Hooks as Dr. Joe Einhorn Frances Sternhagen as Mrs. Sally Cushing Stockard Channing as E.R. Nurse (uncredited) Dennis Dugan as E.R. Doctor (uncredited)
Production
It was filmed at Metropolitan Hospital Center in New York. Frank Thompson designed the costumes for the film.
Reception
Box office
The film earned $9 million in North American rentals.
Critical response
When the film was released, film critic Roger Ebert lauded the film, writing, "The Hospital is a better movie than you may have been led to believe. It has been criticized for switching tone in midstream, but maybe it's only heading for deeper, swifter waters. [...] Chayevsky's [sic] bizarre and unexpected ending suggests that men—even madmen—can still use institutions for their own private purpose."
The New York Times found the film “a very serious (in fact, perhaps, a little too serious), very funny melodramatic farce ... [it] is not, as you might be led to believe, the sort of pious, inside-institution literature that Arthur Hailey grinds out to satisfy the book clubs, if not the muses, nor is it really one of those malpractice horror stores that are so helpful in obtaining lecture tours for medical men ... the writer’s intelligence, and his only recently exercised gift for fantasy ... save ‘The Hospital’ from a couple of serious seizures that, toward the end, overtake the movie when it feels called upon to certify its serious purposes and to straighten out its peculiar plot ... Mr. Hiller ... obtains excellent performances from his stars [and] has perfectly cast the film down to roles that are so small they depend—I suspect—as much on natural mannerism as on acting talent.”