The Hospital

Director: Arthur Hiller Arthur Hiller

Overview

Hospital is a black comedy about a bitter, suicidal doctor (George C. Scott) whose hospital is being destroyed by the murders of several staff members, as well as the staff's own ineptness. Eventually, he falls in love with a young woman (Diana Rigg), who just makes his world more confusing. The film is a black satire, and the witty, satirical Academy Award-winning screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky makes it a very entertaining comedy.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/20/2022
UPC:	0850035985533
Original Release:	1971
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Sandpiper Pictures
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:43:00
Sales rank:	15,292

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

George C. Scott	Dr. Herbert Bock
Diana Rigg	Barbara Drummond
Barnard Hughes	Drummond,Mrs. Donovan,Mrs. Donovan
Richard A. Dysart	Dr. Welbeck
Andrew Duncan	William Mead
Nancy Marchand	Mrs. Christie
Stephen Elliott	Sunstrom
Donald Harron	Milton Mead
Roberts Blossom	Guernsey
Lenny Baker	Dr. Schaefer
Robert Walden	Dr. Brubaker
Frances Sternhagen	Mrs. Cushing
Lori Davis	Nurse Divine
Norman Berns	Dr. Biegelman
Arthur Junaluska	Indian
Rehn Scofield	Dr. Spezio
Jordan Charney	Hitchcock
Cynthia Belgrave	Nurse Reardon
Julie Garfield	Nurse Perez
Jan Sarno	Nurse Rivers
Angie Ortega	Nurse Campanella
Charles Bershatsky	Medical Student Boswell
Paul Mace	Intern Ambler
David Hooks	Dr. Einhorn
Kate Harrington	Nurse Dunne
Lou Polan	Dr. Lagerman
Richard Goode	Dr. Sutcliffe
Douglas Owen	Mallory
Reid Cruickshanks	Chief Engineer
Paul Jott	Administrative Resident
Jacqueline Brookes	Dr. Immelman
Ruth Attaway Morrison	Circulating Nurse
Lee Beery	Mead's Secretary
Christopher Guest	Resident
Sabina Grant	Nurse X,Black Panther
Bette Henritze	Mrs. Kimball
Tom Spratley	Mitgang
Robert Anthony	Dr. Ives
Katherine Helmond	Marilyn Mead
William Perlow	Cardiac Arrest Doctor
Alex Colon	Young Lord
Milton Earl Forrest	Militant Leader
Carolyn Krigbaum	Gloria Lebow
Paul Whaley	Hospital Spokesman
Nancy MacKay	Sheilah
Stockard Channing	Actor
Lorrie Davis	Nurse Divine
Richard Hamilton	Dr. Ronald Casey
Yossif Surchadijev	Composer

Technical Credits

Paddy Chayefsky

Arthur Hiller	Director
Paddy Chayefsky	Screenwriter
Howard Gottfried	Producer
Jack Grossberg	Producer
Dennis L. Maitland	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A piece of early '70s social commentary and a de facto warm-up for Network (1976), writer Paddy Chayefsky takes on the medical system in The Hospital (1971). Devised as a satire that could later pass for social realism in an HMO-ruled culture, the matter-of-fact pre-credits voice-over accounting how medical malfeasance resulted in an empty bed for a sexual tryst caustically sets the tone for what follows. Bureaucracy, publicity-hungry "radical" protesters, murders, overcrowding, and sloppy medicine are but a few of the problems that push George C. Scott's honorable Dr. Bock to the suicidal edge. Hippie Diana Rigg's invitation to flee south of the border actually makes sense. Bock's death wish illuminates the genuine pathos and hopelessness caused by the systemic breakdown, but the near-slapstick climax and final cynical summation by Bock's colleague inject bitter levity into the drama. Coming off his blockbuster success with Love Story (1970), director Arthur Hiller earned artistic kudos and a prize at the Berlin Film Festival for The Hospital. Dr. Bock's despair, passion, and resignation earned recalcitrant Oscar-winner Scott another nomination for Best Actor. Chayefsky himself won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, an award he would win again for Network's satirical attack of TV culture.