Kick-Back Friday: #199
The Hospital (1971): Paddy Chayefsky’s biting satire of the bureaucracy and incompetence of inpatient care, some of which rings true 40 years later…sadly. George C. Scott plays a suicidal Chief of Medicine, who simultaneously confronts serial murders in his big-city medical center. A zone of confusion, the hospital is also beset by some serious 60s-type social anarchy from community activists. Chayefsky’s story goes off the rails during a prolonged encounter between Scott’s character and the daughter of a comatose inpatient (played by Diana Rigg and Barnard Hughes, respectively). But the film still amuses owing to the fact that several actors—including Nancy Marchand, Frances Sternhagen, and an uncredited Stockard Channing—were cast in bit roles.
A buried joke:
Patient: At 9:15 this morning I rang for my nurse.
Doctor: You rang for your nurse?
Patient: To ensure one full hour of uninterrupted privacy.
A native East Tennessean, Barbara Martin is a formerly practicing, board-certified neurologist who received her BS (psychology, summa cum laude) and MD from Duke University before completing her postgraduate training (internship, residency, fellowship) at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She has worked in academia, private practice, medical publishing, drug market research, and continuing medical education (CME). For the last 3 years, she has worked in a freelance capacity as a medical writer, analyst, and consultant. Follow Dr. Barbara Martin on Google + and Twitter.
