Thursday, September 24, 2020

Thursday Night, September 24, is “Doctors’ Night,” at TCM, with Phil Karlson’s The Young Doctors (1961), Starring Fredric March and Ben Gazzara, and Paddy Chayefsky’s The Hospital (1971), Starring George C. Scott and Diana Rigg; Bonus: Notes on TV’s Wonderland (2000)

By David in TN
Wednesday, September 23, 2020 at 8:56:00 P.M. EDT

At 9:30 p.m. ET, Phil Karlson’s The Young Doctors (1961), stars Fredric March and Ben Gazzara as two pathologists, old and young, who clash over how the job should be done at their big-city hospital.

At 11:30 p.m. ET, TCM shows The Hospital (1971), scripted by Paddy Chayefsky, starring George C. Scott and Diana Rigg. The Hospital has been called a Black Comedy.

A suicidal, much-honored doctor (Scott) takes up with a rebellious young woman (Rigg). Meanwhile doctors are dropping dead in the hospital and other strange things happen. Idiot protestors are causing trouble. Sound familiar? Meanwhile a mad patient runs amok.

Paddy Chayefsky was a left winger of a sort, but didn’t like everything the Left did. He hated the Left’s anti-Semitism. The protestors don’t look good.

Both movies are favorites of mine.

N.S.: It sounds like The Hospital was a source of inspiration for a brilliant TV show, Wonderland (2000), that was set in a pseudonymous version of the Bellevue Hospital psycho ward.

Although IMDB.com cites eight episodes, the head-shrinkers’ cartel got Wonderland killed after a mere two episodes.

Twenty years later, I still remember scenes from those two episodes.

In the first one, the head head-shrinker (Ted Levine, the serial killer from The Silence of the Lambs, 1991), a devoted dad of two toddler boys, finds himself in an ugly custody battle with his ex (Patricia Clarkson). As part of the court case, he has to submit to an observation by the boys’ guardian ad litem of his interaction with his sons. Without any suggestions from him, the devoted boys take off Daddy’s shoes, in order to help him relax.

The second episode opened with a scene of psycho Leland Orser (the lone survivor of a plane crash caused by human incompetence in Saving Private Ryan, 1998: “All that for one man.”) getting off the subway in midtown Manhattan and causing mayhem. The character gets brought to the psych ward, where he promptly stabs hot, pregnant, young head-shrinker Michelle Forbes (the medical examiner for the last three years of Homicide: Life on the Street) in the belly.

Just about everything was shot with a hand-held camera, work which was probably influenced by the early years of NYPD Blue, though Wonderland was shot by different cameramen.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

1971 was in that range of years that created some great,great movies.Have never seen "The Hospital".Can't see it Thursday either--just have basic cable.
--GRA

Anonymous said...

BLACK WINS "AMERICA'S GOT TALENT--WITH NO TALENT!
GRA:I don't watch this much anymore--too many acts that rely on tragedy,illness or some other catastrophe,as background to their act.

"I came from a broken home,""I had cancer,""My dog died,"All my friends are in prison,I'm trying not to go," I'm doing this for my parents who lost their home."
Etc.

I didn't see it last night,but googled the results a little while ago.
Surprise!A blackie won the vote total(supposedly).I watched a Youtube vid of his act--rap--with no music.Just black poetry --which was garbage.Billboard,below,disagrees.

9/23/2020 by Billboard Staff



The results are in. And the winner of America’s Got Talent 2020 is…Brandon Leake.

The Stockton, California native blew away the competition and captivated millions with his emotional spoken word pieces throughout the series.

And on Wednesday night’s final, he took the season 15 crown.

Leake has performed his inspiring routines around the globe, and scored Howie Mandel’s Golden Buzzer in an earlier round of AGT.


When the votes were tallied, he placed atop a talented grand final group that was stacked with singers.
GRA:A talent show goes PC and ruins itself--very few Whites allowed on here--and the ones that do appear,have as much chance of surviving
to the finals as a White person would,walking the south Chicago ghetto after sunset.
--GRA

Anonymous said...

NNN ATTEMPTS TO INFLUENCE PUBLIC OPINION ON TAYLOR EVIDENCE--WITH CONTRADICTORY WITNESS
GRA:They spent the first 14 minutes talking to blacks who disagreed with the black AG's ruling--a complete lack of interest in the facts.NNN sent Blaine Alexander to talk to people who lived around where Taylor and her thug boyfriend were at.
"I didn't hear no cops identify themselves," said the upstairs black neighbor.
There you have it,lol.
Crump was on,spouting anti-White and anti-cop rhetoric.
A black AG--and they don't believe HIM.Why?blacks don't care which race enforces the law--blacks don't want those laws enforced--period.THEY want to control the streets.
A gangmember shoots a relative,blacks believe in getting revenge--not calling police.Crime on top of crime is their credo
--you can't be civilized with that mindset.
--GRA