The film was shot in New York City and tells the story of a disillusioned chief of medicine named Herbert Bock, played by George C. Scott, working in a large teaching hospital. His personal life is in ruins — his wife has left him, he suffers from impotence, and both his children have turned away from him. As he contemplates suicide, strange deaths begin to occur in the hospital, not from natural medical complications but from absurd administrative errors. Patients are sent to the wrong rooms, given incorrect medications, taken to operating rooms for unnecessary surgeries, and found dead in waiting rooms. Into this chaos arrives Barbara Drummond, played by Diana Rigg, to pick up her comatose father and take him to a Sioux reservation where he runs a clinic. They form an unexpected emotional bond while a mysterious figure continues to threaten patients and hospital staff. The film is a sharp, dark comedy criticizing institutional incompetence in the American healthcare system, written by Paddy Chayefsky, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this work.

Filming Locations:

1st Avenue (between East 97th and East 99th Streets)

In the Movie

Scene where exterior shots around the hospital show the surrounding streets and neighborhood, where characters arrive at and leave the medical center, creating the urban atmosphere in which the story unfolds and immersing the film in a recognizable New York setting.

In Reality

The scene was filmed on this stretch of First Avenue in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, running along the eastern side of the Metropolitan Hospital Center. It is a busy urban corridor with residential buildings, shops, and medical facilities. It provided filmmakers with authentic New York City street scenes adjacent to the hospital, capturing the energetic atmosphere of the early 1970s neighborhood.

Metropolitan Hospital

In the Movie

Scene where the main hospital where Dr. Herbert Bock works as chief of medicine and faces a series of mysterious patient deaths due to administrative errors, while his personal life falls apart. The hospital corridors and rooms serve as the primary setting throughout the film.

In Reality

The scene was filmed at the Metropolitan Hospital Center, a public medical facility operated by NYC Health + Hospitals and located in East Harlem on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This large medical institution, serving the surrounding community since the 19th century, provides an authentic backdrop for the film's hospital scenes. The building's imposing architecture and bustling urban surroundings perfectly convey the chaos of the hospital environment in the story.