IMDb RATING
6.1/10
1.7K
YOUR RATING
At a Boston hospital, a new surgeon, Dr. Carey, becomes an amateur sleuth to help clear a colleague's name who's been accused of botching an illegal abortion that killed a 15 year old girl; ... Read allAt a Boston hospital, a new surgeon, Dr. Carey, becomes an amateur sleuth to help clear a colleague's name who's been accused of botching an illegal abortion that killed a 15 year old girl; the daughter of the chief surgeon.At a Boston hospital, a new surgeon, Dr. Carey, becomes an amateur sleuth to help clear a colleague's name who's been accused of botching an illegal abortion that killed a 15 year old girl; the daughter of the chief surgeon.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Elizabeth Allen
- Evelyn Randall
- (as Betty Ellen)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBlake Edwards disowned the final film due to constant studio interference. He originally planned to leave the project during production, but after MGM threatened to destroy his career, he finished filming and quit the day production ended.
- GoofsWhen Dr. Carey drives erratically to intimidate his passenger into telling him what she knows about the murder, her passenger side window alternates between completely open and completely closed.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Hammer (1972)
Featured review
Not necessarily good, but interesting, and certainly worth seeing
James Coburn plays a pathologist who is investigating the death of the fifteen-year-old daughter of the chief of medicine, who has died of a botched abortion that has been blamed on his colleague (James Hong), who is an illegal abortionist on the side. A lot of people today would be horrified of a movie where the hero is actually trying to help out an abortion doctor. But this was 1972 and people tend to forget that everything wasn't all bright and wonderful back when abortion was still illegal either (I don't personally take a side on the abortion debate, but I have a problem with people on either side who think the issue is in any way morally clear-cut and unambiguous--it's not now and never was). But before anyone goes bemoaning "liberal Hollywood", there's also a real "Dirty Harry" element to this movie, like a scene where Coburn essentially tortures information out of a drug-addicted suspect by denying her treatment. This particular scene should offend liberals everywhere (as well as anyone else who's ever heard of the Hyppocratic Oath).
But the fact that this movie might offend both conservatives AND liberals is exactly what I liked about it. The real world is morally messy and no one person is ever 100 percent morally righteous, and the many, many Hollywood movies that try to make things morally simplistic and their protagonists morally pure actually do a great disservice in many ways. Of course, the moral complications in this particular movie seem to be more the result of a confused production than anyone's clever intentions. Still I always find an interesting failure like this much more enjoyable than a boring success (like whatever old TV show they're making into a major motion picture this week). And in 1970's Hollywood there was a whole string of these kind of interesting failures, which is why I find that whole period so fascinating.
This movie definitely has some problems as other have said. Jennifer O'Neil is completely wasted, and the basic plot is riddled with holes (i.e. noboby but the protagonist notices that the botched operation was very obviously not the work of a trained doctor). Coburn isn't bad though, and this movie does kind of anticipate both "Coma" and the popular TV series "Quincy MD". Not good, but interesting, and certainly worth seeing.
But the fact that this movie might offend both conservatives AND liberals is exactly what I liked about it. The real world is morally messy and no one person is ever 100 percent morally righteous, and the many, many Hollywood movies that try to make things morally simplistic and their protagonists morally pure actually do a great disservice in many ways. Of course, the moral complications in this particular movie seem to be more the result of a confused production than anyone's clever intentions. Still I always find an interesting failure like this much more enjoyable than a boring success (like whatever old TV show they're making into a major motion picture this week). And in 1970's Hollywood there was a whole string of these kind of interesting failures, which is why I find that whole period so fascinating.
This movie definitely has some problems as other have said. Jennifer O'Neil is completely wasted, and the basic plot is riddled with holes (i.e. noboby but the protagonist notices that the botched operation was very obviously not the work of a trained doctor). Coburn isn't bad though, and this movie does kind of anticipate both "Coma" and the popular TV series "Quincy MD". Not good, but interesting, and certainly worth seeing.
helpful•175
- lazarillo
- Jun 18, 2009
- How long is The Carey Treatment?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $488,510
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content