The House Of God (1984)

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poster, here's the book

Background: The House Of God started as a novel by a psychiatrist named Stephen Bergman, though he used the name Samuel Shem, M.D. It was based on his grueling life as a medical intern in 1974. The book was held in high regard at the time, and is still popular among medical interns today. The book is a satire along the same lines as Joseph Heller's Catch-22. It was equal parts funny and scathing, to the point where established medical professionals were speaking out against it, or simply denying they had even heard of it. It introduced many acronyms that are still, apparently, in use today, like LOL in NAD, or Little Old Lady In No Apparent Distress.

There is no denying the impact of the original source material on the medical world, but the movie on the other hand... not so much. It stars Tim Matheson, known best as Otter from Animal House, and prominent TV Actor Charles Haid, in the middle of his long run on Hill Street Blues. This is a rare feature film from director Donald Wrye. His career is filled almost exclusively by TV movies. His other feature film was 1978's Ice Castles, which was later remade in 2010... by Donald Wrye again. I guess dramas about ice skating are timeless.

The opening credits also list Joe Piscopo. Good gravy.

Plot: This is the story of a group of new interns at The House Of God. the best teaching hospital in the world, according to Dr. Joe Piscopo. Dr. Piscopo is Chief Intern. Surprisingly, he never once does a cheesy Frank Sinatra impression, nor does he ever make stupid faces for the camera. I don't know who dropped the ball there. When we first meet the group of interns, they're all in various states. Some are bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to get doctoring and medicine doing. There's a black guy dressed like a pimp, there's a jewish guy that looks like Horshack. No asians though. Lead among them (meaning most handsome) is Roy Basch (Matheson).

The Fatman is there to lead them through their studies. he introduces them to the idea of a "Gomer" or "Get out of my emergency room".  Gomers, he says, never die. This is demonstrated a number of times with varying degrees of comedy. The first Gomer the interns meet immediately struggles against the interns helping her, and she falls out of the bed. This, as it turns out, is fairly common, so The Fatman hands the interns a helmet to slap on her. It's a New Orleans Saints helmet. Not sure if that's part of the joke.

The Fatman has a lot of advice along these lines. He says that since Gomers don't die, they have to be forced out of the hospital by other means. These range from creative (Scaring a patient with a painful procedure so she leaves) to the unthinkable (Raising a patient's bed so when he inevitably falls out of it, it causes a more serious injury and is transferred). The idea of getting these Gomers transferred is called "Turfing" them. All these acronyms and jargons don't really add up to much, but they're fun.

Along the way, the characters grow in various ways. The handsome one falls for a nurse. The black guy can't handle the pressure because he really just wanted to be a singer. They introduce a contest to see who can do the most autopsies so doctors start intentionally letting patients die. The handsome one wants to be the best doctor he can and lets relationships suffer. One guy, when blamed with a patients death, jumps off the building. It should be said, that while these are wildly varying themes, tonally, the movie handles these pretty well. If I had one complaint, it's that the plot is sorta cartoony at times, but the tone is unable to take it far enough.

Why Was It Forgotten? Scrubs. You remember that show right? Man, what ever happened to Zach Braff? Yeah, I don't care either. Where was I? Scrubs set out to say many of the same things this movie says. Now, I know this story predates Scrubs by several decades, but in a world where Scrubs exists, it's easy for this to get lost in the depths. In fact, tonally, this seems to have been the main influence on Scrubs. There are new doctors fighting against becoming completely jaded, but bonding with each other. Here though, the wise all knowing janitor is replaced by 2 wise all knowing police officers. Also changing, the main character falls for the nurse, not the sidekick.

Scrubs was far more accessible though. The dialogue moved fast, but not this fast. Also, smartly, it slowed down when they were talking about medical jargon. Here though, the characters talk equally fast no matter what they're talking about. While this may seem more realistic, but makes it harder to keep up with for the layperson.

Also, I dunno if this has to do with people forgetting this movie, but it is vaguely, and sometimes overtly, racist. There's only one black intern in the group. When we first meet him, he's dressed audaciously, pimplike if you will. Turns out he's from the inner city in Memphis. The only way he got into college is by filling out a card with his race and financial status. Same with med school and the internship itself. So the only black guy is only there because he's black. You can fill in the gaps.

What Went Right? Scrubs again. People should probably give this movie a shot if they liked Scrubs. it's funny enough, I found myself laughing quite a few times, and it has the more touching moments (far less compelling). It's fun watching the interns learn their ways around the hospital. Plus, Joe Piscopo is kept to a very minimal role, only appearing in a few scenes. That, above all else, is to be commended. It's unfortunate though that the movie completely falls apart whenever it attempts any sort of plot developments. The characters are fun at least.

Verdict: Proto-Scrubs and very little Joe Piscopo, not too shabby!

Score: 65%