The House of God

My cousin is a neurologist, and I roomed with him and one of his friends when I first heard of the book House of God. I also heard that it had been made into a movie which had never been released. Apparently it was run on cable television a couple of times, and copies circulated among doctors, nurses and interns. I met more doctors as a result of them coming over to our apartment to see this movie.

I haven't seen it in years, but I remember that I was very impressed with the adaptation. It is an 'inside' movie, in that those who are not doctors will not get as much out of it as those who are part of the profession, one reason perhaps why the film was not released. It was also pretty loose as far as plot and story, but so was the book. Lord knows there are a lot of movies that are far worse that did make it to theaters. The collapse of UA at the time was icing on the cake.

I distinctly remember my cousin telling me that the scenes in the ER were the most realistic he'd seen. Of course thanks to TV such scenes in the ER are a lot more plentiful.

Certainly worth seeing, and worth releasing on DVD.

I finally landed a copy of the elusive House of God on video. Actually, a taped copy from cable where it showed up last week at 2:36 a.m. and I just happened to be up.

The movie has the almost impossible task of living up to one of the great American novels. Tim Matheson is well-cast as are the two police officers Quick and Gilheeney (James Cromwell and Malachy McCourt).

Charles Haid just isn't very fat, but he does a commendable job as The Fat Man. The rest of the cast is a who's who of future TV sitcom stars: Michael Richards, Joe Piscopo, Gilbert Godfried, Bess Armstrong...

I thought the movie was ok (it was filmed in Philadelphia, which is never mentioned), but it lacked the most essential element of the book: The Rules of the House of God. The first few are mentioned, but that's it.

GOMERS, Slurpers, Turfing, Buffing, Bouncing...it's all there. I wonder how someone who didn't read the book would like it?

Anyway, it's worth a peak, but don't pay $800 or whatever that place in Georgia wanted for it. I'll make you a copy for the price of a blank casette.

I was an under 5 in this film. I went to see the casting director at a nearby hotel by my workplace on my lunch break. She said I would be perfect as a crash cart nurse. My boss gave me 5 days off to work the film.

I had to rush down the hallway with a car filled with medical stuff. On breaks, Tim Matheson hung out with the extras in an empty room. He was just so incredibly kind and answered all our questions about his film career up to that point. Also George Coe and I did a couple of scenes. We had to 'silent' talk while looking at clipboard charts. He said I was a natural. I told him I did summer stock and the Stan method. Bess Armstrong was kind and funny. It was exciting to meet the other actors. Who knew that I was meeting the future Kramer from Seinfeld??? The other thing I remember so well was the famous craft services. The food spread was off the charts. When I finally saw the film so many years later on an obscure TV Channel, I realized I wound up on the cutting room floor. It was a fun experience, one I'll never forget. Oh, to be in my 20s again!!!

The House of God is based on the actual experiences of Samuel Shem when he was a medical intern at Harvard's Beth Israel (as in 'House of Israel') Hospital in Boston in the mid-70s. Shem is a nom de plume (the word Shem is Hebrew for 'name'). In medical school I spent some time at the BI and got to know the doctor who inspired the Leggo. His description in the book is accurate except for the giant purple birthmark on his face which didn't exist in real life. I later trained at a different Harvard hospital in the early 90s and one of the internists there trained a year after "Shem" and corroborated many of the details. One rumor I heard about why the film wasn't released was that Harvard Med School threatened legal action. Don't know if this is true since all the names of people and institutions were fictional in the book and movie but who knows?

I saw The House of God on TV in the 90s, a late night slot. I finally discovered the name of the film I saw those years ago.

All I remember is the outrageously dark humor, encapsulated by the scene of Charles Haid (aka The Fatman) raising a hospital bed of an elderly immobile patient higher and higher off the floor, while explaining to his impressionable interns that the only way an elderly GOMER will die is though accident not illness. My next realization was my lowering oxygen levels, as I was laughing so hard.

It's a great petty it's not on DVD, hardly every shown on TV and the only remaining copies of this near mythical film are old treasured VHS copies passed between medical interns.

By the way, I just checked a long list of films that were shown by Moviedrome, a BBC2 series presented by Alex Cox that aired rare cult movies. The Hose of God was not on the list, weird.