A TV pilot film,
Doctor's Story explores the rights--or rather, the lack of them--of geriatric patients. Howard E. Rollins Jr. plays a young doctor who resents the throwaway attitude conveyed towards the elderly. Among Rollins' patients are a near-senile old man (
Art Carney), a woman (Vivece Lindfors) with a mysterious abdominal ailment, and a suicidal widow (
Uta Hagen). Stymied by hospital bureaucracy and indifference, Rollins fights to give his older charges the same care and attention afforded younger patients--and in so doing, his own marriage on the critical list. Whether or not this premise could have sustained a weekly series is problematic (the pilot didn't sell), but as a self-contained drama,
Doctor's Story was certainly worth two hours of anyone's attention, young or old. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide