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IMDbPro

The Lazarus Syndrome

  • TV Movie
  • 1979
  • 1h 13m
IMDb RATING
5.0/10
152
YOUR RATING
Louis Gossett Jr. and Ronald Hunter in The Lazarus Syndrome (1979)
DramaThriller

An adulterous newspaper reporter, who has just experienced a heart attack, pesters a black doctor into investigating the questionable medical practices taking place at the hospital where bot... Read allAn adulterous newspaper reporter, who has just experienced a heart attack, pesters a black doctor into investigating the questionable medical practices taking place at the hospital where both are residing.An adulterous newspaper reporter, who has just experienced a heart attack, pesters a black doctor into investigating the questionable medical practices taking place at the hospital where both are residing.

  • Director
    • Jerry Thorpe
  • Writer
    • William Blinn
  • Stars
    • Louis Gossett Jr.
    • Ronald Hunter
    • E.G. Marshall
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.0/10
    152
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jerry Thorpe
    • Writer
      • William Blinn
    • Stars
      • Louis Gossett Jr.
      • Ronald Hunter
      • E.G. Marshall
    • 7User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos5

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    Top cast18

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    Louis Gossett Jr.
    Louis Gossett Jr.
    • Dr. MacArthur St. Clair
    Ronald Hunter
    Ronald Hunter
    • Joe Hamill
    E.G. Marshall
    E.G. Marshall
    • Dr. Mendel
    Sheila Frazier
    Sheila Frazier
    • Gloria St. Clair
    Lara Parker
    Lara Parker
    • Denice
    Peggy Walton-Walker
    Peggy Walton-Walker
    • Mrs. Hamill
    • (as Peggy Walton Walker)
    René Enríquez
    René Enríquez
    • Mr. Dominguez
    • (as Rene Enríquez)
    Philip Sterling
    Philip Sterling
    • Skeptical Doctor
    Peggy McCay
    Peggy McCay
    • Stacy
    Arthur Rosenberg
    Arthur Rosenberg
    • Anesthesiologist
    Mary Carver
    Mary Carver
    • Nurse
    Roberta Jean Williams
    • Nurse
    Ethelinn Block
    • Nurse
    Vincent Milana
      John Berwick
      • Crash Cart Nurse
      Jeffrey Jacquet
      Jeffrey Jacquet
      • St. Clair Son
      John de Lancie
      John de Lancie
      • EKG Doctor
      • (uncredited)
      Alene Wilson
        • Director
          • Jerry Thorpe
        • Writer
          • William Blinn
        • All cast & crew
        • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

        User reviews7

        5.0152
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        10

        Featured reviews

        4Bezenby

        Hail to the cheat

        Lovable cheat Graeme Souness has just had himself one of them heart attacks and ends up under the care of Lou Gossett Jnr (future star of Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy). Even though there are many clashes at first between the two (Souness thinks Doctor Gossett's an arse, but then Lou thinks Souness is a chug nut) it's clear that there's a bromance on the horizon.

        Y'see Lou's a hard-working cardiologist with a cheating wife and Souness is cheating on his own wife and getting Lou to give his wife the run around. There's rather a lot of this going on (as well as medical procedure). Then some sort of plot eventually emerges involving a drug fuelled Doctor. It's not that exciting.

        I wonder what the show was actually like? The cheeseball freeze frame at the end was good, and the acting was okay, but nothing great.
        3Tera-Jones

        Interesting Pilot Episode

        I acquired the made for TV 90 minute pilot episode in Mill Creek's Drive-in 50-pack collection. I found the pilot episode to be fairly interesting for a TV show pilot. I found myself drawn into the story of St. Clair's private life and his medical or public life can be intense at times. It's a good pilot episode.

        Louis Gossett Jr. plays Mac St. Clair. He is a brilliant but extremely moody cardiologist who is having a lot of problems in his personal life due to being dedicated to his career. St. Clair finds himself in a quarrel his chief surgeon who seems incompetent. It's up to St. Clair to smooth things over in his career and private life.

        3/10
        Wizard-8

        Not a terminal case, but needed some serious treatment

        This made for TV movie was actually a backdoor pilot for a (very) short- lived series that came the following year. As it turns out, the story in this movie pilot is very self-contained, so one doesn't have to seek the series for further information. Anyway, I am kind of mystified why the network heads green-lit a series from this movie. To be sure, it's not an awful movie. There are some good performances here, the standout being Lou Gossett Jr. as the lead. You can really believe he is a seasoned doctor who knows what he's talking about. And Ronald Hunter does well as the patient who get tangled with Gossett's character, and some real chemistry in their scenes are generated. However, the script needed some work. The subplot about Gossett's home life feels unfinished. And the movie is really slow in introducing the mystery that the leads uncover, and equally slow in resolving it. I've seen worse pilots, but this is one that really needed a doctor - a script doctor, that is.
        6jcappy

        A Raised Fist--For the Patient

        This TV movie rather weakly takes on the issue of big business, hospital ethics, and human health. I say "weakly" because the ending is just too sugared for words, and because the only convincing moments revolve around the relationship of Dr. St. Clair (Louis Gossett), a cardiologist, and Joe (Ron Hunter), his active, questioning, whistle-blower patient. The remainder of the cast is paid little attention to and it is unconvincing, stereotyped, and thin. So one is left with a few strong scenes, a few good ideas... but played in or against a sort of vacuous under-produced world so typical of TV movies.

        Give credit though for the protest here of the bypass surgery business, the failure of the corporate take over of hospitals and health, and of that "progressive" technology it promotes. But give more credit to actor Ron Hunter's most convincing moments when he puts the medical establishment in both its public and personal manifestations on trial And rarely, if ever, in movies do we experience so strong a view of the patient's ordeal as against the doctor's "pressure." Now, I think back on it, Hunter delivers a kind of powerful manifesto on behalf of the centrality of the patient---one that should not be forgotten and overlooked. And for this, and for some good acting scenes from Gossett, the movie, I think is well worth viewing.

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        Storyline

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        Did you know

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        • Quotes

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: You know what I hate about this place? You can never slam a door when it most needs slamming.

          Joe Hamill: Now before you fly off the handle...

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: Another thing I hate about this place is patients who think they know more than the doctor who's treating them. Patients who think they can *diagnose* for other patients too!

          Joe Hamill: Are you done?

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: No! No, but we are, you and me, you can find yourself another guy, Hamill. I've had a bellyful of your antics!

          Joe Hamill: Antics? What antics?

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: Oh we can start with your hit and run attack about Mendel being a junkie, huh?

          Joe Hamill: It was no hit and run attack, Doctor, you never followed up on it...

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: Then you proceed with your nocturnal visits with Betty Bimbo!

          Joe Hamill: Okay you just hold it right there...

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: I am *not* finished yet, Hamill! Next we're going to talk about the kind of ego it takes to presume to tell that poor man sitting out there in the hallway that Mendel's treatment is not warranted!

          Joe Hamill: Okay, let's talk then.

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: No! I got nothing to say to you!

          [starts to walk away]

          Joe Hamill: You gutless wonder! You owe me 30 seconds!

          [St. Clair turns around and faces him]

          Joe Hamill: I cannot expect to be taken seriously in one of these lets-your-buns-hang-out outfits,

          [puts on robe]

          Joe Hamill: and I very much want you to take what I have to say seriously. Doctor, I have seen enough dope and enough people on dope to know what I'm talking about. Mendel throws down enough greenies to give a possum insomnia. I've seen him do it when he was in here talking to Dominguez.

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: It's pretty dumb of him to do it right in front of you, isn't it?

          Joe Hamill: [chuckles] A lot of doctors think people who are sick somehow get dumb because of it, not true. Your doctor Mendel is a speed freak, check it out.

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: Your 30 seconds are up.

          [turns to walk away]

          Joe Hamill: Okay!

          [St. Clair turns back]

          Joe Hamill: I did not tell Dominguez to scratch the bypass, I told him that he had a right to a second opinion. When he laid that on Mendel the good doctor came unglued, he really blew his cork, a not uncommon overreaction for those hooked on uppers.

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: Mendel's under a lot of pressure.

          Joe Hamill: No, he's not. Dominguez is the one under pressure. He's got a guy who wants to cut him open and put a scalpel to his heart. Now that's pressure, Doctor. THAT is pressure. And if you ever call my fiancee a bimbo again, I'm gonna knock you on your can so hard you'll need a plumber to remove the floor tiles. Am I still your patient?

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: Who else would have you?

          Joe Hamill: Goodnight, Mac.

          Dr. MacArthur St. Clair: Goodnight, Joe.

        • Connections
          Followed by The Lazarus Syndrome (1979)

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        Details

        Edit
        • Release date
          • September 4, 1979 (United States)
        • Country of origin
          • United States
        • Language
          • English
        • Also known as
          • Lazarus Syndromet
        • Production companies
          • Blinn/Thorpe Productions
          • Viacom Productions
        • See more company credits at IMDbPro

        Tech specs

        Edit
        • Runtime
          1 hour 13 minutes
        • Color
          • Color
        • Sound mix
          • Mono
        • Aspect ratio
          • 1.33 : 1

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