Doctors' Wives

What would you get if you mixed two parts "ER" with two parts "Dynasty"? You might think that you would get something steamy yet emotionally intriguing. Instead, you might end up getting an awful medical melodrama called "Doctors' Wives".

I have never understood why any movie would have its most interesting character killed off in the first fifteen minutes. The one and only excusable circumstance would be if you show that character in a lot of flashbacks. That doesn't happen in this film and it suffers severely.

"Doctors' Wives" has the look and feel of a TV pilot. There really isn't much location shooting to speak of. Most of the film takes place in a hospital or at the characters' homes. The screenplay is much more interested in introducing a lot of characters to you rather than fleshing any of them out. As a movie, it is dull and laughable. As a TV pilot, it showed that it might have eventually become rather interesting. Or then again...maybe not. 1/10

Doctors' Wives turned out to be a fun evening at the movies. I mean what more could you ask for? A murder. An affair. An inter-racial relationship. A brain operation. A sex-pot who beds down 32 medical doctor interns! A sex-pot who not only beds down here husband's friends, but some of their wives as well! Drug addiction. Drunks. Sluts. Black-Mail. You name it, this movie has it. And what an all-star cast! There's even Archie Bunker running around after his ex-wife...ha..ha! For it's time it must of been shocking. People must have fainted or been delighted at all the wild going-ons. Of course by today's standards it's pretty tame, and a bit lame. But, Great fun!

Unfortunately meant as a drama, this movie is so bad, you'll laugh out loud. Dyan Cannon plays the seductive wife of one of the doctors, who has apparently slept with every one of her friends husbands. Who is to blame when she gets punished? An all star cast includes Carrol O'Connor as the impatient husband of an alcoholic (who actually says "I'll drink to that" at every opportunity). Don't miss this one!

.....of made for TV movies flourished in the 70's and this film feels like it was one of those. Everything about this screams soap opera 70's style.

The guys will be guys, and the girls are psychotic ......or is it the other way around? Regardless, the characters were written eons ago. The adultery committed is a huge soap opera trope. I was half expecting the wardrobe department to match the colour scheme of what ever set they were shooting on any particular day.

As a break from the tedium of mellow-drama, the OR scenes were interesting enough, though I can't speak on their accuracy, but it was a welcome break to everything else that was going on in this flick.

It's a time killer if you need time to kill.

What's the point of this film? What does it have to say? And why does Dyan Cannon disappear so early on? You'll have all those questions running through your mind while you're watching "Doctor's Wives", but this vapid, pointless, soap-opera-level film provides no answers. A very superficial treatment of potentially strong subjects. A great cast that is thoroughly wasted. And a heart-surgery scene that is not for the squeamish. (*1/2)