Emergency Hospital

This depiction of a "typical" night at the Emergency Hospital is directed in a low key, low budget fashion reminiscent of Dragnet, and other "real life" dramas of the time. As such, it makes an interesting time capsule into 50s preoccupations (juvenile delinquency, car racing playboys, women doctors who choose career over love, police sergeants who work too hard and neglect their families) and the shots of nighttime Los Angeles, with streetcar tracks and Rexall drug stores, are great. The low budget really gets in the way (this appears to be a hospital with only three rooms and two doctors), however, once the action moves indoors.

Serviceable performances and OK direction make this feel much like what ER would have been like, had it been made on a shoestring budget in the 50s. There are multiple plot lines, and the personal lines of the characters becomes important in how the hospital cases develop. The movie is interesting for historical reasons, and the amount of corniness is not too excessive for the period. Feminists may despair about the ending, however.