The Sleeping City

With an appreciative introduction by leading man Richard Conte, George Sherman’s The Sleeping City might be considered propaganda promoting New York’s legendary Bellevue Hospital, the country’s oldest public hospital, if it weren’t for all the murders, suicides, and prescription drug smuggling. Taking an orientation tour through the hospital’s corridors, chapel, auditoria, and operating rooms, Detective Fred Rowan (Conte) has arrived undercover as an intern to find out why young doctors are dying under mysterious circumstances. Assigned as roommate to angry, disillusioned intern Richard Anderson (Alex Nicol), Rowan learns that many of the overworked, underpaid interns may be turning to outside activities to make more money and survive the grueling work environment. Coleen Gray plays ward nurse Ann Sebastian, and Richard Taber plays Pop Ware, the old-timer elevator operator who may know a few secrets. Location shooting along the East River blurs the line between drama and reality, while cinematographer Miller punctuates the bland hospital interiors with a few surprising shots, such as an aerial view of interns marching down an endless spiral staircase and the montage of pill bottles swirling around Nurse Sebastian’s head like a kaleidoscope.