In this gripping sci-fi drama, a celebrated heart surgeon collaborates with an offbeat scientist to perform the first artificial heart transplant.
I searched around for a decent copy of this and finally came upon this Czech DVD, which is not HD of course, but is several multiples better than anything I had seen before.
Previously:
That’s a surprise!
Nice!
And I think that’s a goof on the anesthesia bellows machine. Shouldn’t be moving if she’s not yet intubated.
Do we have any strong reason to believe that’s her and not a body double? You don’t get a good look at her face. Also, why was it necessary for her to be totally naked and totally exposed from the waist down for open heart surgery? Were they going thru her vagina to replace her heart? Since she is not doing any emoting or acting in the scene, I do find it hard to believe she would agree to showing up naked herself for such a scene. She was kind of a big name back when this film was made, no?
She had worked a lot on TV at this point, but nothing overly notable to make herself a big name. Arguably at the time, this was the biggest role for her. Looking at her IMDB, I would say she didn’t become a “name” at all until St. Elmo’s Fire a few years later.
As for it being a body double, I wonder, how much was that a practice in 1981, especially for someone who wasn’t a lead actress. Although, I say that, and I remember the bit in How To Beat The High Cost Of Living, where Jane Curtin’s character is doing a striptease, but you can tell now with freeze frames and 2160 resolution that it’s a completely different woman in the long shots. But Jane Curtin was the big name there in a way Winningham wasn’t.
But you’re also right that the scene is completely gratuitous in a way that doesn’t make sense, medically. Given what we know about how directors and producers were at the time, it might have been presented to her as necessary to get the role.
I wondered both of these things. Why was it necessary to expose her entirely on the table just to sterilize her chest? Although someone pointed out that it could be really be safe against infection.
I think this was before St. Elmo’s Fire, which I THINK was her breakout role. So I don’t think she was a big name, and I would think they would skip hiring a body double just for that; they’d probably reshoot the scene with no nudity if she had the clout to refuse.
I wasn’t wearing a shirt or underwear when they operated on my leg multiple times. If they’re going deep, I think this is just what they do.
As for being a body double, I don’t think so. The side shots match her scene in the Simon movie. From the top (when seen in decent resolution) it looks like her face being taped over. And the Simon movie proves she wasn’t shy.
“In this gripping sci-fi drama, a celebrated heart surgeon collaborates with an offbeat scientist to perform the first artificial heart transplant.” I assume the transplant recipient acquires superpowers and tries to conquer the world, and the film ends with somebody saying “There are things man was not meant to know”. THAT’S classic movie sci-fi.