The Carey Treatment is a 1972 American crime thriller film directed by Blake Edwards and starring James Coburn, Jennifer O'Neill, Dan O'Herlihy and Pat Hingle. The film was based on the 1968 novel A Case of Need credited to Jeffery Hudson, a pseudonym for Michael Crichton. Like Darling Lili and Wild Rovers before this, The Carey Treatment was heavily edited without help from Edwards by the studio into a running time of one hour and 41 minutes; these edits were later satirized in his 1981 black comedy S.O.B.. Plot Dr. Peter Carey (James Coburn) is a pathologist who moves to Boston, where he starts working in a hospital. He soon meets Georgia Hightower (Jennifer O'Neill), with whom he falls in love. Karen Randall (Melissa Torme-March), daughter of the hospital's Chief Doctor, becomes pregnant and is brought to the emergency department after an illegal abortion. She dies there, and Dr. David Tao (James Hong), a brilliant surgeon and friend of Carey, is arrested and accused of being responsible for the illegal abortion. Carey does not believe his friend to be guilty and starts investigating on his own, despite strong opposition by the police and the doctors around the hospital's chief. Cast James Coburn as Dr. Peter Carey Jennifer O'Neill as Georgia Hightower Pat Hingle as Capt. Pearson Skye Aubrey as Nurse Angela Holder Elizabeth Allen as Evelyn Randall John Fink as Chief Surgeon Andrew Murphy Dan O'Herlihy as J.D. Randall James Hong as David Tao Alex Dreier as Dr. Joshua Randall Michael Blodgett as Roger Hudson Regis Toomey as Sanderson the Pathologist Steve Carlson as Walding Rosemary Edelman as Janet Tao Jennifer Edwards as Lydia Barrett John Hillerman as Jenkins Production Film rights were bought in August 1968 by A&M Productions, the production company of Herb Alpert. They said filming would take place the following year in Boston. In October Perry Leff signed Wendell Mayes to a two-picture contract to write and produce, the first of which was to be A Case of Need. Film rights were then picked up by MGM. In March 1971 it was announced Bill Belasco was producing and Harriet Frank and Irving Ravetch were working on a script. In June Blake Edwards signed to direct. Filming started in September 1971. Edwards launched a breach of contract suit against MGM and president James T. Aubrey for their post production tampering of the film. Edwards: The whole experience