File paparazzi photo of Lauren Hutton, the star of “The Cradle Will Fall,” by Clay Kinchen Smith.
In the winter of 1983, VUMC was stalked by a killer. Luckily, this particular killer was fictitious, as Medical Center North was used as a shooting location for the TV movie “The Cradle Will Fall,” which starred Lauren Hutton, Ben Murphy, James Farentino and William H. Macy.
Medical Center North was under process of renovation, but parts of the building still pretty much looked like an old hospital.
The plot revolved around Hutton’s character, who is an assistant district attorney investigating the apparent suicide of a woman. It turns out that the death was not a suicide, but…MUUUUUUURDER. And, wouldn’t you know it, the chief suspect is the physician (Farentino) who is treating Hutton when she is hospitalized after a car accident.
Medical Center North was under process of renovation, but parts of the building still pretty much looked like an old hospital, which is what it had been until three years before (when Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital opened and most inpatient units moved from the “old” hospital, now Medical Center North, to the “new” hospital). So it was a perfect set for this spooky movie, based on the novel by Mary Higgins Clark.
The movie first aired on CBS the night of May 24, 1983. Voters at the Internet Movie Database give “The Cradle Will Fall” 5.5 stars out of a possible 10.
