The Road to Wellville

A story about the ins and outs of one unusual health facility in the early 20th century, run by the eccentric Dr. Kellogg.

• Director:Alan Parker
• Genre:Comedy
• Runtime:115 minutes

Cast

Anthony Hopkins: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
Bridget Fonda : Eleanor Lightbody
Matthew Broderick : William Lightbody
John Cusack : Charles Ossining
Dana Carvey : George Kellogg

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg has opened a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he puts into practice his unusual methods for maintaining a healthy body including colonic irrigation, electrical stimulus and sexual abstinence, as well as more mainstream ideas such as vegetarianism and physical exercise.

The sanitarium attracts a number of well-to-do patients including William and Eleanor Lightbody, who are suffering from ill health following the premature death of their child. On their way to Battle Creek they meet the enterprising Charles Ossining, who is hoping to make his fortune by exploiting the craze for health food cereals.

Ossining finds a partner in the devious Goodloe Bender. Having enlisted the services of George Kellogg, the doctor’s estranged (and strange) adopted son, they attempt to produce “Kellogg’s Perfo Flakes.”

In the sanitarium, Will Lightbody is separated from his wife and begins harboring lustful thoughts toward Nurse Graves and patient Ida Muntz. His wife Eleanor, meanwhile, befriends Virginia Cranehill, who has a modern attitude toward sexual pleasure, influenced by the works of Dr. Lionel Badger.

Will finally succumbs to Ida Muntz’s charms. Later he discovers that Ida has died during treatment. Following the death of a patient in the sinusoidal bath, as well as the discovery of yet another death, Will has a breakdown, flees the sanitarium, gets drunk and eats meat. At the restaurant he meets Ossining and agrees to invest $1,000 in his health food business. Will returns drunk to the sanitarium, where he is reprimanded by Dr. Kellogg and abandoned by a distraught Eleanor.

Ossining’s business is a disaster with no edible products. He and his partners resort to stealing Kellogg’s cornflakes and repackaging them in their own boxes. Ossining meets his aunt, a potential investor, at a visiting day at Kellogg’s sanitarium, where he is exposed as a fraud and arrested.

Nurse Graves attempts to seduce Will. He is guilt-stricken and spurns her advances. He goes to find Eleanor, only to find her and Virginia Cranehill receiving clitoral massages from Dr. Spitzvogel at the same time Dr. Badger is masturbating. Will, incensed, thrashes Dr. Spitzvogel with a branch and takes Eleanor away. Read more

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