Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7237 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-09-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 73 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Hellooo, nurse! Leonard Maltin introduces this "sordid and seamy" entry in the Forbidden Hollywood series of vintage pre-Hays Code melodramas that scandalized audiences with their prurient content. Dated to be sure (when was the last time you heard about crooks taking someone "for a ride?"), but this 1931 gem directed by William Wellman (Public Enemy) is still pretty strong medicine. It has sassy dialogue ("You can't show me anything," a doctor tells two comely interns changing into their uniforms, "I just came from the delivery room") and a potent plot about two children being starved to death for their trust fund by a scheming chauffeur. Barbara Stanwyck is just what the doctor ordered as aspiring nurse Laura Hart, with saucy Joan Blondell as Maloney, her wisecracking buddy ("There's only one guy in the world who can do a nurse any good," she advises Laura, "a patient with dough"). In an early villainous role that put him on the Hollywood map, Clark Gable costars as Eddie, the chauffeur, who dispenses a sock in the jaw (off-screen) to Stanwyck's kisser when she interferes in this "screwy case." Ben Lyon is Mortie, the good-hearted bootlegger, who comes to Laura's rescue. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

An Eye-Opener
Barbara Stanwyck stars as a young nurse assigned to watch over two children inside a home where something is clearly amiss. The children are getting worse after making improvements during their hospital stay, the doctor (who never comes) is not treating them properly, and a violent chauffeur seems to be calling all the shots. Stanwyck decides to do something about it. This is a very odd film, with so many strange elements combined, yet it remains fascinating. Stanwyck gives her usual strong performance as the concerned nurse, and is well supported by Joan Blondell as her wisecracking nurse-friend, Ben Lyon as a bootlegger she becomes involved with, and Clark Gable as the menacing chauffeur. The medical practices and terminology are very strange (and amusing), the dialogue is daring, and it's remarkable the number of times Stanwyck and Blondell need to change their clothes on camera!! The action is also very tough, with Gable slugging Stanwyck, Stanwyck dragging around the girl's mother, and various people getting shot. The film's pre-Code origins are obvious. It may not be great cinema, but Night Nurse is one of those films you should see that were made when the Censors had far less control in Hollywood than they soon would. It's an eye-opener.

A chilling pre-Code flick
Clark Gable as a murderous chauffer? Starving children? Bootleggers? It all happened before the Hayes Code, and it's on display in 'Night Nurse.' This is a dark, sleazy sort of film, but it's entertaining to be sure.

Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell play novice nurses entrusted with two rich, but neglected, little girls (Nanny, played by Marica Mae Jones, later appeared opposite Shirley Temple in 'Heidi' and 'The Little Princess.'). As Stanwyck desperately fights to save their lives, she runs into trouble with Gable and the children's drunkard mother. The camera does not flinch or cut away from the resultant brutal scenes. Nothing is glossed over in this film, and there is no easy ending.

One interesting side feature of the movie is the glimpse into early 1930's medicine. The conditions in the operating theatre would probably make any modern day doctor faint!

Raw And Rugged Warner Bros Pre Code Gem
When you combine the pre code era of Hollywood film making, Warner Brothers Studios, and no nonsense star Barbara Stanwyck in the one package you really have a movie marriage made in heaven and that's just what you get in "Night Nurse". Here we have a rough, raw and no holds barred story about the dark side of the medical profession and the equally dark characters that inhabit it. Undeniably a product of its time (1931), this little movie pulls no punches in its stark depiction of medical malpractice, child abuse, bootlegging and violence towards women who "get out of line and ask too many questions". Unemcumbered by the later Hays Code restrictions on what was exceptable on screen from 1934, "Night Nurse" is wildly entertaining and manages to get away with many things on screen that would have been unthinkable 5 years later.

"Night Nurse", provided Barbara Stanwyck with one of her most vivid early roles and the image of the straight talking, no nonsense gal who could mix it with the tough guys was one which became forever associated with her in her screen work. Here she plays Lora Hart a dedicated young trainee nurse who strives to become good at her profession despite initial fainting spells during operations. Graduating from her studies she teams up with fellow nurse B Maloney (Joan Blondell) and after one late night too many getting back into the nurses quarters at the hospital both women find themselves assigned as night nurses to a Mrs. Ritchey who's two sick children Lora had nursed earlier in the hospital. Very soon after taking up her duties Lora begins to notice that things are not as they should be in the house as the two children are daily growing weaker and Mrs Ritchey is in a constant state of drunkenness and doesn't seem to be responsible for her own actions. Lora also cannot get any assistance from the families doctor who is never available and will not respond to any of Lora's protests about the childrens declining health. During her night sessions at the house Lora also makes the acquaintance of Mrs Richley's sadistic chauffeur Nick (a rising Clark Gable), who seems to call the shots with anything to do with the family and has a decidly hostile reaction to Lora's interference in any family matters. As the children grow weaker and are on the verge of starvation Lora decides to take action and asks for the assistance of her sometime beau bootlegger Mortie (Ben Lyon) who she once assisted with a gun shot wound at the hospital, and upright Dr. Bell (Charles Winninger) who she has check on the children's health. It is revealed the Nick and the family doctor have hatched a scheme to slowly starve the two children to death in order to be able to get their hands on a sizable trust fund that belongs to them. They have been keeping their mother Mrs. Ritchey constantly drunk so that Nick can marry her and take the inheritance off her. When Nick learns of Lora's interference he goes after her and in the fateful finale after having earlier socked Lora in the mouth thinking it would deter her finds himself on the receiving end of some of Mortie's rough boys who "arrange" a little accident to remove Nick from the scene. All ends on a hopefully upbeat manner with Lora firstly providing the donour blood to give the little girl a badly needed blood transfusion and then setting off to report the scheme to the police. Also because of his help Mortie finally gets his sweetheart and he and Lora hopefully begin a new life together.

"Night Nurse", has that pre code realistic feel to the proceedings despite its at times melodramatic story twists. Barbara Stanwyck dominates the proceedings as the essentailly kindly nurse who wont settle for leaving things as they are when she smells a rat. The supporting cast including Clark Gable in one of his very early thug roles is really top rate. Warners regular Joan Blondell is terrific as Lora's sassy fellow nurse and her gum chewing, sarcastic delivery is just perfect for this type of hard edged melodrama and was the kind of role she played in dozens of films over the 1930's decade. Blanche Frederici as the concerned housekeeper has an almost comical role in the serious proceedings especially when she is telling a threatening Nick that "you sure dont frighten me!" and especially when she gives her own unique solution to the children's near death from starvation "I wish you'd try a milk bath, it saved my sister's baby!". Ben Lyon does well in the likeable role of Mortie the bootlegger who despite his shady business has a heart of gold who will do anything for his sweetheart Lora, even resorting to rubbing out Nick if needed. His is a classic early 30's performance. Based on a racy early novel by Dora Macy, "Night Nurse", has that rough hewn, rugged look that makes it a perfect Warner Brothers production. Directed at lightening speed by William Wellman who was resonsible for the classic "A Star is Born", in 1937, the film tells its story in a crisp, no frills manner. The real power in this story comes in the scenes between Stanwyck and Gable. Their chemistry here despite not being romantically paired in the story is electric and quite brutal in its physical force and it's a pity the two only worked together once more in the average "To Please a Lady".

"Night Nurse", is a fun excursion into the far off world of sly grog, bootleggers and "dames" that could deliver the goods just as well as any man. With its cleaning up of Hollywood's moral standards from 1934, the Hays Code effectively made these types of films an extinct species more the pity. Over the top and dated "Night Nurse", certainly is but it still manages to make many pertinent points about the medical profession. Human nature in general also is given a harsh no frills examination here and thats what makes films like "Night Nurse", such interesting viewing today. If you like Barbara Stanwyck in her most street smart roles where she fears no man then you are sure to enjoy "Night Nurse". Highly recommended viewer for film buffs.