William A. Wellman directed Night Nurse, a pre-Code crime-medical melodrama, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell and Clark Gable, then a beginner.
Grade: B- (**1/2* out of *****)
| Night Nurse | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
The film is based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Dora Macy, the pen name of Grace Perkins.
Night Nurse was considered risqué at the time of its release, particularly the scenes where Stanwyck and Blondell are shown in their lingerie.
Clark Gable portrays a viciously violent chauffeur who is gradually starving two little girls to death after having purposely run over their slightly older sister with his limousine.
Lora Hart applies for a job as a nurse trainee but she is rejected when hospital’s superintendent of nurses Miss Dillon realizes that she does not have high school diploma.
After a chance encounter with the hospital’s chief of staff, Dr. Arthur Bell, Hart charms him and he helps hire her.
Lora and Miss Maloney, a fellow nurse, become roommates and best friends. After they violate curfew, Miss Dillon assigns the night duty in the emergency room.
When Lora treats a bootlegger named Mortie for a gunshot wound, he persuades her to not report the wound to the police as required by law. He wants to know Lora better, but she resists him at first.
After she passes her training, Lora is hired as private nurse for sick children Desney and Nanny Ritchey. She moves into the Ritchey mansion, site of frequent parties. Mrs. Ritchey, the children’s socialite mother, an alcoholic, is infatuated with her brutish chauffeur Nick.
When a drunken guest tries to molest Lora, Nick knocks him out. Nick then demands that Lora pump her stomach; when she refuses, he knocks her unconscious with telephone receiver.
The Ritchey family physician is “society doctor” and drug addict Milton Ranger. Lora is alarmed by Dr. Ranger’s treatment of the children–they are being starved to death.
Unable to persuade anyone to take her seriously, she quits and tells Dr. Bell of her suspicions. At first, he is reluctant to interfere, but eventually he advises her to return to her job to gather evidence of the children’s mistreatment.
Lora is unable to get Mrs. Ritchey to show any concern. When Mortie delivers liquor to the party at the mansion, Lora sends him to get milk. He steals some from a delicatessen to allow Lora to give Nanny milk bath, a folk remedy recommended by Mrs. Maxwell, the frightened housekeeper.
Maxwell gets drunk and confides her suspicions to Lora. Nanny and Desney have a trust fund from their late father. Nick killed their sister with his car; with Dr. Ranger’s help, he is deliberately starving the girls. With their deaths, the trust fund would go to Mrs. Ritchey, and Nick plans to marry her for the money.
After being threatened by Mortie, Dr. Bell examines Nanny. When he tries to take her to the hospital, however, Nick knocks him out. Mortie stops Nick from interfering further, and Nanny’s life is saved when Lora provides her blood transfusion.
Mortie gives Lora a lift in his car. When they pass several police cars, Mortie tells Lora that Nick will not be arrested because he told his criminal associates of his dislike for him.
In the end, an ambulance delivers to the hospital’s morgue a corpse dressed in a chauffeur’s uniform.
Wellman’s early films, the seemingly salacious Night Nurse and hyperviolent Public Enemy were often cited in the creation of Hollywood’s self-censoring Production Code.
Cast
Barbara Stanwyck as Lora Hart
Ben Lyon as Mortie
Joan Blondell as B. Maloney
Clark Gable as Nick
Blanche Friderici as Mrs. Maxwell
Charlotte Merriam as Mrs. Ritchey
Charles Winninger as Dr. Arthur Bell
Edward J. Nugent as Eagan
Vera Lewis as Miss Dillon
Ralf Harolde as Dr. Milton Ranger
Walter McGrail as Mack
Allan Lane as Intern
Willie Fung as Hospital Patient
Marcia Mae Jones as Nanny Ritchey
Credits:
Directed by William A. Wellman
Screenplay by Oliver H.P. Garrett and Charles Kenyon, based on Night Nurse 1930 novel by Dora Macy
Cinematography Barney McGill
Edited by Edward M. McDermott
Music by Leo F. Forbstein
Production and distribution: Warner Bros.
Release date: August 8, 1931
Running time: 72 minutes
