Night Nurse (1931)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

Grace Perkins (novel)
Oliver H.P. Garrett (screenplay)

Release Date:

8 August 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A nurse enlists the help of a petty criminal to foil a sinister plot to murder two children.

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Bootlegger | Flapper | Murder | Hospital

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Lora Hart
Ben Lyon	...	Mortie
Joan Blondell	...	B. Maloney
Clark Gable	...	Nick, the Chauffeur
Blanche Friderici	...	Mrs. Maxwell, the Housekeeper (as Blanche Frederici)
Charlotte Merriam	...	Mrs. Ritchey
Charles Winninger	...	Dr. Arthur Bell
Edward J. Nugent	...	Eagan (as Edward Nugent)
Vera Lewis	...	Miss Dillon, Superintendent of Nurses
Ralf Harolde	...	Dr. Milton A. Ranger
Walter McGrail	...	Mack, the Drunk

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-G | USA:Not Rated

Company:

Vitaphone Corporation, The

Trivia:

James Cagney was originally supposed to play Nick, but when The Public Enemy (1931) became a big hit, it was decided that he should no longer be relegated to supporting roles, allowing the relatively unknown Clark Gable to step in instead.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Lora first sees the two children, one of them faints and falls from her bed onto the floor. The next shot ends with Lora lifting her up and placing her on the bed with the child's feet towards the wall. In the next shot, the child has turned 180 degrees, with her head towards the wall.

Quotes:

Maloney: There's only one guy in the world that can do a nurse any good and that's a patient with dough! Just catch one of them with a high fever and a low pulse and make him think you saved his life and you'll be getting somewhere.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Onward Christian Soldiers

Medical Ethics

One of Barbara Stanwyck's best early starring films is Night Nurse which essentially is two separate stories.

The first is young Barbara in training to be a nurse and teaming up with Joan Blondell, another would be nurse, in a typical Joan Blondell role. Stanwyck is a bit more dedicated to the profession, but she learns from Blondell how to take a more realistic attitude.

The second part of the film concerns Stanwyck being assigned as a private night nurse to some kids who are being slowly starved to death. Something is really wrong when you see malnourished kids in a purportedly wealthy home. Stanwyck suspects something amiss and she's quite right. The doctor Ralf Harolde and the chauffeur Clark Gable are in cahoots in a murderous scheme.

Stanwyck puts her own career on the line to bring some justice and compassion to her charges. In doing so she has to step on some medical toes and question the ethics of who she's working for.

Clark Gable was loaned out from MGM to play the murderous chauffeur and if he hadn't been discovered as a new kind of tough leading man, he would have had a grand career as a character actor playing all kinds of thugs who slug. And slug Stanwyck he does, right on the kisser.

Stanwyck gets some help from breezy bootlegger Ben Lyon who would soon be leaving for the UK with his wife Bebe Daniels where he would have his best success. Earlier in the film Stanwyck kind of winks at the rules where Lyon is concerned and she makes a friend who comes in real handy when dealing with Gable and Harolde.

Lyon is fine, but this seemed to be a part James Cagney would have been perfect for. And Cagney going up against Gable would really have made this a classic.