Three beautiful women, three larger-than-life situations. Barbara undertakes a journey of self-discovery with a crackpot therapist, Janis falls for a junky and Sandra helps a prisoner make a daring escape. This is all in a day's work for a psych nurse.
Night Call Nurses is the third of five softcore nurse films that the Cormans produced between 1970-1974.
I never thought that I'd get sick of watching nurse films, but there I was. It was like the time that I ate Funny Bones everyday during the fourth grade, until I just couldn't bring myself to consume another chocolatey peanutbuttery treat -- or softcore nurse film as the case may be. They're both sweet, anyway. However, Night Call Nurses surpassed my expectations, and comes close to topping the list of Corman's softcore fantasy flicks.
Corman teamed up with director Jonathan Kaplan and writer George Armitage to have a good time. Many of his earlier films became too political, leaving them with a bittersweet taste. Night Call Nurses has it's overly dramatic moments, but it remains fun from start to finish. Barbara's manipulation by a swinging shrink is balanced by an elderly serial flasher with a sweet spot for cute nurses (can anyone blame him?). Sandra's radical liberation is off-set by Janis' speed-freak boyfriend and his hallucinations. The story is full of cheap thrills that are satisfying in their own right, but it's the light and playful comedy that kept me hooked in. It would be tough to enjoy the film as an action-thriller, without any spectacular stunts or special effects to bring credibility.
The cast is both talented and bodacious. Alana Stewart breathes a little fresh air into her stale character, Janis. She predictably falls for a smooth-talking country boy (Richard Young), but is nonetheless believable. Her sweet smile, golden locks and curvy body will wash away any angst over her recycled incarnation. Patty Byrne plays Barbara at perfect pitch. Her unlikely journey from helpless to delusional to independent is entirely convincing, even if a little disturbing. The strength that she ultimately realizes is respectable, without the need to shout "I am woman, hear me roar." Mittie Lawrence is a milk chocolate fireball. Her character may be poorly drawn, but Lawrence makes it OK to color outside of the lines.
Corman took a gamble by setting Night Call Nurses at a psychiatric hospital. The risks of turning the film into an offense to the sensibilities or a crusade for the mentally ill were very real, but the content is handled with some level of decency. In general, the characters are treated with respect and without the stigmas that were, and often still are, associated with mental illness. My one complaint would be that some of the nudity involves female patients. Even when you know it's just an act, and the girls are hotter than all getout, these scenes are tough to enjoy. Perhaps Corman is trying to send us another message, but subtlety was never one of his strong suits.
Plots in films such as these are often kept simple, so that blood leaving the brain can pursue other purposes. But here, the screen is often crowded. Armitage tried to cram too many sardines into a tightly packed plot. Between adventures and sexcapades, the girls are stalked by a note-happy psycho and disciplined by a spiteful head nurse. With so many relationships and peripheral characters, there are too many ends to be tied-up. Instead of winding things down, Armitage pumps the end full of adrenaline-boosting thrills, hoping his audience would forget that it doesn't make one bit of sense. I guess it worked, since I was kept entertained from start to finish.
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Night Call Nurses is perhaps the best-known of Corman's nurse films, and for good reason. It's one of his finest. The story teeters on the brink of absurdity, but the girls keep it from falling over the edge.