Night Call Nurses

I don't know what to say about "Night Call Nurses". The experience of watching it was so light and negligible I was barely aware I was watching a movie. And it was so dull that mostly, I wasn't really watching it anyway, I was just waiting for it to end.

The movie seems to be about three nurses at a psychiatric ward. One becomes obsessed with a charismatic psychiatrist... or cult leader, another has an affair with a truck driving good ole boy with a cowboy hat, and another nurse does something with a black militant or something.

Let's be real: there's only one reason why anybody would watch "Night Call Nurses" when it came out, and only one reason why they'd watch it now. In both cases, it's the nudity, and particularly coming from nurses, whom men fantasize about like women fantasize about firemen.

So how's that nudity? It's pretty underwhelming. For some reason they weren't allowed to do full frontal, and thus it seems oddly restrained. There's too much... plot (?) and it's impossible to care about any of it.

Night Call Nurses, which follows the travails of three young ladies (as director Jonathan Kaplan says on the Shout factory DVD, it was told he had to have three girls), one involved in a rather salacious story (the girl who is tricked mentally to snap), one just involved with an amiable redneck-speed freak, and another (the black girl) with a political story as she tries to help get a guy who is on suicide watch out of the hospital, is a lot better and more fun than it has any right to be.

Kaplan, very early in his career (and recommended by Scorsese to Corman), brought a lot to the table as a director - he tries a lot of things, not least of which having that speed freak guy having a meltdown early on (how he meets the nurse he's hooked up with) via an LSD trip where he keeps seeing mad things on the road, and overall this has a breezy, free-wheeling and shaggy feel. Not to mention this has some actually decent dramatic bits (or at least it tries, and it doesn't feel unearned), gleefully stupid twists (one of them involves, no joke, the guy who would eventually direct numerous Happy Madison productions, Dennis Dugan), and a climax that really decides to go all out on the fifteen cents they were able to throw at the thing. The girls are also good actors, or at least they *try* more than in Candy Striped Nurses, which came out two years later.

Don't expect art; this is a joyful, sexy romp with a few wtf moments, and of course that guy Dick Miller!

Three young nurses by the names of "Barbara" (Patty Byrne), "Sandra" (Mittie Lawrence) and "Janis" (Alana Collins) work in the psychiatric ward of a major hospital. Initially, all three nurses were hoping to find young, single doctors for a relationship. However, as things turn out Janis becomes romantically involved with a truck driver named "Kyle Toby" (Richard Young) who is in the ward because he took too many amphetamines during in the course of his work. Likewise, Sandra falls in love with a black militant by the name of "Jude" (Felton Perry). Barbara, on the other hand, decides to attend a form of group therapy in order to overcome her sexual inhibitions. Unfortunately, while all of the young ladies are doing the best they can to realize their potential; a crazed stalker appears and threatens all of their efforts. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a mediocre entry into the "Nurse Series". For starters, the three main actresses were all quite attractive and there were some decent scenes here and there-but there were also some rather bizarre scenes which certainly didn't help the movie as well. That said, I suppose this movie deserves about an average rating all things considered.

Classic 70's low budget with very witty writing. Armitage is a genius. Very much ahead of its time in terms of the dialog concerning politics, pharmaceuticals and personal psychology. A cult classic in that sense. The character Barbara is gorgeous and the opening sequence was ripped off and used in Constantine, the latest Keanu Reeves quasi occult film. If you can get past the 70's cheese, there is a very clever and rewarding piece of writing underneath, if you don't think much or cant read between lines you'll concur with the other review. The film moves all over the place and one of the main story lines seams to get resolved in a flash. There is a classic use of voice overs to cut around a lame blonde beauty performance, but it works and is a good lesson in salvage editing for the student. The strength is in the writing of this film, seems there may have been some fluff added by the others involved and if you get the DVD, the original trailers will have you rolling on the floor.

Sure, "Night Call Nurses" is essentially a relic of the typical product thrust upon drive-in theatres in the 1970s. There isn't much of a plot, just a whole lot of nonsense about three nurses and their exploits. There is a lot of nudity, a little humor, some slasher-film elements and a truck driver who does psychedelic drugs. Pretty ridiculous stuff overall, but not without some amusing parts. (I was scratching my head, however, with the "human machine" segment; it was interesting yet pointless).

"Night Call Nurses" was merely one entry in the New World Films "Nurses" cycle which included "Candy Stripe Nurses" and the original "Student Nurses." While those films had a more coherent plot than this one, it is difficult to criticize this one for being so episodic and meandering because the film delivers what it promises: nude women. There are plenty here, no complaints in that category.

And George Armitage, who went on to make the cult classic "Miami Blues," infused some wit and social commentary into the script which are also present in his own foray as writer-director into the "Nurses" cycle, "Private Duty Nurses."

The music is all pseudo-rock and gutter-guitar blues.

Overall, "Night Call Nurses" is a mindless time-waster, but as far as time-wasting goes you could do far worse.