Night Nurse [VHS]
Hellooo, nurse! Leonard Maltin introduces this "sordid and seamy" entry in theForbidden Hollywoodseries 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