Registered Nurse

... and that's odd because this is half of a Warner Archive precode collection double feature DVD. Still I think it is worth your while because of the unusual storyline.

A woman (Bebe Daniels as Sylvia Benton) is married to a man of means who is also a mean drunk (Gordon Westcott as Jim), let's him drive them home in that condition (bad idea), and tells him she plans to divorce him while he is at the wheel (worse idea). He laughs maniacally as she asks him to slow down, and he crashes their car with his reckless driving. The last thing we see of them together is Sylvia unhurt dragging Jim from the car.

Next scene is Sylvia applying for a job as an R.N., claiming she is single. She said she was an R.N. earlier in the film, but she could have been lying about that too, because apparently nursing in 1934 is all about washing dishes by hand, gossiping about the men in their lives, and smoking heavily - in the hospital! Other than taking temperatures I see very little medicine involved with these nurses, unless Sylvia being chased by a pair of doctors, John Halliday as Dr. Hedwig and Lyle Talbot as Dr. Connolly, counts.

So what happened to Sylvia's husband? Is he dead from the wreck? Is he alive, still a mean drunk, and trying to track her down? Something else? Honorable mention HAS to go to Sidney Toler and Irene Franklin as a feuding couple that rough each other up so badly that they have to be brought to the hospital (in the same ambulance), stay for several weeks to heal, and then walk out together arm in arm as though nothing ever happened. Apparently the bill did not bother them. But in the days when your nurses mainly wash dishes and smoke, I guess hospitals could keep costs down some.

Stick around for Toler and Franklin and also for the spectacle of somebody using the death of a cop to get in a woman's pants - I'll let you watch and see what I mean. And also ponder the question - Is it murder to tell somebody whose private life you know more about than they do that a theoretical person - who happens to be just like them - would be better off and be doing the world a favor if he just jumped out of a high story window...when a high story window is nearby, and then you just leave them to their thoughts.

Worth a look for the novelty of it all.

In her next to last film before departing for the United Kingdom with her husband Ben Lyon, Bebe Daniels stars in a medical melodrama entitled Registered Nurse. I'm not sure this story would ever get on such medical television shows as Ben Casey or Marcus Welby.

Bebe's a girl with a past, she impresses everybody at the hospital she goes to work at from head nurse Beulah Bondi, to head doctor John Halliday, to surgeon Lyle Talbot. In fact the last two have more than medicine on their minds. But she's carrying a secret, she's got a husband, Gordon Westcott, who's locked up in the loony bin.

Today's audiences wouldn't understand it, but back then the divorce laws were truly draconian. In New York State you could not get divorced on any ground other than adultery. Poor Bebe just can't get free of Westcott, so she suffers as any soap opera heroine does.

There's another even more tragic plot line involving nurse Minna Gombell and policeman Ed Gargan. Humor is supplied by Sidney Toler who is a wrestling promoter with a broken leg and Irene Franklin who is a bordello madam. Franklin has a great old time comparing her girls to the nurses. And Toler has a couple of his athletes visit him in the hospital and they provide some hilarity.

Try as the cast does, Registered Nurse will not be ever listed among the great medical dramas. Now this thing had great potential as a radio soap opera.

I'd recognize Sidney Toler's voice anywhere.

"Registered Nurse" is from 1934 and stars Bebe Daniels in her last film before moving to London, Lyle Talbot, John Halliday, Gordon Westcott, and the aforementioned Sidney Toler as a wrestling promoter.

Daniels is Sylvia Benton, unhappily married to Jim Benton (Westcott) who, on their way home from a party, crashes their car. We only see his unconscious body on the ground.

In the next scene, Sylvia seems alone and she's talking about going back into nursing, which she does. She turns out to be quite invaluable at the hospital and attracts the amorous attentions of both a surgeon (Talbot) and the head doctor (Halliday). Both want to marry her. What they don't know is that her husband is alive and locked up in an asylum.

Sylvia can't divorce Jim because the only grounds for divorce in New York was adultery.

Subplots concern the patients: a bordello madam (Irene Franklin), a cop (Ed Gargan), and Toler, whose character has a broken leg.

The limpid-eyed Daniels was a good actress with a beautiful speaking voice, and this cast acquits itself well in this Hollywood melodrama. I imagine during her time at Warners, Daniels and Kay Francis were probably up for some of the same roles.

After moving to England with her husband, Ben Lyon, she became a stage and radio star, and appeared in a few films with her husband. She remained married to Lyon until she died.

Daniels, who started acting as a child, came from an interesting family. She was related to DeForest Kelley of "Star Trek" fame, and her cousin, Lee DeForest, "the father of sound," was responsible for improving sound when it first hit the movies. Her daughter was a singer for Columbia Records, and her son a disc jockey.

Most fascinating of all, Al Capone was a fan, and when her jewels were stolen from a Chicago hotel, he got them back for her.

Registered Nurse (1934)

** (out of 4)

Mildly entertaining Pre-Code from Warner about various wild characters inside a hospital. The film centers around a nurse (Bebe Daniels) who is wanted by two different doctors (Lyle Talbot, John Halliday) but she is hiding a secret about a mysterious husband that no one knows about. These personal dramas have to be dealt with as well as countless patients. With some saucy dialogue and some mild sexual innuendo, fans of the Pre-Code era might want to check this one out but I'd say most will come away disappointed because the film has so many elements in place but in the end they really don't come together to make a complete winner. The biggest problem is the screenplay that really doesn't know if it wants to be a sassy comedy or a dark drama. We get light moments followed by dark moments and none of them ever mix and I'd also add that the entire love triangle comes off rather fake and forced. I think Daniels turns in a fine performance as she really digs into her role and manages to make a character we can feel for. Talbot and Halliday are both good as well and we also get to see Humphrey Bogart's infamous wife Mayo Methot. Sidney Toler gets the most outrageous moments in the film as a wrestling promoter who ends up with a broken leg after he beats up his wife. The entire beating of the wife sequence is played for laughs so that should tell you something.

Bebe Daniels was a very interesting Hollywood star. In her early days, during the 1910s and into the 1920s, she was frequently employed in comedy shorts...most often with Harold Lloyd and Snub Pollard. These were light but enjoyable films. However, in the later 20s and into the sound era, suddenly she reinvented herself and became a starring lady in a variety of dramas, such as "Registered Nurse".

When the story begins, Sylvia and her husband are having an argument. Unexpectedly, he then deliberately drives their car into a tree...nearly killing her.

The film then jumps ahead and Sylvia is going back to work as a nurse at a hospital. Of all the nurses, she is the best...nearly perfect and beloved by the patients and staff. In fact, a couple doctors are very interested in her and eventually she has to tell them the truth...that she's still married and her husband is in an asylum for the mentally ill! However, late in the story, it looks like one of her admirers might be able to operate on the husband and make him normal once again....and then the unexpected happens.

The film came out just a few months before the new Production Code came into effect. Because of this, much of the plot simply would not have been allowed in a film released after July, 1934. For example, the film has a character named 'Sonnevich' (yes, it sounds almost exactly like you think), the film seems to advocate suicide and there are a lot of VERY colorful moments that simply never would have been in a post-Code movie.

So is it any good? Yes. And, it offers a most unusual combination of comedy AND drama! While the movie isn't perfect and is a tad predictable, it is exciting and Sidney Toler's part in the film is simply unbelievable! See it...and see what I mean.