The Nurse's Secret

This is a nice little mystery from Warner Brothers in the 1940's and I thought it was much more enjoyable than the original version that was made by the same studio in the 1930's. I always thought that Lee Patrick was much underrated as an actress, but this is just another good movie for a very good actress.

Lee Patrick stars in the title role of The Nurse's Secret. The secret that this nurse has is that she is working undercover and incognito at a mansion where a young heir has died. The coroner has ruled it suicide.

Still the homicide cop Regis Toomey has his doubts and he places his girlfriend Patrick in the home as an attending nurse to the maiden aunt owner Clara Blandick. The idea is to pick up any loose information she gets and report to Toomey. When Blandick gets herself poisoned Patrick finds herself in a nice jackpot.

This B film from Warner Brothers probably might have had Pat O'Brien in the lead with Ann Sheridan had it been an A film. It's hand me down material all right, but served up well.

There are a lovely household full of suspects and with a running time of little over an hour it keeps a good clip in its pace. Later the same year Lee Patrick gets her career role as Sam Spade's secretary in The Maltese Falcon. She never did break through the ranks into A players.

The Nurse's Secret does show Lee Patrick's capability in a lead which sadly she never had too many chances at.

A man is discovered dead by gunshot in ailing Clara Blandick's house. It looks like murder, since there's no gunshot residue, but inspector Regis Toomey suspects something is going on. He arranges for his girlfriend, nurse Lee Patrick, to be assigned to Miss Blandick and to look for clues. And, as it turns out to deal with a couple more murders while Toomey arrests a series of suspects.

It's a remake of 1935's WHILE THE PATIENT SLEPT from a Mary Roberts Rinehart story, and a rare lead for Miss Patrick. She had played a lead or two in her first go-around in Hollywood at the dawn of sound, then it was back to Broadway for a few years. Now she was back as a character actress, and a well regarded one. She's good here, with a great scream and a no-nonsense demeanor. There's not much more than the mystery aspect in this B version directed by Noel Smith, but it moves along at a good clip.

A nurse goes to a mansion to care for an elderly woman who has had a breakdown after finding the body of her nephew – was it an accident? Suicide? Or murder? Who cares? Suspicious characters abound - the butler, the maid, the lawyer, the young woman who is lurking about... Although I'm a fan of 30s and 40s mysteries, this one was just not very entertaining. Lee Patrick and Regis Toomey are good actors but just not convincing as the leads. Patrick has a few snappy lines but not enough to lighten up this movie. Julie Bishop did a nice job in her role as the jealous Florence Lentz. I sure didn't recognize "Aunt Em" in Clara Blandick's portrayal. All in all a pretty pedestrian mystery movie.

Hospital nurse Lee Patrick is sent on special assignment to care for a fragile old lady out at her spooky mansion. Patrick doesn't mind taking the job - she had a date for the evening but her boyfriend the police detective stood her up again.

It's not too surprising, however, when she arrives at the house and finds boyfriend Regis Toomey already there: He's on a case and he has particularly requested her for this nursing job. He's checking into the recent suicide in the house - or was it a murder? - and he wants her help snooping around the place.

Lee Patrick is fine as the clever nurse who readily embraces her role as undercover detective (or Miss Pinkerton, as Toomey calls her, in a nod to the earlier movie version). She mostly plays it straight while the actors around her attempt various levels of eccentricity.

Toomey's role is a mix of serious detective stuff and snappy wisecracks directed at Patrick as well as the houseful of suspects. The dialog isn't especially great but Toomey gives it a game effort.

The rest of the characters really are the usual suspects - doctor, lawyer, victim's girlfriend, butler. It's a well worn plot and so sadly short on surprises, although there is plenty of suspenseful sneaking around in the dark. Overall, a competent if not very exciting B mystery.