Private Duty Nurses

This early New World Pictures output from Roger Corman might have been labeled as an exploitation film, but, it's pretty much just a dramatic soap opera about the lives, loves, and tribulations of three young nurses. There's some nudity even though it's not in abundance and all three of the girls are attractive with Pegi Boucher being the standout, who by the way is treated like crap in this movie and never given a good conclusion for it, like the other two girls are. Overall, I was entertained for the 80 minutes nothing more nothing less.

One quick comment about the band mentioned in the other review and the "Townsend/Perry" lookalike singer.

That's Doug Fieger, and the band is Sky. They made two magnificent albums 1970-71, produced by Gary Wright, Jimmy Miller and Andy Johns. Johns brought in the same heavy hitters he used on Stones albums. Doug (whose brother is Kevorkian lawyer Geoffrey Fieger) went on to form "The Knack" and co-wrote Billboard's 1978 song of the year, My Sharona.

It's too bad the previous reviewer hated the music; Sky being in it is the only reason I've heard of this movie. It's obviously not a great showcase for their songs, however. I've watched the film on DVD and it's pretty lousy, kind of embarrassing like a 1970s suit. But it does have one of my all time favorite bands on the soundtrack, so that counts for something.

This feels too.... serious-minded. This wasn't really all that much fun to watch (except for the Sky scenes - didn't know till someone on here wrote that the lead singer went on to form The Knack), and there's a somewhat graphic rape scene about 2/3rds into the film that feels like it's there to add extra drama that isn't needed... or, perhaps it *Is*, but not in the way it goes about it. I should like how it's all loose and without needing a solid structure, but its lack of focus is kind of a detriment here. Things just happen, even as there's the loosest of thru-lines in each of the girl's stories as they try to become nurses; one has an environmental kind of narrative, she sees a guy die on a beach due to polluted water and her new boyfriend investigates; one woman; the black one of course, tries to work for the black doctor who tries to, you know, become the first black doctor at the hospital with some difficult results; the other girl... I don't even friggin remember at this point and I just watched this several hours ago!

It hasn't aged well past the music from Sky being decent, though not totally remarkable - an example of what was typical, easy hard rock at the time, not challenging but not overly poppy - and while the acting is passable it's no great shakes. I think the whole thing goes down to the script just being a collection of scenes; this may sound like a complaint that holds no water due to it being a Corman drive-in/grindhouse(ish) quickie meant to ride off the coat-tails of The Student Nurses (ironically the one that kicked things off isn't included in the SHOUT Factory's DVD set of New World movies with Nurses), to the point where the movie got named due to the fact that the only group that complained about that previous movie were the *actual* Private Duty Nurses who wrote a letter to Corman saying that nurses really do a lot of hard work and want to take care of their patients and blah blah etc.

If anything it could've simply used more colorful characters, or more bizarre or inventive things for people to do or say or set pieces (perhaps Armitage understood this and did better, in collaboration with Jonathan Kaplan, a year later in Night Call Nurses). It's impossible not to feel a bit like a snob trying to poke holes in this, but it's not about that; I know this is trash and know that it knows it as well. But... it's forgettable, and, aside from that rape scene I mentioned earlier, it doesn't feature anything that makes it stand out that could be considered as, well, a *positive* image of womanhood or femininity (sure, the movie points out, or one of the characters does, that she is trying to be a nurse since she can't become a doctor, but... why can't she exactly? Women became doctors back then, didn't they? Sometimes?)

In brief: perfectly acceptable to put on and completely ignore while you neck with your date. Perhaps the intention after all, but it doesn't work as something you got to pay attention to past the nudie bits (which are fine) and the rock and roll. But above all it's a bummer, and, as a "serious" movie, not very interesting or presented with skill or cleverness.

Then again, that may have been the point for writer / director George Armitage's entry in the Roger Corman-produced "Nurse" series of pictures, as Armitage touches upon a variety of serious themes. He works elements such as racial discrimination, drug smuggling, and ecology into his story of three expectedly comely young nurses - Spring (Katherine Cannon), Lynn (Pegi Boucher), and Lola (Joyce Williams) and their assorted misadventures and romantic scrapes. Spring gets involved with a Vietnam veteran named "Domino" (Dennis Redfield), who races motorcycles, Lola with Dr. Elton (Herbert Jefferson, Jr.), who is angry at the lack of black doctors in a certain major hospital, and Lynn with Dr. Doug Selden (Joseph Kaufmann), a true crusader. There are the obligatory and enjoyable doses of sex and female flesh, but the admittedly glum tone prevents this from being as enjoyable as it could have been. It manages to avoid ever being too boring, but it just doesn't have the energy to keep it moving quicker. Even the lovely ladies this time around aren't as appealing as one would usually see in this kind of New World production. The supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Morris Buchanan (the guy who had a hole blown in his head by Pam Grier near the beginning of "Coffy"), Paul Hampton (who's actually more animated and moderately more engaging than he was in Cronenberg's "Shivers") as a would-be swinger, imposing screen tough guy Robert Tessier as a "super bouncer", and Paul Gleason of such 80's classics as "Trading Places", "The Breakfast Club", and "Die Hard" as a serious-minded doctor. As others have noted, there is a definite problem with a movie that, considering its running time is a mere 80 minutes, plods too much and has too much padding, such as extended night club scenes with a rock group named Sky. All of this is watchable enough, but it really could and should have been better. Five out of 10.

In this sequel to "The Student Nurses", three young interns by the names of "Spring" (Kathy Cannon), "Lynn" (Pegi Boucher) and "Lola" (Joyce Williams) have all been admitted to a large hospital and are looking for an apartment. They finally come upon one which is being rented out by a man named "Dewey" (Paul Hampton) who takes an immediate liking to Lynn. Meanwhile, Spring becomes attracted to an injured Vietnam vet by the name of "Domino" (Dennis Redfield) and Lola gravitates to a young doctor named "Dr. Elton" (Hebert Jefferson Jr.). Essentially, the story then chronicles the trials and tribulations each of these young women encounter within their relationships. Now as far as this movie is concerned it touched upon a few social issues relevant to the time this film was produced and as a result some viewers may not be quite able to fully understand or appreciate certain aspects. Likewise, the fact that this was a low-budget production doesn't help in that regard either. Even so, in spite of its limitations it managed to keep my interest for the most part and as a result I rate it as about average. Followed a year later by the third film in the series, "Night Call Nurses".