Wonderfully offbeat film!

Fantastic!

Brilliant and touching

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

It might not have been the best idea to watch all four of the "Nurses" movies that were packaged by the Shout Factory on DVD a few years ago one after another in the space of a week. At a certain point, especially considering how Corman and wife/producer Julie had a well-oiled machine as far conventions go, they started to blend together with the characters all being two white women and one black or Hispanic woman (sometimes there could be a fourth woman, but usually it was three), and while the black/Hispanic would be involved in an "issue" storyline, the others would have either a man they would be on/off with or other dramas going on. Only here and there would things take place *in* the hospital. In the case of The Young Nurses what helps a great deal is that the script is tightly plotted, there's good cross-cutting between the three stories, and it builds to things and is rarely boring.Does that mean it's any great shakes or high art? Good lord no. But I enjoyed the actresses here and what they were tasked to do - Kitty (Jean Madison) fools around and maybe falls in love with a guy who has a boat (there's a lot of boat sailing and the like here); Joanne (Ashley Porter) wants to become a doctor and will do a lot to become one (nothing too dirty I think); and Michelle (Angela Gibbs) is seeing there's a drug ring at the hospital she'll try to bust - and I liked that Michelle's plot wasn't *as* much related to being about her race. The director Kimborough may not have the kind of material that made, say, Night Call Nurses memorable for its datedness (there's no wild filmmaking to try to show what a drug trip is), but that's to the movie's benefit - it comes in, does its thing, and gets out.One note of interest for 'cineastes' out there: the magnificent director Samuel Fuller, of the tough pictures Pickup on South Street, Shock Corridor and the Big Red One, appears in a small role as a rather scummy character; he was one of the things that picked up the interest for me in the story, and among the cast he was one of the better (small-scene) players. If he had been in it more it might have risen even further above its limitations. But as it is, I liked where the stories went and that was enough to carry me through the material, even as the direction didn't stand out like Kaplan's entry in this (un-canon) series.

In this movie, which is the 4th film in the "Nurse Series", three young nurses are all trying to make a difference at a local hospital. The first nurse named "Kitty" (Jeane Manson) is a pretty blonde who takes a liking to one of her patients and tries to make sure that he doesn't aggravate an injury he sustained in a boating accident. The second nurse, "Michelle" (Angela Gibbs) has discovered that a patient of hers has died from a drug overdose and decides to investigate where he obtained the drugs. The third nurse by the name of "Joanne" (Ashley Porter) recognizes that there is an extreme shortage of doctors in the hospital and in the course of her duties takes on some of their responsibilities even though she lacks the necessary credentials. Now obviously the plot is a bit unrealistic and suffice to say the movie suffers as a result. Likewise, several of the scenarios were a trifle clichéd and were more or less rehashed from the other films in the series. Additionally, although I thought Ashley Porter--and to a lesser extent Jeane Manson--were nice additions to the scenery, neither of them were really able to bring this film up to even an average rating. In short, I consider this to be a rather weak entry into the "Nurse Series" and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

This movie was a follow-up to the hit Roger Corman quickie The Student Nurses and went along similar lines, but had a completely different cast and no story carry-over. Once again, the idea was to weave together a story of young professionals trying to succeed amid the temptations of the swinging early 70s. The cast are attractive but very inexperienced unknowns and the script does them few favors. The story focuses on a drug ring operating out of the hospital where the trainee nurses work, and they decide to investigate, an action that runs counter to the usual anti-establishment tone of the series. Beyond that nothing much of interest happens. Mostly this was just another exercise in soft-core titillation, with the camera following the girls in their tight uniforms along hospital corridors, and then off to parties where they smoke dope, take off their tops and have sex. The problem here is that the series creators were pretty much out of fresh ideas and so just recycled the same old character conflicts from earlier in the series: sexist doctors, older nurses who aren't with it and rigid administrators who are more concerned with protocol than patient care. Yawn. As a result this movie is now not very entertaining, except perhaps as camp. The dialogue probably sounded fairly hip at the time (or maybe it didn't) but it is pretty laughable now, and unless the viewer couldn't get enough of 1973 and is looking for a groovy, mod era experience, and any old one will do, I would avoid this type of movie at this point. It's cheap-jack, not very well or very imaginatively made and even fails to satisfy as exploitation, since very little sensationalistic happens and nothing happens that we hadn't already seen in the earlier installments.

A trio of young nurses get into all sorts of trouble at a hospital: sweet and sunny Kitty (an endearingly spunky portrayal by lovely blonde Jean Manson) falls for handsome boat racer Donahue (likable Zach Taylor), gutsy and assertive Joanne (well played with spirited aplomb by fetching brunette Ashley Porter) breaks protocol while aspiring to be a doctor, and socially conscientious Michelle (a fine performance by Angela Gibbs) investigates a drug ring operating out of the hospital. Director Clint Kimbrough, working from a tight and to the point script by Howard R. Cohen, relates the eventful story at a constant snappy pace, maintains an amiable tone throughout, and delivers more than enough yummy female nudity and steamy soft-core sex to satisfy exploitation movie fans (Manson in particular looks absolutely delectable sans clothes). The attractive and appealing cast keeps things humming: Manson, Porter, and especially Gibbs excel in the lead roles, with sound support from Allan Arbus as tough, but fair chief surgeon Krebs, William Joyce as smarmy rich jerk Fairbanks, Mary Doyle as snippy head nurse Dockett, and Kimberly Hyde as sexy candy striper Peppermint. Popping up in nifty bits are Dick Miller as a mean, unsympathetic cop, Sally Kirkland as a woman at a sex clinic, and Mantan Moreland in his last role as an old man. Legendary director Samuel Fuller contributes a neat, but regrettably brief appearance as smooth and ruthless drug ring mastermind Doc Haskell. Daniel Lacambre's sharp cinematography gives the picture a pleasing sparkling look. Gregory Prestopino's funky bluesy score and the groovy jammin' soundtrack further enliven this nifty little flick.