ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

LeonLouisRicci This Pre-Code Film takes More Risks than just the Risqué Underwear Shots and Double Meaning Dialog. After the First Half Establishing the Medical Template and Barbara Stanwyck's Title Character with Scenes Among Horny Interns and Medical Procedures, the Movie Explodes into Lurid Exploitations of Alcohol Abuse, Drug Sniffing Doctors with Nose Twitches, and a Plot to Starve Children to Death to Collect Trust Funds.There is Crackling Dialog about Ethics, and Stanwyck Standing Up to a Brutish Villain, Played by Clark Gable, who Punches and Slaps Around Anyone Within Arm's Reach. The Drunks here are So Inebriated They can Barely Stand Up or Speak Clearly and Spend a lot of Time Weaving Around and Falling on the Floor.Especially the Mother of the Victimized Children Drowning Her Guilt and Blaming it on the Booze. "I'm a Dipsomaniac and proud of it". She Slurs. Stanwyck says..."You Mother..." and then Pauses. Even in the Pre-Code Films the F-Word was Forbidden in Hollywood.This Touching, Grim, and Stunning Look at the Dark Side of Humanity is a Must See for Fans of Pre-Code Movies, Stanwyck, Gable, and the Always Bubbly Joan Blondell. It is Typical Warner Bros. Social Concern, Director William Wellman Crafts an Example how Nastiness and Evil could be Shown Before the Code in an Entertaining and Enlightening way with Two-Dimensional Characters like the "Hero" Bootlegger, without Pussy Footing Around. It Deals with the Thug in this Story in a Realistic and Finalized Way, that would be Impossible in Postcode Cinema.

sdave7596 "Night Nurse" released in 1931, in the depths of the Great Depression, was the kind of film Warner Brothers cranked out at that time. Barbara Stanwyck plays Lora Hart, a woman down on her luck who applies to become a nurse. She does so, with success. The initial part of the film takes us into the inner workings of a hospital -- circa 1931. Stanwyck is befriended by a fellow nurse, played by Joan Blondell, who provides much comic relief throughout the film. Stanwyck's first assignment is to take care of two sick children of a wealthy mother. Soon she begins to realize there is a sinister plot to starve the children so various people can profit from the children's trust fund. The children's mother is a serious alcoholic and seems to completely ignore her children, leaving them in the care of nurses and a housekeeper. A young Clark Gable has an eerie and threatening presence playing a chauffeur, who apparently is in league with the alcoholic mother and the children's sleazy doctor. Brought into the mix of all these characters is a charming bootlegger (prohibition was still the law of the land) played by Ben Lyon. He falls for Stanwyck after she patches him up from a bullet wound and doesn't report it as required. The film is clearly "pre-code" meaning the code was down in ink but largely ignored by studios until enforcement in 1934. There are some scenes of Blondell and Stanwyck dressing and undressing, and we see them in their undergarments several times! Liquor flows freely, despite prohibition and there are several scenes of various drunken party-goers. One drunken man tries to assault Stanwyck. There is some fairly graphic violence by 1931 movie standards. There is also some funny, snappy dialogue from Stanwyck and Blondell. My favorite line is when Stanwyck, after wrestling with the drunken, neglectful mother, looks down at her passed out on the floor and says "You mother..." I won't give away the ending, as it is a bit bizarre, but this is an entertaining film. See it just for Stanwyck. She gives a spirited and tough performance.

zetes Another win for William Wellman! He keeps moving up the list of my favorite directors. In this one, Barbara Stanwyck stars as a nurse who is assigned to watch two young girls. She discovers that they're illness is being exacerbated by a crooked doctor. It seems that the doctor and the kids' mother's chauffeur (Clark Gable, looking delightfully evil in his black chauffeur's uniform) are conspiring to let them die. Unfortunately, Stanwyck is obliged to follow the doctor's rules, as per her profession's code of ethics (hopefully this has changed over the past 75 years!). It's a good story, and Stanwyck is fantastic in it. My major complaint is that Wellman goes for some strange comic scenes. The girls' mother is an alcoholic (the doctor and chauffeur are also trying to keep her inebriated, so she doesn't stop their murder plot), and she always has friends over for parties. The drunks are all played as comical, which grates against the more serious themes of the movie. Joan Blondell co-stars as the nurse who takes care of the kids during the day (and apparently she's nowhere near as concerned as Stanwyck about it, or at least she doesn't do anything about it!). This movie is found in Warner's Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 2, not in Vol. 3, which is nothing but Wellman films.

evanston_dad A tawdry and downright disturbing pre-code film that stars Barbara Stanwyck giving one hell of a ferocious performance.Stanwyck plays the titular night nurse, assigned to care for the two small children of a negligent and drunken floozy. The children's' father is dead; the family chauffeur, played by a hateful Clark Gable, is running things, and he wants the children to die so that he can collect the trust money that was intended for them. Therefore, the children are wasting away from starvation while a useless maid dithers around and Stanwyck tries to get the hospital to intervene.The film would probably be instantly forgettable if not for the fierce performance of Stanwyck, who throws herself (quite literally) into the role of savior, taking punches, getting thrown into a wall, all while dishing out some punches of her own. This is film-making of the sensational Warners variety, featuring lots of suggestive dialogue, shots of Stanwyck and her nurse buddy, the saucy Joan Blondell, in their underwear, and a world in which things like murder are o.k. as long as they're done for the right reason. The movie is certainly no masterpiece, but it does have that energy and sizzle that characterized Warners films from this time period, and it is effective on its own modest terms.Grade: B+