Night Nurse 
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Oliver H.P. Garrett and Charles Kenyon from a novel by Grace Perkins
1930/US
Warner Brothers
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Maloney: Take my tip and stay away from interns. They’re like cancer… the disease is known but not the cure.
Pre-code classic with the perfect cast and lots of snappy dialogue.
As the movie starts, Lora Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) is applying for a nurse training program at a local hospital. The director of nursing is an old bat who rejects Lora for her origins and lack of high school diploma. But a kindly old doctor recommends her and she is immediately accepted. In training with Lora is Maloney (Joan Blondell). The two become roommates and have adventures, many involving undressing or dressing. One that doesn’t has the two nurses treating bootlegger Mortie’s bullet wound on the quiet. Mortie starts his campaign to win Lora.
The first jobs Maloney and Lora get after graduating is shifts at the house of a wealthy alcoholic mother of two. Mom’s life is one round of drunken parties after another. She has taken up with hunky but sinister “chauffeur” Nick (Clark Gable). In the meantime, the little girls are slowly dying of starvation. Lora fights like the dickens to get them out of the control of their scheming doctor (Ralf Harolde).
This Pre-Code classic is great fun what with all the disrobing, fisticuffs, and straighttalking (“you mother!”). It combines two of my favorite things – a feisty Barbara Stanwyck and a great pre-code vibe. Add in Blondell and Gable and you’re in essential territory. Highly recommended.
Night Nurse was the last film in which Clark Gable played the bad guy.
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