Candy Stripe Nurses

Scoop's comments in white:

By the time Roger Corman got to his fifth and final "Nurse" movie, he had made a major advancement in the genre. The DVD box summarizes:

"Along the way, I decided that focusing on three girls, instead of the earlier films' four, made for a better story."

EUREKA!

When future film historians point to the key advances in cinema, they will have to cite the following as the Big Seven:

Muybridge demonstrates the first projected motion picture
Edison debuts his Vitascope
Sound added
Color added
Widescreen techniques perfected
Deep focus perfected
Corman perfects the nurse formula

Like just about every Roger Corman movie, or so it seems, Candy Stripe Nurses features the immortal Dick Miller (right) in a small speaking role. Usually a sleazebag salesman, a lazy cop, or some other obnoxious guy, Miller had about four lines in this film, in the much sought-after role of "spectator" at a basketball game. He delivered highly nuanced lines like "you suck, Gallagher" with great relish, at least until Gallagher's girlfriend dumped popcorn on Miller's head.

I know you never heard of Dick Miller, but you can't tell me you don't know his face. He has 130 acting credits at IMDb. That compares to 142 for Gerard Depardieu, 157 for Marcello Mastroianni, and 135 for Michael Caine, just to show you which league Miller plays in.

Tuna's comments in yellow:

Candy Stripe Nurses is the 5th and last in the Roger Corman "nurses" series, in which he switched the formula from four girls to three, and took much of the action outside the hospital.

The best way to explain the plot is probably to talk about the three women.

Candice Rialson is rather lose and free. At the start of the film, we see her in a linen closet with a doctor. Later, she is in a bath scene at home, obviously her mother's pride and joy. She also has sex with a patient, and nearly acts as sex surrogate to a rock star she had a crush on.

NUDITY REPORT

Robin Mattson shows breasts and buns in several extended scenes, with one nearly gynecological shot from the rear.
Candice Rialson shows breasts in good light in three different scenes.
Maria Rojo shows breasts in two scenes, first, in a fantasy lovemaking session, and then during a rape attempt while she is trying to hunt down the witness.
Kimberly Hyde and Elana Casey show breast and buns in minor roles.

DVD info from Amazon.

Includes a Corman interview and a trailer, but no widescreen version

Robin Mattson is a serious student who plans on being a doctor, and volunteers as a candy striper to gain experience in a hospital. She ends up involved with a college basketball jock who is being fed uppers by his team doctor to enhance his on-court performance. She is best known for her work on soaps, such as General Hospital, All My Children, and The Guiding Light.
María Rojo plays a Chicana with a chip on her shoulder, feeling that she has no chance, because the system keeps her down. After a fight with a teacher, the principal punishes her bay making her volunteer at the hospital. She meets a young man shot during a gas station holdup, who is falsely accused of being one of the robbers, and has the same defeatist attitudes she has. She decides to find a missing witness to keep him out of jail. With 65 credits, including El Callejón de los milagros, De noche vienes, Esmeralda and Crónica de un desayuno, she has had a huge career, but most of it outside the United States.

The Critics Vote

no major reviews online.

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 3.6/10

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C (Tuna) or C- (Scoop), assuming a genre of "low budget nudie film". The point of this film is to get lovely young women out of their clothes, and it has technically adequate exposure from some semi-famous, and some not so famous young actresses.