The Young Nurses (1973) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Tuna

What can you say about an entry in the Roger Corman "nurse" genre? Corman did a bunch of these back in the 70s. Obviously, you know it ain't gonna resemble Schindler's List. You know the plot is going to be either weak or confusing and the acting will be non-existent, so I'll skip over that obvious stuff. Here are the plusses and minuses on the things that matter in the much-awarded "nurse" genre.

Pluses:

  • One of the cameos comes from the guy who played Sydney on M*A*S*H. That was cool. (Allan Arbus, also the husband of the notorious avant garde photographer Diane Arbus)
  • Pre-implant Sally Kirkland walked around briefly in a semi-transparent bra
  • There is quite a bit of frontal nudity here and there -  the DVD has a full screen version, and that even has male frontal nudity, which was unheard of in a 1973 Corman film. I think it must have been lost in the widescreen theatrical projection at the time, because it is on the extreme bottom of the screen.
  • The two women who provide frontal nudity (Jean Manson and Ashley Porter) are quite beautiful
    • Jean Manson is the Playmate-turned-chanteuse that we have mentioned before. She had two separate lives, one as a young Playmate and B-movie actress in America, the other as a legitimate and awarded actress in all media (stage, screen, TV), and a popular singer of all possible styles of music (C&W, Gospel, French Chanson, Opera, Broadway, you name it), and a major star - in France, of all places, performing in French with an American accent. The movie we discussed last time, 10 to Midnight, was the end of her American career. This nurse movie was the beginning. In fact, it was made in 1973, and she was the POM in August 1974, so I guess Playboy used her despite her pre-existing history of nude film appearances. I didn't realize that Hef did that in the old days.
    • Manson has three different birthdates circulating around the web. She told Playboy she was born October 1, 1950. Other sources agree on the day and month, but the year is listed variously as 1945 and 1954. It has been my experience in these cases that the more recent dates are not likely to be correct. Given those three choices, 1945 is my best guess. I'm thinking she told Playboy she was 24 when she was actually 29. I think she looks about 28 in this movie, and about 38 in 10 to Midnight, rather than 23 and 33. She was a beautiful woman (still is, in fact), and has a very distinctive, kind of mature, theatrical speaking voice. She also has a large, curved nose, but she never got a nose job, and it has always given her a distinctive, non-standard kind of beauty. You probably wouldn't peg her as a Playmate type of person, except when she takes off her shirt, at which point you would see that she definitely has the right credentials.
    • At various times in her life, she has also borne quite a strong resemblance to my first wife, Scoopy Junior's mother, and both of them starred on stage at one time or another as Aldonza in Man of la Mancha!
    • here are two samples of her singing. I listened to her sing Fais-Moi Danser, and I thought she sounded a lot like Marilyn McCoo ("(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All."). I don't know if you like that style, but the girl can sing.
    • here's another sample of her singing
    • Here is the home page for "Jeane" Manson, as she is now known. On her home page, you can hear a sample of something that sounds like a chanson/gospel hybrid.
 

Minuses:

  • The technical quality of the DVD is approximately equal to a fairly good VHS, no better. The print is slightly faded, and many scenes have picked up a distracting color tint over the years. (The sand on the beach was green)
  • There is no widescreen theatrical version. I guess that's not really a negative when one is discussing a nudie quickie. It would be nice to see it as it was seen on screen in the 70s, I guess, but the full screen version on the DVD is the full negative, not a pan 'n scan, so we actually see MORE than was seen on screen. Given that it is not a cinema masterpiece, it's probably not that important to see the aspect ratio as the director imagined it in his grand scheme.

NUDITY REPORT
  • Jean Manson - everything, including brief full frontal
  • Ashley Porter- all, including brief full frontal
  • Kimberly Hyde - breasts
  • Sally Kirkland - semi-transparent bra
  • Angela Gibbs - breast pop-out
  • breasts and buns from various extras
  • Zach Taylor - frontal and rear nudity

DVD info from Amazon

  • no widescreen

  • no features except the original trailer
  • One of the three starring nurses didn't do any nudity at all except a nipple-slip. The drug trafficking plot surrounding that nurse was also exceedingly confusing and strangely edited, although the other two nurses' stories were straightforward.
  • In my opinion, crappy, cheesy movies shouldn't take themselves seriously. This film needed a lot more humor. They got way too serious about the horrors of drug trafficking and the need for women to take charge of their own bodies with alternative clinics. It even took a pro-abortion stance, which took some cojones in 1973.  No problem with that, but I didn't want to see Kramer vs Kramer. I just wanted to see some pretty girls naked.

TUNA's THOUGHTS
The Young Nurses (1973) is the fourth of the Corman naughty nurse films, and will be the last one I do, as I did Candy Stripe Nurses a few months ago when it was released. We again have three nurses, are back at the LA beaches (in this case, Venice and Marina Del Rey) and the head nurse is a bitch again. Angela Gibbs, as the nurse of color, does outcall from the hospital, and gets involved in investigating a drug that is being sold illegally, and killed one of her patients. Her investigation includes an ex boyfriend, who took her to Baja, and bought her a pinata to bring back full of cocaine.

The brunette nurse is played by Ashley Porter, who is a doctor wannabe, and frequently exceeds her authority, ordering treatments that require a doctor. She also volunteers at a women's self help free clinic, where they can't understand why they are broke. It never occurs to them that free clinics don't make money.

The blonde nurse is played by Jean Manson. As the film starts, she is sunbathing topless on a hoby cat, and the guy in the next boat over hits on her. She stands up to put her top back on, providing such a good view that he is hit in the head by the boom and nocked into the water while staring. She dives in and saves him. By the time they get out of the ambulance at the hospital, he has a bleeding hole in his back, but the head injury is mysteriously gone. They, of course, fall in love, despite his overbearing father.

Gibbs shows a breast in a blurry down-blouse scene. Porter shows breasts, buns and brief full-frontal. Manson shows everything, including a lengthy full frontal, frolicking in the surf. Sally Kirkland shows breasts through a bra, and Terrill Maguire shows buns at the clinic, KImberly Hyde shows breasts as a candy stripper who screws a rock star, and several unknowns show breasts and bush seen by Gibbs in a drug induced haze. Thus, we have a nipple count of 14 this time. Both Hyde and Kirkland also appear in Candy Stripe Nurses.

Marina Del Rey is now an exclusive high rent community, but, at the time this film was being made, was just being developed. There were still beach cottages lining the beach access, and the beach was not well used. I personally fished in the surf there, and nude sunbathing was not uncommon. The film claims to have been digitally remastered. There are not many scratched or flakes, but the entire film has color shifter to a hideous green, and they did no color correction. Also, there are lots of focus problems, especially in boat scenes on the water.

The Critics Vote

  • no reviews online

The People Vote ...

 
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or even 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. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). 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.

Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, Scoopy says, "this film would be a nice solid C as a 70s exploitation film if there was a good transfer, because it has some beautiful women and they do frontal nudity. I can't rate it "passable" in this transfer, however. Call it a D until a properly remastered version comes along". Tuna says, "This is a faithful entry in the genre with plenty of nudity, and, for the most part, reasonably well filmed. The plot was pretty tired, and the few attempts at humor fell rather flat. With a better transfer, this would be a C, but, in its green version, it is a D+."

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