Night Nurse is caught between sexualizing and valorizing its characters. The camera lingers over stars Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell as they strip down to bras and underwear (often in front of each other, if only to titillate the audience even more) and put on their nurses uniform. At the start of the film, Stanwyck even gets her job as a nurse by performing as dominatrix to the hospital’s submissive head doctor (he bumps into her, spilling the contents of her purse across the pavement, and as he squirms about on his knees picking everything up, she stands tall and silent, looking down upon him). She and Blondell are girls on the make, discussing which hospital employees to avoid relations with, and how to marry rich patients. They are young, single, sexy, strong, and determinedÑthey are as much the product of an insecure masculine nightmare as fantasy.
The second half of the film, however, focuses on their dedication to being good, highly moral nurses. They risk not only their jobs, but also their lives, to protect two children being malnourished by their self-proclaiming dipsomaniac mother, sadistic chauffeur (a young Clark Gable), and corrupt private doctor. Stanwyck and Blondell play both sexual monsters and angelic saviors: they represent the sin of the flesh and the redemption of the soul.
by Cullen Gallagher | Source: Turner Classic Movies Broadcast
12 Sep 2008 12:52 PM | Submit Comment
