Saturday, May 11, 2024

Movie review - "Candy Stripe Nurses" (1974) **1/2 (rewatching)

 Half a good film. Robin Mattson and Candice Rialson are among the best ever nurses. Mattson is classy and uptight, posh and smart and has a hot sex relationship that turns to love with a basketball player who is hooked on performance drugs. This is all strong.

Rialson is a ditzy sex positive type who sets out to bed a rock star. She's great. The idea has promise. But it's not developed well. Her motivation seems unclear. It's not that funny. Rialson, as she so often would be, is better than her material.

Mario Rojo is left hanging. She plays a feisty character but looks too young, barely gets a chance to engage with the other girls, doesn't even have a romance with the guy (she dreams their sex scenes). Too much screen time is spent with her investigating, asking questions.

The nude scenes are well done - they really knew how to film naked actresses by this stage, showing full body but not everything. Rialson and Mattson seem completely at home.

I liked the title tune too.

I can understand why audiences didn't go - no camraderie too much padding - but it's one of the stronger of the series and I would put Rialson and Mattson in my top five of nurses from this series along with Karen Carlson, Barbara Leigh and Patti Byrne.

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