Liked this more the second time. Appreciated the energy, pace, politics, feminism, attractive cast. It's a bit more pervy than the others and lacks a top level star. I didn't like the two rape sequences but it gives the film a story. Everyone is trying their best, they throw themselves into it. A healthy attitude to sex apart from the rape stuff; that is depicted as bad it's just unpleasant. Joyously silly shoot out at the end.
Stephanie Rothman apparently wrote an early draft.
Fun. Good work from Barbara Peeters - like Stephanie Rothman she had a big New World hit with a three girl movie, but couldn't graduate to anything bigger.
It's breezy and bright. I think her touch was lighter than Rothman's who put in that abortion sequence and had the drug tripping in The Student Nurses. The politics are still there - Pat Anderson sticks up for male nudity to be the same as female, while Candice Rialson wants the girls to play football.
Rhonda Leigh Hopkins has an interesting character, or at least starts off so with her conservative father, but her plot isn't that much - with an aggressive rapey student who she falls in love with. It doesn't click.
Anderson is stunning and lots of fun as the art teaher dealing with the male chauvinist, posing nude. The food fetish stuff is not funny - these movies always had lots of unfunny comic bits.
But the star is Rialson, feisty and sexy, outsmarting Dick Miller, seducing the nerd teacher, never losing her pep.
The three leads interconnect here more than others in the series. They're all beautiful and can act, and look different so it's easy to tell them apart (even though their characters aren't as strong differentiated as in say The Student Nurses ).
I appreciate the non linear editing and the sex scenes are well done. Patti Byrne has the most interesting subplot, hooking up with the creepy sex cult leader shrink Clint Kimborough.
Alana Hamilton (as she became) goes with a boorish truck driver - she's lovely maybe it's chemistry with the guy. (When they're in the shower together she doesn't seem to be having fun.)
There's some padding - scenes like sky diving and water skiing, and some painful vaudeville schtick. The mystery of the stalker isn't bad, and there's some political statement (digs at drug companies)
It's actually better plotted than most of the other movies because the stories kind of dovetail - Alana's speedy trucker helps Mittie Lawrence's militant boyfriend escape.
The film gleefully throws in some tropes - cross dressing psycho crazy (Dennis Dugan), busting a militant out of hospital and brutal shoot out and the mind twisting shrink. Dick Miller is very effective as a lonely yet creepy guy who gives Byrne a lift.
Byrne should have had a bigger career.
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.
I wonder what Julie Corman, Stephanie Rothman and Barbara Peeters all thought of each other. Rivals? Friends?
Rothman wrote this script but it was rewritten so she took her name off it. Barbara Peeters directed. Steve Zaillian edited.
This isn't good. It has some cohesian - three girls defending their restaurant - but feels padded, with scenes of sunset and a disco. It's hard to tell the girls apart - especially as they're often wearing the one costume. One has a German accent I guess. Slabs of the action turn to a guy, who is going undercover to get dirt on the restaurant, which is annoying.
Normally in these films you get some social conscience. There's none here. Or some genuine sexiness. Again, none.
There's high spirits, I guess. Peeters made a great three girls film with Summer School Teachers. I wonder what happened here.
(I'm also including ones with four girls)
1) Three on a Match
2) How to Marry a Millionaire
3) Where the Boys Are
4) The Student Nurses
5) Summer School Teachers
6) Valley of the Dolls
7) Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
8) Hollywood Boulevard
9) Night Call Nurses
10) 9 to Five
Full of life and pep and some interesting things, positive female stuff, nude men. But really lacks focus. It's about three girls who live together and that's it and it's all very light when it really needs some hard edged social stuff. Rothman movies work best when they mix tones, IMHO.
The girls lack connection. Glue. They needed to have done the same job or be sisters or old college friends or from the same town. It's just two flat mates and a third girl joins them and the third girl leaves. Good natured. Fun. Silly. Just a bit slap dash.
There's no camraderie. One girl steals the other one's guy straight away. Yes the girl rescues her from the beach and later the girls say "we've got your back" to Honey when she meets a mystery guy. But we don't see it. There's no uniting for the cause like the abortion sequence.
I like the gangster and strip club manager subplot. But it was undeveloped. So was the artist and the fence.
Also Honey the blonde girl was struggling to get work... but she's a maths genius. Wouldn't she get something?
At its heart the film should be Honey the blonde being wacky, the artist being sexy/socially conscious, and the stripper being gangster-escapey. There's no social relevance here.
It's still got interesting things but it lacks focus and I'm not sure Rothman's heart was in it.
Cheerful sex comedy from Stephanie Rothman has the same basic problem of Terminal Island - too many characters, too much going on that doesn't tie in to a central theme - but also many of the benefits - a positive nature, plenty of forward momentum, an attractive cast.
The film is at its best in embracing of sex and colour and movement. Maybe it would have been better had it focused on just the girls. Or turned more serious. I think The Student Nurses works well because it goesdserious and while I know Rothman wanted to make a comedy a bit more seriousness like the house being trashed sequence would have worked. Or even more serious sex like when Jennings does it with Zac Taylor.
I actually like the Zach Taylor-Claudia Jennings subplot - he's upset she's representing his ex wife - because it's serious. The film could have dug into that more. Maybe met the ex wife.
The f- gay slur word is used but the two gay characters are depicted positively.
Best actors are Claudia Jennings and Solomon Sutrges. Jennings' has star factor. Aimee Eccles is cute. The women are stunning - well, Eccles more girl next door but extremely likeable (I love how she's the driving force), and Jennings and Victoria Vetri are goddesses. Zach Taylor is handsome and Sturges charismatic. The guy who plays the parole offier
There are too many subplots though. One about a prisoner who is a client of the probationary officer feels extraneous. Like if you want that make him one of the group marriage. Or could have been a she (could conflict with the lawyer then). Or actually just dropped it.Claudia Jennings could have easily handled a social welfare subplot.
Actually just thinking about the film I feel it might have been stronger had Rothman dug into the archetypes of the leads more. Aimee Eccles the funny one, Vetri the sexy free spirit, Jennings the political one. It's kind of there but could have been more. That screen time devoted to the parole officer could have been devoted to Vetri struggling with the constraints of the group, Eccles' sexual shenanigans and Jennings' political activity. Making it more of a three girl films could have given it more focus.
I've seen this three times now. Still have the same issues. Too many characters. They look and sound an act alike.
Would have been better had it focused just on four women on the island. There are the four women but also all these men.
Still plenty of interesting themes. Lots going on. Plenty of action.
MGM tried to repeat the success of Where the Boys Are but never quite did - I think because they went too light, while Boys had an aspect of reality about it with the Yvette Mimieux plot.
This has an interesting idea - the story of women who follow their naval men from base to base around the Riviera. Yes they chase the men but also... it is the Riviera. It wouldn't be a bad life if you were into it.
The women are: Janis Paige, getting sick of chasing hubby Ron Randell; Paula Prentiss, determined to nab lothatio Richard Long, Dany Robins, who is French and with Russ Tamblyn, and Connie Francis, desperate to be rooted by her new husband.
There's pleasing views of the south of France and Italy. Richard Long is made for this sort of thing and Randell acquits himself well.
The film is geared heavily towards Francis, who gets several songs - she's fine but her character is depressing and the storyline is sad. Because she wants to have sex and it's difficult. I think she should've just had a good old fashioned stalking storyline eg "you said you loved me I want you" - something fun.
Depressing endings - Randell gives up his dream of a command for Paige, Francis decides to stick it out with her guy but he's still carted off arrested i.e. they still haven't had sex, Prentiss is with Tamblyn but they haven't resolved the fact she doesn't want to marry a naval guy and he wants to go career, Long is with Dany Robin but she's a debt collector and he's got no money... Literally no one's relationship looks like it has a future!
No sense of camraderie or even funny set pieces.
I've seen this a lot. I have such affection for it.
Random thoughts
- the rape sequence is very unpleasant but it does show Candice Rialson to be genuinely traumatised by it. And later on when watching the film at the drive in she's traumatised again. And then is almost raped again in a scene played for comedy
- likewise in the scene where Tara Strohmeier is shot dead it has a real impact - ditto when Rita George is killed
- the love for movies is so endearing, the injokes, the names, the cut in footage, the whole vibe.
- the drive in sequence drags and isn't fun - rape played for gags isn't great
- the camraderie between the three girls is very lively and a shame there isn't more
- the romance between Jeffrey Kramer and Rialson is sweet
- the ace in the hole were the actors - everyone is good,Rialson is wonderful, Kramer amiable, but Mary Woronov and Paul Barrel are the stand outs. I really liked Rita George too she's very pretty and competent I'm surprised she didn't have more of a career
- sometimes the exploitation is awkward (the wet T shirt scene), other times offensive (the rape sequence), other times very effective (the producer in bed with two girls, the three girls lying around topless) - I know Dante and Arkush didn't have their hearts in exploitaiton but they could do it well (eg slasher scene)
- the basic mystery is fine with clever leading that we think the killer is Kramer
Random comments:
- so much fun with its feisty attitude and late 60s references (love ins, police brutality, drugs, Vietnam)
- lots of hot guys and gals - people are attractive
- strong male roles - blonde doctor who helps with abortion, revolutionary, dying guy - women films have storng male roles
- bad make up on dying guy and silly running around scene
- hot sex scenes on beach
- acting ability varies but people are attractive
- genuine friendship and camraderie (helping one get an abortion)
- terrific abortion sequence
- the girls make their decisions at the end: Karen Carlson likes the blonde doctor but stucks to her guns and dumps him, Elaine Giftos heads off to Vietnam, Brioni Farrell goes on the lam
A better known Ted V Mikels film, with its great title, some semi names- Tura Satana, Michael Ansara, Francine York, Anthony Eisley - funky credit squence and ahead of the curve concept: all girl fighting team.
There's some splendid legs and hair on display. Mikels actually isn't much of a director - the blocking and staging is poor. I get he didn't have a lot of money.
Fantastic music. Ansara good, York is fine. Never as much fun as it could be. Not well put together. Too much time on York not enough on the squad. I forgot about them at times. Some good moments.
Fantastic example of MGM at its peak. A three girl movies where the girls are played by iconic stars each in a specifically defined role - Lana Turner as a shabby poor girl (elevator operator) who can't resist the money, Judy Garland as a super talented girl who isn't as hot as the others but is the one made for showbiz, Hedy Lamarr as the refugee.
Turner and Lamarr have controlling partners - James Stewart (adding affability and star power) as a truck driving boyfriend, and Lamarr with her sooky violinst husband Philip Dorn. Garland isn't given a girlfriend but an actor dad whose career she helps.
Lamar's subplot looks promising when sleazty singer Tony Martin goes after her but then his wife somes along and asks for her to back off and she does and gets back with violinist Dorn. This plot needed a little more kick and for Lamar to interact with the girls. There's not enough girl interacting.
But Turner's is a lot of fun as she embraces booze, rich men (Ian Hunter, then they get sleazier - one of them is Dan Dailey), and Stewart becoomes a bootlegger. It's basically implied Turner becomes a hooker, she has a lovely final scene with Stewart then goes to see a show, and basically dies which is grand OTT wonderful MGM crap as are the production numbers.
Female writers so the women are depicted sympathetically, even the cuckolded wife, and gold digger Eve Arden, and the men are unreliable (even Stewart winds up going to prison before bouncing back). Jackei Cooper is cutely bumbling as Turner's brother - kept waiting for her to hook up with Garland but didn't happen. Paul Kelly is nicely ruthless as a stage manager and Edward Everett Horton is part of the Ziegfield organisation - two recogniseable types.
Lots of fun. Turner's film more than Garland's too which is part of its charm.
Not as good as the original. The absence of Walter Newman hurts, ditto David Swift. It doesn't have the same density, complexity, sense of authenticity. One of the main characters isn't even an intern - Dean Jones, playing James MacArthur's role from the last movie, who is a proper doctor now. So you don't have that sense of students struggling, wanting to step up.
Michael Callan is back but that's okay because he was kicked out last time. It's good to see him back, he's full of energy. Problem is, he doesn't have a story. In the first film he had a goal - root around and also get a residency with a top doctor, which caused him to romance an older nurse, which led to him getting hooked on drugs. That's a good meaty story. Here he sleezes around, recognises a druggie patient but then sends her off to be cold turkey (a romance between them would've been better), flirts with Barbara Eden, gets in drag to access the nurse's quarters, runs around frantically... puts in a lot of effort but basically doesn't have a proper story. Not enough to do.
George Segal has better luck - he's an ex hood turned doctor whose social worker girlfriend Inger Stevens is raped by hoods, seems to recover then goes into catatonic shock at a party (does that happen?). The hoods turn up under his operating table. That's predictable and dodgy but at least a story.
Dean Jones is married to Stefanie Powers who returns. No mention of her desire to travel and his promise to take her to Hawaii. They want a baby but he's sterile - she has trouble with it so he yells at her, then goes to a party and kisses another girl which is not true to his character in the first film even if his self righteousness is. She "comes to her senses".
George Furth with hair has a secret wife. Dawn Wells from Gilligan's Island pops up.
Not enough story, not enough medical drama, not enough camraderie. Some parties and low key star power turns from Callan, Eden, Savalas, Segal, Powers, etc.
I really enjoyed this medical drama, which feels authentic - certainly it was compared to many Hollywood films. It tells multiple stories of a year of interns, focusing on James MacArthur, Cliff Robertson, Michael Callan, Haya Harareet, and Nick Adams. A version of the "three girls" film.
Harareet is a woman bullied by Telly Savalas but who earns the bully's respect by secretly having a kid. I enjoyed this plot actually because she, well, is a woman doctor, and Savalas is so much fun.
Robertson stalks a model/actress Suzy Parker who wants his help getting an abortion.
Michael Callan has a girlfriend but seduces an older nurse for his career and gets hooked on drugs.
Nick Adams falls for a dying girl, a variation on the brave, beautiful native types.
MacArthur is an amiable actor but his character is a prat - turning in his mate Robertson who is stealing an anti abortion drug, tracking down an entirely justified mercy killer, bullying Stefanie Powers into marriage before she can go travelling. It's horrible at the end when she gives up her dreams to get that self righteous prig.
But there's some great scenes, like a patient asking to be killed, the banter between Buddy Ebsen and Telly Savalas, Robertson awkwardly coming back to the graduation drinks after he's been kicked out of being a doctor. Death is constant, another aspect of life at the hospital - for instance, after Adams' girl dies two nurses chatter over her toy which they've stolen, there's a passing moment of a mother bawling over her daughter who's choked to death on a piece of apple.
Walter Newman co wrote the script and I'll attribute the good points to him, though co-writer/director David Swift does a good job too.
There's lots going on - parties, death, worried elder doctors, ethics.
A three gals and three guys "fleet's in" movie - the sort that normally has colour and songs but this one has neither. The three guys are Jon Hall, Dana Andrews and Wally Vernon - the gals include Nancy Kelly and Joan Davis. Buster Crabbe, whose career has some similarities with Hall, plays a sailor keen on Kelly.
The pacing is slow and there's an un-fun aspect to it: Dana Andrews hates dames because of a divorce and wants Hall to not marry Kelly (who has adopted a baby without telling Hall first).
The last act involves the baby on a warship and Hall and Andrews go into the background and it becomes the officers, who play it straight... as if the filmmakers were concerned about getting co operation.
I get the comedy this was going for - cute shenanigans on a ship with a baby - but the film doesn't really do it. The characters all blend in. There's not enough women involved. Subplots feel unresolved. I didn't like it.
Fun, breezy, energetic, especially in the first half. The second half isn't as good. There's two really unpleasant rape sequences - one where Candice Rialson is being filmed, the other where a drive in operator has a go. This is not fun. There's the murder of Tara Strohmeier which feels nasty because she's such a warm person and she's so terrified and dies bloody - it's an effective slasher sequence I admit (Dante's tribute to Mario Bava) it just felt mean spirited.
Candice Rialson is splended, Strohmeier is great too and I also liked Rita George as the third girl. Jeffrey Kramer is an affable romantic lead but the breakouts are Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov. Dick Miller is solid as always and there's fun turns from people like Jonathan Kaplan.
Its love for filmmaking is so endearing that its faults are forgiven.
Film that still really hasn't gotten its due, a look at four nurses at a hospital and their various adventures. They have been well cast, look different - while acting ability varies all are beautiful and have screen presence.
Karen Carlson is the blonde one, who has a fling with a doctor - she accidentally sleeps with another doctor by mistake, but it's her decision, and she gets annoyed when the doctor is annoyed by it. She has a terrific character, a sex liking woman who dislikes death. She's anti abortion and clashes with her doctor boyfriend. This conflict is strong, well motivated, and empathetically depicted.
Barbara Leigh doesn't want to wear a bra and has a fling with new age druggie Richard Rust (a snob food eater). Rust has a decent role to play - a health food nut with his hippy drug dealing point of view, this is a three dimensional part. Their relationship is very believable. The whole abortion sequence is amazing - matter of fact, powerful. Leigh has to give evidence to a shrink, the head nurse is sympathetic ("get a good one), Carlson's doctor boyfriend helps upsetting Carlson. It's amazing filmmaking still so frank.
Brioni Farrell is a Latina and she gets political, having an affair with an activist. This is more standard. Her consciousness is raised... she gets radical. The political aspects are interesting. It's just more stock.
Elaine Giftos is a sweet young thing who cares for a terminally ill patient. She has to run around a garden, they fall for each other. Again this feels a little more stock - nothing Giftos does wrong.
The running time is padded out with montages but they are of the time and place eg a music festival so it's of cultural interest.
The women are supportive of each other - Farrell and Giftos help Leigh have an abortion, which Carlson opposes but Carlson doesn't get angry at Leigh more her boyfriend.
Very satisfactory ending - Leigh becomes a nurse, Carlson dislikes it so decides to become a receptionist, Farrell goes on the run, Giftos goes to Vietnam. Farrell is the only one with a man and even that looks like it's going to be casual.
Better than so many of his later films for several reasons. It has more story - a three girl movie (with the girls being sisters) plus a strong comic subplot involving Woody Allen. Allen's comic timing as a performer is fresh and fast - as he got older he got slower and less fun to watch. The material hadn't been as mined much - he was involved with Mia Farrow, drawing heavily on her family, so the material had freshness. He had friends and colleagues then... it doesn't feel that way now. The device of changing POV works wonderfully - why didn't he return to it?
It all works. Mia Farrow is splendid as the, well, Mia Farrow sister, Barbara Hershey is terrific, Diane Weist sensational, Woody's never been better, Michael Caine and Max Von Sydow are always good, Daniel Stern is hilarious, fun to see Carrie Fisher, Sam Waterston is memorably snag-gy slimy.
It's just a brilliant film. Have always loved it. Still love it.
