Candy Stripe Nurses (1974)

This movie was yet another follow-up to the hit Roger Corman quickie The Student Nurses and went along similar lines, but had a completely different cast and no story carry-over. Instead of young professionals trying to succeed amid the temptations of the swinging early 70s, though, this time we have high school aged volunteers. The cast are all inexperienced unknowns (Candace Rialson went on to do a fair amount of TV work over the next few years), but the real problem is that while the advertising promises laughs, the script doesn't provide any. The box copy suggests a hospital romp along the lines of Carry On Doctor, but the movie just gives us 90 minutes of following the girls around in their silly peppermint striped uniforms, and then off to parties where they smoke dope, take off their tops and have sex. Tame sex. Nothing else of much interest happens. Unlike the first movie, where every major character had a proper character arc, there is little here in the way of character development. We just get a few familiar types (the rebel, the serious student who wants to be a doctor, the party girl) and some standard antagonists (insensitive sexist doctors, rigid administrators etc.) for them to conflict with. The result is more hospital soap than romp and not very interesting or entertaining. The girls are pretty hot, though, and this one isn't quite as insanely trashy as Private Duty Nurses, making it a little more watchable (or a little less watchable, depending on what you're looking for).

A trio of lovely young volunteer nurses get seriously involved in their work at a local California hospital: Brash and moody adolescent Marisa Valdez (a wonderfully feisty performance by Maria Rojo) goes out of her way to prove the innocence of angry framed patient Carlos (an excellent portrayal by Roger Cruz), sweet and spunky eager beaver Dianne (the adorable Robin Mattson) falls for hunky pillhead basketball player Cliff Gallagher (likable Rod Haase), and spunky and saucy Sandy (the delicious Candice Rialson in peak vibrant and sexy form) tries to seduce decadent and arrogant rock star Owen Boles (hysterically overplayed to the broad hilt by Kendrew Lascelles). Writer/director Alan Holleb's debut feature bristles with loads of frenetic energy and a certain infectious playfulness: the brisk pace never flags for a minute, the cheerfully tart and bawdy humor remains good-natured and inoffensive throughout, and, naturally, there's a pleasing abundance of tasty female nudity. A familiar cast of B-flick regulars pop up in nifty bits: Tara Shrohmeier, Sally Kirkland, Kimberly Hyde, and the ubiquitous Dick Miller as an obnoxious heckler. The bubbly soundtrack and funky-groovin' score by Thompson and Tabor both hit the right-on stirring spot. Randall Robinson's bright cinematography gives the picture an attractive sunny look. Highly recommended to 70's drive-in film buffs.

Caught this on Drive-In channel (which I love) and it's actually pretty dang good.it's got a plot! - lots of beautiful women. Naked! (not nowaday silicone bimbos) - empowered women! For instance, there's a great line in the movie, one of the best I've ever heard, where a rape victim gets the upper hand and asks the slimeball, "what's wrong? All the romance gone out of it?" Love it!!! - lots of funny moments. I love the phil spector type famous music guy who they have to pull of one of the women and he's panting like a dog. Hilarious! - Did I mention the beautiful women? Incredible natural bodies and one gorgeous woman actually has short hair, which I didn't think would fly in one of these 70's drive-in flicks.Man, these movies, which were probably considered to be bad, even dumb, back when they were made, are so much brainier and more fun and waaay less offensive than the crap Hollywood passes these days. Hollywood movies are offensive in much a more slimy, insidious way. Many are just plain disgusting. Even the "Go Girl!" movies that come out these days are so obviously written by men and highly offensive.God, the 70's was easily the best time to go watch a movie./sigh

I was originally not planning to say much about this movie, pro or con, except to tell you what my only reason was for wanting to see it -- which I'll come back to later. My thinking was that it wouldn't be fair to pick on this movie for being merely a sophomoric sex comedy when it was never meant to be anything more. But there WAS an attempt to make it something more -- which succeeded only in making it something less. NURSES attempts to surgically graft two serious dramas onto the sex comedy, and IMHO, the graft didn't take. The end result doesn't even begin to qualify as serious drama, but has probably frustrated many folks who were looking for a sex comedy.To be fair, I should mention that the DVD edition includes an interview with Roger Corman, who produced the movie, in which he says NURSES was an experiment, and admits it might not have the same appeal as a movie that stuck strictly to formula. So if it was meant to be an experiment, I still shouldn't pick on it, but I have to say the experiment was a failure.Now, to get back to my reason for watching this movie, it seems there's a connection between NURSES and the controversial rape and revenge movie I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (a.k.a. DAY OF THE WOMAN). That connection is actor Eron Tabor, who played one of the four rapists (Johnny, the service station worker) from GRAVE, and co-wrote the rock music for NURSES. (My source is the feature-length commentary on the Millennium Edition DVD of GRAVE.) Unfortunately, there's no way to tell how much of the music was written by Tabor, because the opening credits attribute the music simply to `Thompson & Tabor.' There are a few vocal numbers, and I'm wondering if it could be Mr. Tabor singing.