On movies you probably don't know but definitely should see - Night Nurse

So yesterday's post was kinda... grim, I guess. I've had a bit of a rough week. Anywho, it's no biggie, I'm not having a relapse or anything, so no worries. I've just had a long, tiring week, and I've been kinda out of sorts lately. I'm heading to my parents this afternoon to help them with yard work. I think quitting Stockholm and getting on with some menial labour will be just the thing. Until then, I thought I'd leave you with a movie to watch for your Friday night, seeing as it's been quite a while since my last one of these.


I'm a sucker for old black and white movies. I started watching them with my mom for fashion inspiration. 30's and 40's fashion is so inspiring - the silhouettes and the cuts were different, and so much work went into everyone looking their best at all times. This was another time of course, and while most of these movies are rather sexist, female characters are generally sassy and intelligent and make for good heroines. Lora Hart of Night Nurse is one of these women.

Pony and I used to watch Night Nurse on a regular basis for a while when we were infatuated with Clark Gable. It's about a woman who goes to school to be a nurse, and then gets a job as a night nurse in a home with two sick children. She meets a sweet bootlegger and, well, it's a pretty standard love story from there. But there's so much else to this movie, so many things that were probably seriously shocking in the 30's. Women in various stages of dress and undress, attempted rape, alcoholism and child abuse, just to name a few.

The world just seemed to work in an entirely different way back then. Some fucker makes you drop your things? Make him pick that shit up. Then get him to score you a place at a prestigious nursing school. Some drunk bastard trying to infringe on your authority? Punch him in the face. Your nurse girlfriend needs milk for the kids in her care suffering from malnutrition? Break into a Jewish delicatessen by shattering the glass with your gun and steal the milk. Your boyfriend casually mentions that he kinda got the asshole who punched you killed? Smile happily and continue your date.

What really makes me happy is that even thought the head nurse Ms. Dylan is portrayed as a bit of a bitch, they make a point of the doctor telling her that she's extremely competent at her job. "Everything runs like clockwork." Also, Lora Hart is in complete control of the situation on her own, even when things get rough with Gable's character Nick. She doesn't need a man to protect her or speak up for her. She gives him a piece of her mind and even threatens him, despite his history of violence. It's a really rather feminist movie, which I find really interesting for its time.

 























And with all the cat fights, uniforms, latex gloves and stockings I'd say that someone on that set had some serious kinks.