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1973’s The Young Nurses was directed by Clint Kimbrough and written by Howard R. Cohen. This is Kimbrough’s only directorial credit though fans of Corman’s films will know his name from acting roles in movies like Bloody Mama, Crazy Mama and a supporting role in Night Call Nurses. The late Cohen would pen some of the Deathstalker movies for Corman in the eighties and also wrote a few kids’ TV cartoon shows like Rainbow Brite and The Care Bears, which is kind of weird when you think about it.
Wouldn’t you know it, this movie tells the torrid tale of a trio of pretty young nurses who encounter danger, drama, intrigue and, of course, sex while on the job in the hospital. Our three heroines are Kitty (Jeane Manson), Joanne (Ashley Porter) and Michelle (Angela Elayne Gibbs), the latter of whom gets her feathers all ruffled when some patients come in pumped full of bad drugs. She decides to do some investigating of her own and track down the dealers who are in the while Kitty and hangs out at a boat race where Kitty falls for a racer named Donahue (Zach Taylor) and Joanne decides to go against orders and act as a surrogate doctor. Overseeing all of this is their boss, Krebs (Alan Arbus), the chief surgeon in charge of the hospital, and tough head nurse Dockett (Mary Doyle).
Featuring some fun cameos from the likes of Dick Miller, Sally Kirkland and, yes, famously Samuel Fuller this is one of the better films in the set. It’s got all the bare skin and sexy shenanigans you’d expect from a movie like this and then some, and each of the three female leads definitely look gorgeous here, but aside from that there’s a good sense of humor to a lot of what happens and the film does an interesting job of working in some blaxploitation movie elements. The film is well shot and looks a little better than the other three movies in the set, and it’s also great a great score to keep all the action moving and on time. It’s not the highlight of the series and it doesn’t deviate from the formula very much but it does what it does well and if you enjoy the other entries in the series, this heaping does of ‘more of the same’ will go down smoothly enough.
