Silly, exaggerated melodramatics abound in Night Nurse, yet it's fun to watch.
Silly, exaggerated melodramatics abound in "Night Nurse," yet it's fun to watch, it moves along quickly, and it provides good early roles for folks who would become much bigger stars in just a few years. The bulk of the plot (the movie is only seventy-two minutes long) concerns nurse Lora's efforts to expose a criminal conspiracy against the children.
Stanwyck and Blondell stand out, but the others in the cast tend to overact or act awkwardly, some of them unpolished, some of them plain odd. Most of the characters are drunken idiots or conniving crooks, the movie's sardonic, most-unflattering observation of the society of the day. Stanwyck's best line: When she confronts the children's mom and says, "You...mother." Like much of the rest of "Night Nurse," the words imply more than is actually spoken. It's that kind of picture.
Video:
"Night Nurse" varies in its image quality from absolutely stunning (for a movie of any age) to pretty ordinary (for an older Warner Bros. release). The black-and-white contrasts in this old, 1.33:1, Academy-ratio picture come up mostly good, sometimes looking a tad faded and sometimes startling in the deepness of the black levels. As always, WB must have found an excellent print, and given the film's age it still looks quite nice. Surprisingly, there is very little grain in evidence, only a few age marks--specks and flecks here and there--and fairly sharp object outlines and detailing for standard definition. The movie reminds how very good black-and-white photography has always been, not really surpassed to this day.
Audio:
Warner engineers reprocessed the monaural audio in Dolby Digital 1.0, and considering that talking films had only been in existence for a few years, it sounds quite respectable. Voices are a touch nasal, there is a small amount of residual noise noticeable at higher volume settings, and, of course, the dynamic and frequency responses appear limited. All things considered, though, the dialogue comes across well.
Extras:
The extras differ from movie to movie, but there are commentaries on "The Divorcée" and "Night Nurse," both well presented by film historians Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta, and there are theatrical trailers for "Female," "Night Nurse," and "Three on a Match." More important, however, is the all-new documentary on disc three. It's called "Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood," sixty-seven minutes long. I found it the best part of the set, a terrific explanation of the history of pre-Code Hollywood movies as well as the formulation of the Code
itself, using the talents of a number of filmmakers, critics, and film historians along the way.
In addition, each movie has its own set of scene selections, which, unfortunately, are not printed out anywhere except within each disc's menu. The movies come in English only, with English and French subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Thoughts:
"Forbidden Hollywood," Volume 2, provides another fascinating glimpse into Hollywood's past, the way things were and the way they might have been. These films give us an idea of the direction movies were going in the early thirties and the ultimate direction they did take. From there, you can argue whether censorship, self-imposed or government mandated, is a good thing or bad. "Forbidden Hollywood," Volume 2, is yet another piece of history that helps shed new light on an old controversy.
Stanwyck and Blondell stand out, but the others in the cast tend to overact or act awkwardly, some of them unpolished, some of them plain odd. Most of the characters are drunken idiots or conniving crooks, the movie's sardonic, most-unflattering observation of the society of the day. Stanwyck's best line: When she confronts the children's mom and says, "You...mother." Like much of the rest of "Night Nurse," the words imply more than is actually spoken. It's that kind of picture.
Video:
"Night Nurse" varies in its image quality from absolutely stunning (for a movie of any age) to pretty ordinary (for an older Warner Bros. release). The black-and-white contrasts in this old, 1.33:1, Academy-ratio picture come up mostly good, sometimes looking a tad faded and sometimes startling in the deepness of the black levels. As always, WB must have found an excellent print, and given the film's age it still looks quite nice. Surprisingly, there is very little grain in evidence, only a few age marks--specks and flecks here and there--and fairly sharp object outlines and detailing for standard definition. The movie reminds how very good black-and-white photography has always been, not really surpassed to this day.
Audio:
Warner engineers reprocessed the monaural audio in Dolby Digital 1.0, and considering that talking films had only been in existence for a few years, it sounds quite respectable. Voices are a touch nasal, there is a small amount of residual noise noticeable at higher volume settings, and, of course, the dynamic and frequency responses appear limited. All things considered, though, the dialogue comes across well.
Extras:
The extras differ from movie to movie, but there are commentaries on "The Divorcée" and "Night Nurse," both well presented by film historians Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta, and there are theatrical trailers for "Female," "Night Nurse," and "Three on a Match." More important, however, is the all-new documentary on disc three. It's called "Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood," sixty-seven minutes long. I found it the best part of the set, a terrific explanation of the history of pre-Code Hollywood movies as well as the formulation of the Code
itself, using the talents of a number of filmmakers, critics, and film historians along the way.
In addition, each movie has its own set of scene selections, which, unfortunately, are not printed out anywhere except within each disc's menu. The movies come in English only, with English and French subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Thoughts:
"Forbidden Hollywood," Volume 2, provides another fascinating glimpse into Hollywood's past, the way things were and the way they might have been. These films give us an idea of the direction movies were going in the early thirties and the ultimate direction they did take. From there, you can argue whether censorship, self-imposed or government mandated, is a good thing or bad. "Forbidden Hollywood," Volume 2, is yet another piece of history that helps shed new light on an old controversy.
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[release]23220[/release]