Cinema Club Presents Pre-Code Classic NIGHT NURSE

CINEMA CLUB PRESENTS NIGHT NURSE

FEATURING LIVE DISCUSSION WITH ALAMO PROGRAMMERS AND WRITER KIM MORGAN

Sunday, May 2, 7pm at the Ritz

Buy Tickets here.

You know that sensation you get from old movies sometimes, that they're winking at you across an expanse of years, sneaking in a private dirty joke here and there? Well, NIGHT NURSE isn't just winking, it's not sneaking; it's kicking down the door and getting wild. NIGHT NURSE is one of the glories of pre-code cinema, that is to say the movies mad before Hollywood began censoring itself.

Writer Kim Morgan is the ideal choice to join us as expert commentator for NIGHT NURSE, she's a great enthusiast of both pre-code cinema and the films of Barbara Stanwyck. You may know her work on TV and you've probably read her on MSN and The Huffington Post, but our favorite Kim Morgan work is her fine writing for her own site Sunset Gun.

NIGHT NURSE
Rated NR; 72min; Director:William A. Wellman (1931)
One of the most salacious and entertaining pre-code features. NIGHT NURSE could certainly never have been made under the censorious "production code." It's vulgar, it's rude, it's full of innuendo - in other words - it's great! Barbara Stanwyck, fresh from New York, is at her sexy, gum-chewing best as a young nurse who uncovers a horrifying case of child neglect and murder while working for a wealthy family. She uses her wiles (and her bootlegger boyfriend's shady underworld connections) to set things straight. The sequences in the nursing school, showing Stanwyck's training and indoctrination, tell us more about the lot of poor women during the depression than a dozen history books. Fascinating, funny, not for the easily shocked - this deserves to be an underground classic with a cult of its own. Vivacious Joan Blondell matches Stanwyck step-for-step as her best friend at school. The brutal chauffeur, Nick, is played by Clark Gable, pre-stardom. Director William "Wild Bill" Wellman made five other films in the same year, including the James Cagney classic THE PUBLIC ENEMY.(Lars)