Then again, that may have been the point for writer / director George Armitage's entry in the Roger Corman-produced "Nurse" series of pictures, as Armitage touches upon a variety of serious themes. He works elements such as racial discrimination, drug smuggling, and ecology into his story of three expectedly comely young nurses - Spring (Katherine Cannon), Lynn (Pegi Boucher), and Lola (Joyce Williams) and their assorted misadventures and romantic scrapes. Spring gets involved with a Vietnam veteran named "Domino" (Dennis Redfield), who races motorcycles, Lola with Dr. Elton (Herbert Jefferson, Jr.), who is angry at the lack of black doctors in a certain major hospital, and Lynn with Dr. Doug Selden (Joseph Kaufmann), a true crusader. There are the obligatory and enjoyable doses of sex and female flesh, but the admittedly glum tone prevents this from being as enjoyable as it could have been. It manages to avoid ever being too boring, but it just doesn't have the energy to keep it moving quicker. Even the lovely ladies this time around aren't as appealing as one would usually see in this kind of New World production. The supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Morris Buchanan (the guy who had a hole blown in his head by Pam Grier near the beginning of "Coffy"), Paul Hampton (who's actually more animated and moderately more engaging than he was in Cronenberg's "Shivers") as a would-be swinger, imposing screen tough guy Robert Tessier as a "super bouncer", and Paul Gleason of such 80's classics as "Trading Places", "The Breakfast Club", and "Die Hard" as a serious-minded doctor. As others have noted, there is a definite problem with a movie that, considering its running time is a mere 80 minutes, plods too much and has too much padding, such as extended night club scenes with a rock group named Sky. All of this is watchable enough, but it really could and should have been better. Five out of 10.
Review of Private Duty Nurses
