Monthly Archives: May 2013

Private Duty Nurses (1971)

Posted on May 10, 2013 | 1 comment

private duty nurses 2

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: Sex on the job.

Three friends (Katherine Cannon, Joyce Williams, Pegi Boucher) join the nursing field and get their first jobs at a local hospital. Together they must deal with the pressures of the profession as well as the dating scene and some of the lecherous, cheating men that come with it.

If one approaches this thing with extremely modest expectations then it is not too bad. It is compact enough and moves at a decent pace and while not exactly compelling it isn’t completely boring either. The girls deal with a lot of problems that every generation goes through particularly on the relationship end, which gives it a certain relevancy. It is also nice see them doing some actual medical duties and in one case even saving a young child’s life.

Where it fails is in its misguided idea of trying to tackle ‘serious’ issues. The story thread dealing with Spring’s (Cannon) romance with biker Domino (Dennis Redfield) who has had several serious head injuries and is told if he gets just one more it could prove fatal and yet continues to race anyways is predictably overwrought. The thread dealing with racism has been done so much better in far superior productions that it seems almost pointless here and the way it gets resolved is a bit farfetched. The third story having to do with water pollution takes on too much and has a wrap-up that is too tidy. The dialogue during a lot of these scenes is corny and the characters are all cardboard.

The three female leads look gorgeous both with their clothes on and off. All three of them appear nude although it is basically just from the waist up. However, if you are a breast fan you should like the scenes here particularly those who enjoy ones that are natural and firm. The nudity is not prevalent, but should be enough to satisfy the skin aficionados. There is also a rape scene near the end that seems to come out of nowhere and gets a bit explicit.

The Shout factory deserves a ‘shout-out’ for their transfer. Although the sound quality isn’t the best and does feature a faint and constant clicking sound during the last half-hour the picture quality is superb. The colors are bright and vivid without any of the faded or grainy look that usually permeates most low budget transfers from the 70’s. To certain extent it comes off looking like it had just been filmed yesterday.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: September 1, 1971

Runtime: 1Hour 20Minutes

Rated R

Director: George Armitage

Studio: New World Pictures

Available: DVD (The Nurses Collection)

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Posted in 70's Movies, Drama, Drive-In/T & A, Low Budget, Movies with a Hospital setting, Roger Corman's Nurses Series, Sex

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Exotica (1994)

Posted on May 8, 2013 | 4 comments

exotica

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 8 out of 10

4-Word Review: Obsessed with a stripper.

This is a fascinating and engrossing character study interweaving different characters and stories together until they become one. Bruce Greenwood plays Francis an accountant who frequents a strip bar and becomes fixated on a particular dancer named Christina (Mia Kirshner). Elias Koteas is the club D.J. who notices this obsession and becomes jealous since he at one time had a relationship with her. Thomas (Don Mckellar) is the nebbish pet shop owner who has a secret as well as a key between the three.

This is thoroughly compelling stuff that’s impossible to predict. The characters are believable, exposing traits you just don’t see in them at the start. Much like people you’d meet and get to know in real life each scene becomes like a piece to the puzzle.

Director Atom Egoyan may be a little too obsessed with tying everything together taking the final scene one step too far. Yet he still creates an interesting subtext. He seems to show how interconnected we all are to one another and how we can relate on different levels. The simple fact that we are human connects us no matter how ‘disconnected’ we may feel or be.

The sex club atmosphere is also taken from a different angle. He shows a much more complex and psychological motive behind it and how sex is only one element in it.

Like with Egoyan’s other films this thing is filled with a lot of philosophical banter and is quite humorless with a tendency to be a bit ‘heavy’. However, unlike The Sweet Hereafter it keeps moving and doesn’t get completely bogged down in it.

On the technical end the lighting is too washed out. The music selection is good, but oppressive. Overall though the film achieves what it wants too. It keeps your attention and remains thought provoking throughout.

My Rating: 8 out of 10

Released: May 16, 1994

Runtime: 1Hour 43Minutes

Rated R

Director: Atom Egoyan

Studio: Miramax

Available: VHS, DVD, Blu-ray

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Posted in 90's Movies, Drama, Foreign Films, Moody/Stylish, Movies from Canada, Mystery, Psychological, Sex

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Visiting Hours (1982)

Posted on May 6, 2013 | 1 comment

visiting hours 2

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 3 out of 10

4-Word Review: He doesn’t like women.

Deborah Ballin (Lee Grant) is an outspoken reporter who does a news segment dealing with domestic violence that angers misogynist Colt (Michael Ironside). For revenge he attacks her inside her home, but she manages to escape and gets treated at the local hospital. Unfortunately the psychotic Colt continues to stalk her inside the hospital, which causes her, other patients and the hospital staff to fear for their lives.

The script is predictable and unimaginative. It sticks to the tired 80’s slasher formula like it is a religion. The set-up is awkward and rushed while the rest of the film dealing with Colt’s perpetual stalking becomes prolonged and redundant. The scares lack excitement and the frights are non-existent. The only potentially interesting part that could’ve allowed this film to really stand out is when Deborah is taken into the operating room and put under anesthesia and thinks that the surgeon arriving to do the operation is Colt in disguise. The film teases the viewer with this possibility, but then chickens out.

The only novelty is having a 55-year-old actress as the heroine as opposed to the youthful, virginal looking types that get cast in these things in-part because of their screaming abilities. Having Grant playing a self-assured, confident character is refreshing change of pace for the genre, but then the film compromises even this by having Deborah’s young nurse played by Linda Purl become the target of Colt’s evil rage and by the end it’s Purl who has the most screen time.

Ironside is a competent actor and it is no surprise that he would be cast in the role of a killer due to his menacing facial features. He is talented enough to make the scenes he is in interesting despite the fact that he says less than 15 words during the whole film. Still the cutaways showing the reason for his mental illness being due to him witnessing as a child his mother throwing boiling water on his father is hooky. Also having him wear a small bell around his neck that rings every time he moves if awfully stupid for a person with a habit of stalking people.

The film has a similar concept to Halloween II that also dealt with a killer stalking a victim while inside a hospital, but here at least they use an actual hospital that is lighted the way a real hospital should be. The foot chase between Grant and Ironside that has them going to all areas of the building reminded me a little of the chase between Genvieve Bujold and Lance LeGault in the film Coma although that one is still far superior to the one here.

There are few mildly intense moments at the end that helps save this from being a complete boring waste, but still does little to make up for the rest of it that falls flat. Oh yeah, William Shatner also appears here in a pointless and dull role as Deborah’s boss.

My Rating: 3 out of 10

Released: May 21, 1982

Runtime: 1Hour 43Minutes

Rated R

Director: Jean-Claude Lord

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Available: DVD

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Posted in 80's Movies, Foreign Films, Horror, Movies from Canada, Movies with a Hospital setting, Slasher/Gore

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All the Way Home (1963)

Posted on May 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

all the way home 2

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 8 out of 10

4-Word Review: Life must go on.

Based loosely on the childhood experiences of writer James Agee who is best known for penning the screenplay to the classic film Night of the Hunter.  The story here looks at how a southern family copes and in particular the young boy Rufus (Michael Kearney) after their father (Robert Preston) is tragically killed in a car accident.

Based on Agee’s unfinished novel ‘A Death in the Family’, which was also made into a stageplay the film makes loving tribute to the era. The sets and even the Model T car driven by the father are all authentic. In fact it was filmed near the exact neighborhood in Knoxville where Agee grew up. The mannerisms and dialogue are true to the period without any compromising for a more modern audience. The revisionism which has become so trendy in today’s period piece films is thankfully missing here. The slower and gentler pace seemed reflective of the era and I found it refreshing.

Preston gives one of his best roles second only to his signature one in The Music Man. He doesn’t get killed until the second half of the film, so the viewer gets to know and like the character and thus feels the pain of the loss along with the family members. We never see the actual accident nor given any explanation for what happened, which is just as well. Too many times filmmakers seemed compelled to have to give a reason for everything even though in life that is not always possible, so it is nice that here they did not fall into that trap. This emphasis instead is on how the family members cope and the emotional impact of the loss, which is something everyone must go through at some point and it ends up being quite compelling.

Kearney gives a terrific performance and one of the best from a child actor that I have seen. He is cute without ever being precocious. Watching him observe everyone else around him are some of the best moments in the film. It also brings up the great point that sometimes children are better at adapting to tragic events than their adult counterparts.

Durable character actor Pat Hingle gives one of his most interesting performances as Preston’s nervous and hyper brother. Preston has a great line in describing him when he says: “Talking to him is like putting socks on an octopus.”

Aline MacMahon is good as the kind, but stern aunt. I particularly liked the moment where Rufus falls to the ground in an emotional tantrum, but she restrains the others from helping him and insists that it is important that he learns to get himself up on his own. Jean Simmons as the mother and wife is also splendid, but seems to get better as the movie progresses particularly in her conversation with Rufus at the end, which is touching.

My Rating: 8 out of 10

Released: October 17, 1963

Runtime: 1Hour 37Minutes

Not Rated

Director: Alex Segal

Studio: Paramount

Available: Amazon Instant Video

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Posted in 60's Movies, Black & White, Drama, Movies Based on Actual Events, Movies Based on Novels, Movies Based on Stageplays, Movies for the Whole Family, Movies that take place in the South, Obscure Movies

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The Student Nurses (1970)

Posted on May 3, 2013 | Leave a comment

student nurses

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: Nurses have special medicine.

Unlike its billing this is NOT a T&A drive-in picture. Yes there is some sex and nudity, but not much and certainly not enough to satisfy the voyeur. The movie is basically just strained, hackneyed drama detailing the lives of four young student nurses (Elaine Giftos, Karen Carlson, Brioni Farrell, and Barbara Leigh). That is so mechanical that you almost wish it did take more of a sleazy, silly route.

The most contrived segment has nurse Giftos trying to bring happiness to an embittered teen with cystic fibrosis. It’s handled with all the same annoying clichés as an episode of one of those old cardboard medical TV shows. The only twist here is that on his last night of life she strips and goes to bed with him, which just makes it even more inane.

The one unique sequence deals with a surprisingly long, drawn out abortion. The woman having the procedure starts to hallucinate under the anesthesia and sees herself having an abortion on a public beach with all sorts of onlookers including young children and a couple of surfer dudes watching.

The film also offers a rare chance to see Katherine ‘Scotty’ Macgreoger. She played Mrs. Olson on the old “Little House on the Prairie” TV show, but did little else outside of that. Here she plays Miss Boswell the girl’s teacher. She has the same controlling, cold exterior as her TV character. She even threatens to dock a girl a full grade point if she doesn’t start to wear longer skirts.

The four female leads are stunningly beautiful. They look and behave very much the same way as a pretty young girl of today would. Unfortunately their acting is terrible and the way they deliver their lines is almost torturous to listen to. It also gets annoying the way they are portrayed. One minute they are liberated and horny and then the next minute they are sweet All-American girls just trying to do the right thing.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: December 2, 1970

Runtime: 1Hour 29Minutes

Rated R

Director: Stephanie Rothman

Studio: New World Pictures

Available: VHS, DVD

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Posted in 70's Movies, Drama, Drive-In/T & A, Low Budget, Movies with a Hospital setting, Roger Corman's Nurses Series, Sex

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