Female solidarity comes up against the challenges of labor and sinister drunken privilege in a pre-Code buddy cop movie where the cops are actually lowly night nurses just trying to earn a buck or two without too much trouble. Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell become fast pals while going through their nursing training, and despite a rather intricate and serious plot line that develops, the picture never betrays the simplicity of that paldom and its power, with Well-man often stopping the action at hand to relish the various ways they look out for each other in a patriarchal world. He focuses attention on their hands and how, when necessary, they hold each other’s, as they do during an overwhelming surgery. Those bonds and the strength Stanwyck fosters from it come in handy when the ladies find themselves working shifts caring for two sick sisters caught in a devious chauffeur’s (a very young Clark Gable) scheme to subtlety knock them off and steal their trust funds.
It is fitting that a movie about friendship would spur a lifelong friendship between its star and director. Night Nurse was the first of Barbara Stanwyck’s five collaborations with Wellman, and both of them would cite their immense enjoyment of working with each other. In the foreword to Frank Thompson’s William A. Wellman, she writes: “One of the nicest things that has ever happened to me is this: A writer, Ella Smith, was doing a book on my work and she asked him [Wellman] for a quote for said book. Because of my pride, please bear with me if I tell you what it says. It is framed and in my home. When Bill died, Miss Smith gave it to me because Bill had written it in longhand – so here it is: ‘On one of Miss Stanwyck’s interviews she mentioned me as one of her favorite directors and ended with ‘I love that man.’ Needless to say I was very proud and had a lump in my throat which does not happen to me very often – Barbara Stanwyck – ‘I love that girl.’ Signed – Bill Wellman.’ And so again – I miss you, Bill Wellman. I love you”. 

Gina Telaroli