The Carry On, though rejoicing in Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims an Joan Hickson, is not a patch in this earlier film - which is far more earthy! Yes, a student nurse's life is full of bed pans, vomit and grated carrot but we aren't expected to laugh at them, fortunately.
There's a glimpse of black stocking as the nurses done their uniforms for the first time, or peel them off to soak their feet in the bath - but there are no glissandi strings.
The film ends as the matron informs the girls that the rule about not being married has possibly had its day, and the heroine (Susan) decides to follow her fiancé (George Baker) into the wilds of Canada. (I kept expecting him to give up the idea and settle down in Weybridge, but the book the film is based on was written by a Canadian and possibly the "living in the wilds" dream might have made more sense if the hospital had also been in Canada. George and Susan should read Betty McDonald's The Egg and I for the lowdown on life on the frontier.
A fine cast tell the stories and tug at our heartstrings: Diana Wynyard as the matron with her uplifting platitudes that occasionally hit the spot. George Baker as the flirtatious doctor. Delphi Lawrence as the girl in search of a rich surgeon who ends up with a poor pathologist. And Mandy Miller, who raises the existential questions and decides God is a "cruel bully" for taking her friend away. (He survives and we hope so does she.) George gives her no false hope and says he doesn't understand it either. Sorry, still crying.
Watch out for a streak of piety - but everyone is honest about their beliefs.
There's a glimpse of black stocking as the nurses done their uniforms for the first time, or peel them off to soak their feet in the bath - but there are no glissandi strings.
The film ends as the matron informs the girls that the rule about not being married has possibly had its day, and the heroine (Susan) decides to follow her fiancé (George Baker) into the wilds of Canada. (I kept expecting him to give up the idea and settle down in Weybridge, but the book the film is based on was written by a Canadian and possibly the "living in the wilds" dream might have made more sense if the hospital had also been in Canada. George and Susan should read Betty McDonald's The Egg and I for the lowdown on life on the frontier.
A fine cast tell the stories and tug at our heartstrings: Diana Wynyard as the matron with her uplifting platitudes that occasionally hit the spot. George Baker as the flirtatious doctor. Delphi Lawrence as the girl in search of a rich surgeon who ends up with a poor pathologist. And Mandy Miller, who raises the existential questions and decides God is a "cruel bully" for taking her friend away. (He survives and we hope so does she.) George gives her no false hope and says he doesn't understand it either. Sorry, still crying.
Watch out for a streak of piety - but everyone is honest about their beliefs.