New World Pictures’ tacky series of sexy-nurse flicks finally sputtered out with the release of Candy Stripe Nurses, a dull and formless compendium of empty
characters, flat storylines, and perfunctory sex scenes. Once again, the movie
follows the interconnected adventures of three attractive young women who work
as nurses—actually nonprofessional support staffers known as
candy-stripers—while navigating romantic entanglements in their private lives.
Written and directed by Alan Holleb, the movie lacks anything resembling a
consistent purpose, style, or tone. Whereas some of the previous sexy-nurse
movies had counterculture elements and/or wiseass humor, Candy Stripe Nurses is merely amateurish and episodic and uneven,
without any memorable high points to reward viewers’ attention. Adding to the
general sleaziness of the endeavor, all three of the movie’s leading characters
are high-school students. Promiscuous blonde Sandy (Candice Rialson) sleeps
with a string of men, eventually working her way into the bedchamber of a rock
star suffering from sexual dysfunction. Artistic blonde Dianne (Robin Mattson)
studies dance and dates a doctor while preparing for medical school herself,
but she takes a wild turn by having an affair with a basketball player who’s
being doped by an unscrupulous physician eager to fix games. Latina
troublemaker Marias (Maria Rojo) decides that a young man accused of robbing a
gas station is being framed, then plays detective in order to clear his name.
Each storyline includes at least one extended sex scene, since the New World
people were a lot more interested in showing the actress’ breasts than in
showing their dramatic range, and poor Rialson—a charming girl-next-door type
who also appeared in the bizarre talking-vagina comedy Chatterbox! (1977)—seems to spend nearly all her screen time
dressing and undressing. Nothing particularly interesting happens in Candy Stripe Nurses, although colorful
B-movie stalwart Dick Miller shows up for a tiny role as a basketball-game
heckler who shouts, “Your mother blows goats!” So there’s that.
Candy
Stripe Nurses: LAME
I just watched this several days ago and didn't expect much, for while I absolutely LOVE 70's exploitation flicks, as a gay man the "allure" of naked women doesn't exactly do much for me (I am, as they say, NOT the target audience for this sort of thing) but it's more than that as to why I found this movie a bit of torture: poorly written, "humor" that lands with a thud, acting that is (at best) amateurish (though Rialson has an undeniable charm and can land some lines with panache), and a style that is all over the place without actually being good at any of them.
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