Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
I’ve been wrestling with a nasty cold bug all week and while perusing TCM’s Now Playing Guide I noticed that they’ve got three nurse films programmed for Saturday beginning with The Nun’s Story (1959) starting at 5PM EST/8PM PST followed by One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and The Caretakers (1963). While I attempt to nurse myself back to health, I thought it might be beneficial (and fun!) to share “A Minor Picture Compendium of Classic Movie Nurses” with you.
Movie nurses come in all stripes. They can be mean and cruel like Nurse Ratched (pictured above) or gentle as doves like Audrey Hepburn’s character in The Nun’s Story. They can also be sexy, smart, compassionate, laugh-out-loud funny and ruthless blood thirsty monsters. What follows is a picture gallery featuring some of my favorite movie nurses. If I overlooked one of yours, feel free to add them in the comments below.
Nurse Louise (Joan Crawford) in Possessed (1947)
Nurse Lucretia (Joan Crawford) in The Caretakers (1963)
Nuse Maloney (Joan Blondell) in Night Nurse (1931)
Nurse Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) also in Night Nurse (1931)
Nurse Connell (Frances Dee) in I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Nurse Nina (Jane Adams) in House of Dracula (1945)
Nurse Corum (Angie Dickinson) in Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
Nurse Price (Jenny Agutter) in An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Nurse Schöntag (Constance Bennett) in After Tonight (1933)
Nurse Sebastian (Coleen Gray) in The Sleeping City (1950)
Nurse Bowers (Maggie Smith) in Death on the Nile (1978)
Nurse Vernia (Sue Lyon) in Murder in a Blue World (1973)
Nurse Barker (Sara Allgood) in The Spiral Staircase (1946)
Nurse Kelly (Peggy Dow) in Harvey (1950)
Nurse Ruth (Marianna Hill) in Medium Cool (1969)
Nurse Lee (Carole Lombard) in Vigil in the Night (1940)
Nurse Ashford (Agnes Moorehead) in Magnificent Obsession (1954)
Nurse Davidson (Claudette Colbert), Nurse O’Doul (Paulette Goddard ) & Nurse D’Arcy (Veronica Lake) in So Proudly We Hail (1943)
Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) in High Anxiety (1977)
Nurse Barkley (Jennifer Jones) in A Farewell to Arms (1957)
Nurse Lorie (Dorothy Malone) in The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)
Nurse ‘Bim’ Nolan (Frank Faylen) in The Lost Weekend (1945)
Nurse Kenny (Rosalind Russell) in Sister Kenny (1946)
Nurse Wilkes (Kathy Bates) in Misery (1990)
Nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) in Persona (1966)
Nurse Denton (Shirley Eaton) in Carry On Nurse (1969)
Nurse Anson (Paula Kelly) in The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Nurse Jane (Uta Levka) in Scream and Scream Again (1970)
Nurse Nightingale (Kay Francis) in The White Angel (1936)
Nurse David (Helen Craig) in The Snake Pit (1948)
Nurse Preen (Mary Wickes) in The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
If I didn’t include one of your favorite movie nurses, feel free to share them in the comments below.