THE STUDENT NURSES
dir. Stephanie Rothman, 1970
United States. 82 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – MIDNIGHT

Chronicles the romantic and comedic adventures of four young women living together in California and studying to become nurses. Each forges their own wild path through their final year of nursing school: Sharon falls in love with a dying patient, Lynn becomes involved with a Chicano revolutionary, Phred falls into trouble with a young doctor, and Priscilla has an affair with a drug addict. All the while, graduation and the beginning of life in the Real World lie just around the corner.

Rothman’s second solo directorial effort was a landmark release for New World Pictures. The film was only the company’s second release, but would go on to become a box office hit, grossing upwards of a million dollars on a $120,000 budget, and establish New World’s extensive “nurses” cycle of releases (PRIVATE DUTY NURSES, NIGHT CALL NURSES).

For her part, Rothman turned what was originally envisioned by Corman and Larry Woolner as a tawdry sexploitation cash-in into a work of incisive social commentary. With Corman out of the country for most of its production, Rothman was given free reign over the tone, style, and content of the film, so long as it maintained the studio-mandated quotas of nudity and violence.