Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse

Rose Dixon – Night Nurse
Directed byJustin Cartwright
Written byChristopher Wood
Justin Cartwright
Based onnovel by Christopher Wood
Produced byFrank Bevis
StarringBeryl Reid
John Le Mesurier
Arthur Askey
Debbie Ash
CinematographyAlex Thomson
Edited byGeoffrey Foot
Music byEd Welch
Release date
  • 1978 (1978)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£300,000[1]

Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse is a 1978 British comedy film directed by Justin Cartwright and starring Debbie Ash, Carolyne Argyle, Beryl Reid and John Le Mesurier.[2] It was written by Christopher Wood and Cartwright based on the 1974 novel Confessions of a Night Nurse by Wood (under the pseudonym Rosie Dixon).

The film is one of several softcore sex comedies released in the 1970s to cash in on the success of the Confessions series (also written by Wood under the pseudonym Timothy Lea). Like the Confessions films, it was adapted from a book, the author's credit going to the fictional Rosie herself. It is the only one of the nine Rosie Dixon novels to be adapted into a movie. The character of Penny Sutton – Rosie's best friend in the movie and in the books – is the star of an earlier series of similar novels that depict Penny as an airline stewardess.

Debbie Ash was a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip. Her sister Leslie Ash plays Rosie's sister Natalie.

Plot

A new student nurse at a hospital attracts interest from the staff with hilarious consequences.

Cast

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This basic hospital comedy closely follows the minimal lines of scriptwriter Christopher Wood's Confessions movies. Characterisation – or rather caricature – is of the crudest variety and the narrative only just strong enough to support a string of antique situations long since drained of the little humour they may once have contained. Now that nudity – rather decorously rendered here – has become part of the stock in trade of this sort of comedy, the fusillade of innuendos which formerly provided slight if incidental pleasure seems to have been abandoned in favour of cartoon-style exaggeration: thus, a writhing couple cause their vibrating bed to explode. The lack of exuberant ensemble playing is the film's most telling fault."[3]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "It should give you some idea of the mire into which the British film industry had plunged itself during the 1970s when you read such names as Beryl Reid, John Le Mesurier and Liz Fraser on the cast list of this bawdy hospital comedy. Debbie Ash (sister of Leslie) suffers countless indignities in the title role, but it's Arthur Askey who stoops the lowest, as he resorts to pinching uniformed bottoms to get the cheapest of laughs."[4]

References

  1. ^ Doctor's ardours." Sunday Times [London, England] 7 Aug. 1977: 28. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
  2. ^ "Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 45 (528): 52. 1 January 1978 – via ProQuest.
  4. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 789. ISBN 9780992936440.