Roger Corman's Hilarious Sex Comedy: CANDY STRIPE NURSES

A tight and spicy script, a splendidly brash punk rock score make this essential viewing for devotees of exploitation movies. - Time Out Magazine

My first encounters with candy stripe nurses were when I was in the hospital in the 1960’s. A stunning college age girl came into my room to give me a bath. In those days if you had even minor surgery the hospital would keep you for a week. So here I am a kid, completely mesmerized by the candy striper giving me a bath.

Each day a different candy striper would come in the room. As you may guess, I looked forward to bath time.

Candy stripers first became a popular program back in the 1940s. The program was started in Vernon L. Davey Junior High School in New Jersey in 1944. The uniforms worn by the female students were red and white, or candy stripes, hence the official name of the program. Soon, the program was absorbed by other schools to help out with the workload at hospitals.

Times changed and the program was phased out and had ended by the early 90’s. By that time you had your minor surgery, waited a few hours and was sent home. Tonight’s Roger Corman film shows I wasn’t the only person having naughty thoughts.

Click this underlined link to watch CANDY STRIPE NURSES

A terrific pulp B feature which relates the adventures of three such renegade 'stripers' (young orderlies) who variously cure the ailments, physical and spiritual, of a Chicano wrongly accused of masterminding a robbery, a self-consumed rock star in an advanced state of doped lethargy, and a basketball player hooked on rippling muscles and amphetamines. Holleb keeps the pace exuberantly frenetic, darting from genuine pathos to quality Cheech and Chong styled humour within the comic strip framework. Particularly effective are the performances which, apart from an excessive parody of the rock star, stay on the restrained side of caricature. In addition, numerous sharply observed details, a tight and spicy script, a splendidly brash punk rock score, and good use of location (including loudly coloured street graffiti and a labyrinthine car repairs yard) make this New World production essential viewing for devotees of exploitation movies. - Time Out Magazine

A small role was given to Sally Kirkland who Holleb says was a friend of Julie Corman's who also worked on casting. Sally had ben a member of Warhol’s factory, and would be in over 200 films in her career.

The film was shot at a hospital in Burbank. Holleb says Julie Corman gave the board of directors an expurgated copy of the script under the title of Angels of Mercy to get permission.

Holleb says the hospital was at 95% capacity during the shoot meaning there were frequent clashes between staff and crew. He says while shooting a scene in a linen closet with a topless Candice Rialson, someone from the linen service came in and saw her. Then an un-expurgated copy of the script was found and the unit was kicked out of the hospital. They had to move to another location, a former clinic, which did not match the original hospital. Holleb got the art director to put up a sign saying "this way to the new west wing" to justify the completely new look.

Watch CANDY STRIPE NURSES by clicking here

Behind the paywall:

Hardbodies is a 1984 American sex comedy film about three middle-aged men who hire a younger man to help them pick up women at the beach. The film was produced by Ken Dalton, a former actor, and Jeff Begun, who had previously made four films for Roger Corman, including Saturday the 14th. Corman provided seed money for their production company, Chroma III, to make the film independently, serving as an uncredited producer.

The movie was based on an article in Penthouse.

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