Tender Loving Care (1974)

Not actually a part of New World's cycle of sex comedies centered around nurses (and later student teachers and air hostesses) which was kicked off by 1970's The Student Nurses, Tender Loving Care (1974) was, nonetheless, distributed by New World.  An independent production, the film was obviously originally intended as a cash in on the success of the official series, even though it eventually ended up serving as addendum to those films.  Certainly, it sticks closely to the established formula, focusing on a group of young professional women and their various adventures, both work-related and romantic, in a busy hospital.  But Tender Loving Care has a somewhat grittier feel and darker tone than the New World produced pictures, with the plot taking some surprisingly violent turns, including several of the main characters being mowed down in a hail of bullets at the climax.  Which is hardly surprising, as director and writer Don Edmonds tended to specialise in directing and producing violent, low budget action-orientated exploitation films, (although he later had a co-producer credit on Tony Scott's True Romance (1993)).  In common with his other movies, Tender Loving Care clearly has a tiny budget, probably even lower than that of the New World films it was imitating, reflected in the mainly no name cast and low production values.

Despite this, the film makes a good stab at imitating the official series.  The makeup of the main trio of nurses, for instance, is, like those in the New World pictures, carefully calculated to appeal to the widest possible audience: one is blonde, one brunette, the other black.  Like the originals, it is structured around a number of sub-plots, with each individual nurse getting their own story strands, with them all coming together at the film's climax.  Again, it imitates the New World films with these plot strands seeing the nurses involved both romantically and dramatically with various hospital staff members and patients.  One become involved with an injured boxer, who turns pimp when he believes his career is over, another gets involved with a biker, until she finds he is into group sex, then sets her sights on the hospital's top surgeon, while the third has a doctor boyfriend who is also an addict, who gets her to steal drugs for him.  It is this latter story line which draws the film into darker territory, with the nurse being blackmailed by the hospital's resident sex pervert porter into having sex with him in return for his silence over her thefts, with the boyfriend retaliating by beating him to death.  There's also another sub-plot involving a mobster having treatment at the hospital, guarded by a couple of his heavies, which only come to fruition at the film's climax.

While Tender Loving Care provides a fair imitation of the official 'Nurses' series of films, it lacks their finesse, being very crudely made in comparison, (which is saying something, as these were hardly the slickest of productions), most crucially lacking their humour, good natured feel and awareness of their absurdities.  Instead, Edmonds substitutes violent sub-plots and far more explicit sex and nudity than seen in the originals.  Ultimately, there is no real distinction in his workmanlike, rather plodding, direction, which never manages to bring the film to life, let alone establish any pace, (it runs under seventy five minutes, but feels longer).   Unlike the likes of Stephanie Rothman and Jonathan Kaplan, who directed the best of the New World films, Edmonds is unable to lift his material above the level of mere exploitation.  While Tender Loving Care is mildly entertaining while its on and fulfils its functions as an exploitation piece, it is simply no substitute for the official new World produced series of 'Nurse' films.