A Naughty Nurse (1924) - Not as scandalous as it sounds

So, I finally sat down with A Naughty Nurse. If you’re expecting something spicy because of the title, you’re about a hundred years too late and looking in the wrong place.

It’s actually a pretty harmless, albeit super weird, silent comedy from 1924. If you like old-school slapstick like Running Wild, you might find a few chuckles here.

But if you can’t stand grainy film and people overacting with their entire bodies, stay far away. The plot is basically 'guy goes to a health resort and causes chaos.'

There is a nurse, but she’s mostly just there to look concerned while the men act like toddlers. The standout bit is the William Tell homage.

Someone decides it's a good idea to shoot an apple off a head with an arrow. In a health resort.

The physics of the arrow hitting the fruit made me laugh out loud. It looks so fake it’s almost charming, like they just poked it through with a stick from behind the curtain.

Then there are the 'Gypsies.' This part hasn't aged well at all, obviously.

They just kind of appear and start doing these frantic dances. It looks like they’ve had way too much coffee or maybe they're just really excited about being in a movie.

I noticed one of the patients has this incredibly bushy mustache. It’s so big it almost has its own zip code.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of A Naughty Nurse (1928) through its definitive frames.

I spent about three minutes just wondering if it was real or if they just glued a squirrel to his face. Its distracting in the best way possible.

The bathing beauties scene feels like it was shoved in just to make sure people didn't fall asleep. It doesn't really add anything to the story, but then again, there isn't much story to begin with.

It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in A Wild Goose Chase. Just a lot of movement for the sake of movement.

Marvin Loback has a very specific way of falling down. It’s not a graceful stunt fall; it’s more like a sack of potatoes being dropped from a height.

The editing is a bit jumpy, even for the time. One second they are inside, the next they are outside by a fountain with zero explanation.

The ending comes out of nowhere and doesn't really resolve anything. It just... stops.

Like they ran out of film or the cameraman decided he'd had enough for the day. 🤡

Is it a masterpiece? No way. It's not trying to be The Man in the Iron Mask or anything serious.

But it's a fun ten-minute distraction if you want to see what passed for 'naughty' back when your great-grandparents were kids. Just don't expect a lot of logic.