7.3/10
Senior Film Conservator

A definitive 7.3/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Nurse to You! remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like old slapstick where people run around like their hair is on fire, you might dig Nurse to You!. If you prefer movies that actually make sense or have a story that doesn't feel like a bunch of sketches glued together, you will probably hate it. It is frantic, loud, and weirdly obsessed with medical bills.
Charley Chase is playing his usual character—that guy who is constantly getting pushed around by the world. When he gets the fake diagnosis, he goes from being the ultimate penny-pincher to a guy throwing cash away. It’s a classic setup, sure. But the execution? It feels like the director just let the camera roll while everyone shouted lines.
There is this one scene in the doctor’s office that goes on way too long. The silence between the bad news and the reaction is supposed to be funny, I think? But it just feels like someone forgot to yell 'cut.' It’s awkward. I kind of loved that it didn't feel polished.
Charley’s boss is the most cartoonish jerk I’ve seen in a while. He’s got that specific kind of mean that only exists in these black and white shorts. You know the type—he loves yelling about efficiency while doing absolutely nothing of value himself. It reminded me a bit of the suffocating office vibe in Traffic Regulations, where everyone is just moving in circles.
The pacing is all over the place. Sometimes it feels like a race, then it just stops dead for a gag that doesn't really land. There’s a bit with a nurse that I’m still scratching my head about. Did the script just run out of pages? It felt like they needed an ending and just grabbed the first one they found in the trash.
It’s not as sharp as some of the other stuff from that era. Compared to the visual playfulness you see in Diagonal Symphony, this is pure noise. But there’s a charm to how messy it is. It’s like watching someone trip over their own shoelaces for fifteen minutes straight. 🏥
If you’ve got a spare fifteen minutes and want to see how they used to do comedy before the world got so serious, give it a shot. Just don’t expect it to change your life. It’s just a weird, frantic little artifact of a different time. Sometimes that’s enough.