What's Up Nurse!

1977 British film by Derek Ford

1977 (1977)

Running time

77 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

What's Up Nurse! is a 1977 British sex comedy film directed and written by Derek Ford and starring Nicholas Field, Felicity Devonshire and John Le Mesurier.^[1]

It tells the story of the adventures of a young doctor in a hospital. The sequel What's Up Superdoc! was released the following year, with Christopher Mitchell replacing Nicholas Field as Dr Todd.

Cast

John Le Mesurier as Dr. Ogden
Graham Stark as Carthew
Kate Williams as Matron
Angela Grant as Helen Arkwright
Nicholas Field as Dr. Robert 'Sweeney' Todd
Felicity Devonshire as Olivia Ogden
Jack Douglas as Police Constable
Barbara Mitchell as neighbour
Peter Butterworth as Police Sergeant
Bill Pertwee as Flash Harry Harrison
Cardew Robinson as ticket inspector
Chic Murray as aquarium proprietor
Andrew Sachs as Guido the waiter
Anna Karen as Knitter
Ronnie Brody as jam jar man
Frank Williams as vicar
Julia Bond as nurse
Elisabeth Day as 2nd nurse
Sheila Bernette as Mrs. Garrard
Keith Smith as Mr. Newberry
Kate Harper as club girl
Terry Duggan as old salt
Michael Cronin as builder

Reception

Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A dishearteningly unfunny sex comedy which discloses a painful package of unfailing bad taste (the most offensive sequence concerning a homosexual who believes he has given birth to a chimpanzee), stupefyingly dull sex scenes, and a collection of double entendres so ancient that they almost constitute some kind of intriguing pre-history of blue comedy."^[2]

Léon Hunt describes the film along with Ford's What's Up Superdoc! (1978) as a "return to the Carry On films' favourite setting to explore slap-and-tickle amidst the bedpans."^[3]

Sarah Street wrote that Ford's films Commuter Husbands (1972), Keep It Up, Jack (1973), The Sexplorer (1975) and What's Up Nurse (1977) were "films with salacious titles designed to titillate dwindling audiences with their suggestion of breaking taboos."^[4]

Michael Hawkes awarded the film 3 out of 5 stars.^[5]

References

^ "What's Up Nurse!". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
^ "What's Up Nurse!". Monthly Film Bulletin. 44 (516): 132. 1977 – via ProQuest.
^ Hunt, Léon (1998). British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation. Routledge. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-415-15182-5. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
^ Street, Sarah (2009). British National Cinema. Taylor & Francis. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-415-38421-6. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
^ Hawkes, Michael (9 July 2011). Review Haiku, Volume 2. p. 487. ISBN 978-0-9830662-2-4. Retrieved 27 January 2013.