Nurses in the movies Comedies

Nurses from Comedies and Comedy-Drama films

Some are from Satires/Musicals

Listed in no particular order ; Who's your favorite?

Operation Petticoat
Tony Curtis Original Lobby Card

How many nurse movies can you think of? Funny movies with nurses in them? If you're not feeling well, indulging in a watchathon might make you feel better. We like to find movies, old and new, featuring similar characters and situations.

We have doctors and other medical professionals in the family and more as friends. Here's a great idea for a living room film festival. If you're looking for an all natural pick-me-up, let these nurses entertain you.

1) Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) High Anxiety 1977
High Anxiety was a spoof of Alfred Hitchcock movies and several characters reminded us of characters or character types in Hitchcock films. How about Nurse Diesel? Maybe Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca? Not sure if there's a direct correlation with her, but she fits in just fine. 

This nurse rocks a severe cone bra look under her uniform but no one would dare talk to her about it. This RN means business, she also means Real Nervous.

2) Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) Meet the Parents 2000
Greg Focker must meet his inlaws to be and get permission to marry his girlfriend. The film also stars Robert De Niro, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner and Owen Wilson.

3) Stephanie Dickinson (Ingrid Bergman) Cactus Flower 1969  She is Dr. Winston's assistant, a Dental Nurse. He asks her to pose as his wife. Goldie Hawn and Walter Matthau also star. Enjoy the fashion and music in this movie. :)



4) Dolores Hicks (Mary Astor) Oh Doctor  1925
"Exit Death watch Mary enter the Lovely View," a pretty young nurse to take the patient's attentions away from his hypochondria. 



5) Betty Sizemore (Renée Zellweger) Nurse Betty 2000
Betty isn't a real nurse. That's not too much of a spoiler. She's a waitress and soap opera fan who's witnessed her husband's murder. The mind is a tricky place sometimes.

Ingrid Bergman will take care of you
16x20 Inches Photograph High Quality

6) Operation Petticoat 1959 featured a submarine full of nurses working alongside men the likes of Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. Joan O'Brien as Second Lieutenant Dolores Crandall NC, USAR/ Lt. Dolores Crandall RN and Dina Merrill as Second Lieutenant Barbara Duran, NC, USAR.  

The film was a big hit that year. You'll find a lot of doctors and nurses in military movies. Military nurses such as Army nurses are celebrated for the work they did and continued to do.

7) Nurse Carey (Margaret Rutherford) Miranda 1948 and the sequel, Mad About Men 1954. Nurse Carey helps the doctor hide the fact that his patient, Miranda, is actually a mermaid.

8) Odessa (Rosetta LeNoire) The Sunshine Boys 1975
Odessa is private nurse to Willy (Walter Matthau). It's a small role, but a good one. She isn't the only nurse in this movie. LeNoire may be best known for her role as Estelle "Mother" Winslow (Carl's mother) on Family Matters. Odessa's no-nonsense humor is a good counterpoint to the voluptuous blonde politically incorrect nurse, Miss McIntosh (Lee Meredith) who appears in the guys' Doctor Sketch. George Burns won an Academy Award for his role in this movie.

A few movies that feature nurses in smaller roles. Honorable mentions to:

Nurse Preen (Mary Wickes) in The Man Who Came to Dinner 1942 Starring Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan and Monty Woolley. This isn't the only time Wickes played a nurse.

Nurse Eleanor Costello (Julie Kavner) in Awakenings. 1990. The movie starred Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro.

In International House from 1933 with W.C. Fields, George Burns and Gracie Allen play doctor and nurse. Burns and Allen also made a short film in 1931, Oh My Operation where Gracie plays a nurse.






In The Winning Ticket (1934) winning sweepstakes tickets are drawn from large barrels by a series of nurses.

"The Irish Sweepstakes was set up by a committee from six Dublin hospitals, the Hospitals Trust Ltd., in 1930. Anyone who bought a ticket anywhere in the world got a hand-written receipt.

"Each Irish Sweepstakes drawing centered on a horse race and winners were identified when uniformed nurses plucked tickets from a huge drum in the sweepstakes' offices near Dublin. The races involved were the Lincolnshire Handicap in Doncaster, England; the Cambridgeshire, in Newmarket, England, and the Irish Derby."

-- excerpt from Los Angeles Times, Irish Sweepstakes Loses Ticket Race to Lotteries, Calls It Quits 02/29/1987



Another set of nurse characters appear in some comedy/drama films, Dramedies...

1) Nurse Jenny Fields (Glenn Close) The World According to Garp 1982  In the film, she becomes pregnant (while working as a nurse during World War II) thanks to patient, severely brain damaged ball turret gunner known only as Technical Sergeant Garp. This was Glenn Close's first feature film and she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

2) Ensign Nellie Forbush, USN (Navy nurse) (Mitzi Gaynor) South Pacific.  Mary Martin is remembered for playing the part on Broadway. The musical is timeless and highly recommended. Rossano Brazzi played Emile de Becque.

3) Lieutenant Ann Girard (Betsy Palmer) Mister Roberts  1955  Ensign Pulver, a young Jack Lemmon goes on a mission to pick up aspirin for Doc (William Powell). He  convinces head nurse (Palmer) to come to the ship. This film has a stellar cast including Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Powell (in his last feature film). Jack Lemmon won an Academy Award for his role as Pulver.



4) Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Sally Kellerman) MASH 1970 American satirical black comedy film. Loretta Swit is remembered for playing the character on television.


This is part of a series. Coming up Nurses in Drama films, Noir, Horror movies and more.

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We found more documentaries, foreign films, more British television shows and many more old color and black and white films on Amazon. 

Having several of the videos free to watch with Amazon Prime is great. 

There are always movies you want to pay to rent or own. There are still some special films we want to own on DVD.

Related Pages of Interest:

Diahann Carroll is Julia Baker : Nurse costumes

Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca Reality TV: Mrs Danvers Interviewed, Speaking for herself

Miranda: Mermaid movies from 1948

Hands in film fashion: The Man Who Came to Dinner