Secrets of a Nurse

1h 15min

Drama

Crime

Romance

This Universal programmer was based on a Collier's Magazine story by journalist Quentin Reynolds. This story in turn was ostensibly based on a true incident, in which a gangster "returned from the dead" to save an innocent young man from the electric chair. The nurse of the film's title is Katharine McDonald, who falls in love with her prizefighter-patient Lee Burke as he recovers from a beating received in a fixed prizefight. Katharine must fend off the advances of criminal attorney John Dodge, another patient who also loves her and becomes jealous of Lee. But when Lee is framed for the murder of his disgruntled manager, Slice, by a henchman of the fight-fix leader, Joe Largo, Dodge takes on his defense and works with Katherine to discover the real killer. Convicted and sentenced to death, Burke is about to walk the "last mile", as Katharine encourages mortally wounded Largo to a deathbed confession.

Cast

Helen Mack

Helen Mack

Nurse Katherine 'Mack' MacDonald
Dick Foran

Dick Foran

'Killer' Lee Burke
Edmund Lowe

Edmund Lowe

John Dodge
Leon Ames

Leon Ames

Joe Largo
Horace McMahon

Horace McMahon

Larry Carson
Paul Hurst

Paul Hurst

Arlington Bysshe 'Slice' Cavanaugh
David Oliver

David Oliver

'Spud', the valet
Samuel S. Hinds

Samuel S. Hinds

Judge Corrigan
Clarence Muse

Clarence Muse

'Tiger', Lee's Handler
Alan Ladd

Alan Ladd

Hospital Orderly (uncredited)

Release date

2nd Dec 1938

Status

Released

Spoken languages

English