Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse (1978) Online

It seems like many of the specialty channels owned by CHUM here in Canada enjoy airing these British sex comedies from the 1968-1982 era. I have to admit that I've always found them to be middling at best but they are much better than anything produced by the Americans. I'd rather see French sex comedies but the British output isn't too bad and the 70's era ones have always offered up an honest slice of life in England.

Rosie Dixon is about a teenager who has come to work at Adelaide Hospital as a nurse. Unfortunately for her, the hospital she's working at has some absolute rakes in it. The whole movie sees her being sexually assaulted (in humorous ways, mind you) and sexually harassed by patients and the young doctors. However, she also finds love.

Pretty much everything about General Hospital and medical dramas are spoofed here. Yes, there is the requisite T&A. Of course, there is no way we could see a hospital be allowed to run today with rampant sexual harassment by the staff but here they seem to mask it with the fact that everybody here is open to some loving.

Also, unlike a lot of films that have an exclusive British cast, this film has a few Scots and Irish characters in the mix. The acting is actually good here; as they are actually trying. It's a lot better than 2006's hardcore pornstars attempts at method acting.

A pretty good effort; I don't think this is on DVD but I'm sure in the British Commonwealth Nations it can be seen occasionally.

Starring Robin Askwith as randy 'Timmy Lea', the 'Confessions' series of British sex comedies ran from 1974-77. Greg Smith, the producer, wanted a companion series. 'Rosie Dixon' appeared in nine novels by Christopher Wood, author of the Lea books. Only the first - 'Confessions Of A Night Nurse' - was filmed. 'Confessions' was dropped from the title as Smith did not want two series made under it.

It begins with Rosie watching her favourite television programme - a medical soap called 'Dr.Killmore' - with her nerdy boyfriend Geoffrey ( David Timson ). She likes the show so much she decides to become a nurse. At Saint Adelaide's hospital, she meets the fearsome Matron ( Beryl Reid ) and becomes a pal of student nurse Penny ( Carolyne Argyll ). Young Rosie is instantly lusted after by randy doctors and leering patients such as 'Arkwright' ( Arthur Askey ). The latter part of the picture takes place at the hospital's annual fête. Rosie is crowned 'Queen' but gets kidnapped by doctors from rival hospital St.Barrabbas...

Surprisingly little on screen sex actually features Rosie herself. The poster at the time of release gave the impression she was a raving nymphomaniac, but it is not true. She gets her kit off quite a lot ( mostly in the showers with other nurses ) and various ( unsuccessful ) attempts are made to seduce her ( she is pulled into a communal bath by rugby players and stripped of her uniform ) but something always seems to happen before the act can take place. Unlike the 'Confessions' films where Timmy Lea could not get enough girls. The other nurses enjoy better sex than Rosie, and are not fussy about where they do it, such as in a laundry basket or on an orthopaedic bed. Rosie herself is like Mary Poppins. She does fall in love with one of the doctors though ( when they try to get it on in the hospital's attic, they fall through the floor and land on Matron's bed ).

As 'Rosie', Debbie Ash is certainly beautiful, but plays the role straight. Her family are middle-class, as opposed to Timmy Lea's working-class clan. Her eccentric mother ( Liz Fraser ) buys toothpaste and cereal in bulk just so she can do the competitions on the packets, much to the annoyance of her father ( John Junkin ). Rosie's sister is played by Leslie Ash ( who seems to have had the more successful career ), Debbie's real-life sister.

The film as a whole lacks the energy of the 'Confessions' movies, playing instead like a below-average episode of I.T.V.'s 'Doctor In The House' blown up for the big screen. John Le Mesurier is a 'Professor Loftus' type, Jeremy Sinden a poor man's 'Dick Stuart-Clark', Bob Todd is a patient who thinks he is dying despite only having an ingrowing toenail, Harry Towb drinks urine by mistake, Patricia Hodge ( how embarrassed is she by this now, one wonders? ), and future 'Bill' star Christopher Ellison all contribute roles. The jokes are obvious and more than a little old ( there is an unintended laugh to be had from Geoffrey's uncanny resemblance to D.J. Chris Evans! ) It is sad to see Arthur Askey racing about in a powered wheelchair, gleefully pinching nurses' bottoms ( he died a few years' later ).

The director, Justin Cartwright ( who co-wrote the script with Wood ) never made another film and is better known nowadays as a novelist. The producers, Davina Belling and the late Clive Parsons, went on to make 'Gregory's Girl' and Lindsay Anderson's 'Britannia Hospital'.

Plans for a sequel - 'Rosie Dixon - Gym Mistress' - were abandoned as the film flopped and then Columbia closed down its British operations, pulling the plug on the 'Confessions' series too. It is no tragedy, as the first 'Rosie' was not that great. 'Carry On Nurse' did it much better.

British bawdy Doctors 'n' Nurses film in standard theme plot(?) introduced in the "Carry On" series of comedies. Updated for mid-1970s with introduction of full nudity. Very risque for its day, no doubt. Also very distinctive cheesy theme tune. Probably persuaded as many British adolescent males to become interested in studying for medical profession as more conventional methods.

As with the Confessions films, this is another of those movies from the dark days of British cinema that is perhaps best forgotten.

Chances are you're only willing to watch because of the nudity. Well there's not much of that but there are a host of well known faces, many of whom have long since died.

Films such as this obviously kept the wolf from the door but it's a sad fact that this was Arthur Askey's last film.

To see him wheeling around as a lecherous, demented old man is heartbreaking.

The main reasons to watch are to see a young Leslie Ash as the sister of the eponymous heroine and Patricia Hodge who no doubt cringes every time she sees the movie.

The script must have taken all of 10 minutes to write, with not a trace of wit or originality to be seen or heard anywhere. Dixon's weedy boyfriend is a comic foil with one track mind who falls into a pond to raise an, er, titter.

Yes, it really is that sophisticated.

An 'erotic comedy' unique in the fact that it is neither erotic, nor funny.

Just be thankful it didn't spawn a host of sequels.

After the success of Timothy Lea's CONFESSIONS movie adaptations, it was time for the female-led ROSIE DIXON series. Unfortunately for the producers, this film bombed at the box office leaving this a curio rather than a franchise-starter. It's very similar to the tone of the CONFESSIONS sequels, very much a sub-CARRY ON comedy with added nudity from the female stars. The film is painfully unfunny at times, and the acting is of a limited quantity, if I can describe it as such. The setting is your usual hospital, where there are a few comedic scenes involving various patients (Lance Percival, Bob Todd, and, rather incredibly, Arthur Askey all appear) but mainly sexual conquests between the male doctors and female nurses. Debbie Ash - the older sister of Leslie - is a bright and bubbly presence as the lead, and there are small supporting roles for British film greats like Beryl Reid, John Le Mesurier, and Liz Fraser, but the script is undoubtedly below par and the production values near bottom.

The end of the line for Columbia's run of sexploitation films from the pen of Christopher Wood.

The Confession's films had run out of steam with 'Holiday camp' (The fifth film 'Plumbers Mate' didn't get off the ground...so Stanley Long's Adventures of series took the title and were flushed with success (Sorry)).

Greg Smith insisted that the Confession's Prefix not be used just in case of a flop.

Debbie Ash is the title character and if we're honest is cute but bland and doesn't flash the flesh as you may expect.

The guest cast are as good as you'd expect - most of them had appeared in the Confessions series - with Arthur Askey and Beryl Reid added.

Filmed in soft focus it feels like a flake ad but they have better scripts!. Christopher Wood was in the middle of his two Bond films so maybe this was an afterthought.

Not yet on DVD but easy enough to find.