Candy Stripe Nurses

A terrific pulp B feature which relates the adventures of three such renegade 'stripers' (young orderlies) who variously cure the ailments, physical and spiritual, of a Chicano wrongly accused of masterminding a robbery, a self-consumed rock star in an advanced state of doped lethargy, and a basketball player hooked on rippling muscles and amphetamines. Holleb keeps the pace exuberantly frenetic, darting from genuine pathos to quality Cheech and Chong styled humour within the comic strip framework. Particularly effective are the performances which, apart from an excessive parody of the rock star, stay on the restrained side of caricature. In addition, numerous sharply observed details, a tight and spicy script, a splendidly brash punk rock score, and good use of location (including loudly coloured street graffiti and a labyrinthine car repairs yard) make this New World production fairly essential viewing for devotees of exploitation movies.