Night Nurse 1931

Lora Hart applies for a job as a nurse trainee, but is rejected when the hospital’s superintendent of nurses, Miss Dillon, learns she does not have a high school diploma. After a chance encounter with the hospital’s chief of staff, Dr. Bell Hart charms him and he tells Dillon to hire her. The scene is set for a deeper look into hospital life, where ambition, tradition, and the needs of vulnerable patients collide.

Lora forms a close bond with her fellow nurse, Miss Maloney; the two become roommates and best friends. Their bond is tested when they break curfew, prompting Miss Dillon to assign them to night duty in the emergency room. A gunshot wound patient, Mortie, a bootlegger, becomes a turning point in Lora’s perception of legality and safety. Mortie persuades her not to report the wound to the police as required by law, hoping to learn more about her. Lora’s integrity wavers, but she resists his early advances and remains focused on her duties.

After she completes her training, Lora is hired as a private nurse for two sick children, Desney Ritchey and Nanny Ritchey. She moves into the Ritchey mansion, a site of continuous parties and social whirl. Inside the household, Mrs. Ritchey is a socialite caught in an alcoholic stupor, and she fawns over her brutish chauffeur, Nick, whose rough temperament underpins the danger that lurks in the home. When a drunken guest tries to molest Lora, Nick intervenes by knocking the man out, revealing a protective yet volatile streak. Later, as Mrs. Ritchey drinks more, Nick demands that Lora pump her stomach; when she refuses, he assaults her with a telephone receiver.

Dr. Ranger, the Ritchey family physician and a known drug addict, adds another layer of menace. Lora becomes increasingly alarmed by the treatment of the children, noticing signs of severe neglect and starved conditions. Unable to sway anyone in the household to take her concerns seriously, she eventually quits and goes to Dr. Bell to voice her suspicions. At first, Dr. Bell hesitates to intervene in another doctor’s patients, but he ultimately advises Lora to return to work long enough to gather concrete evidence of the mistreatment.

Desparation grows as Nanny weakens toward the brink of death. Lora confronts the impassivity of Mrs. Ritchey, who remains unmoved by the child’s deteriorating condition. Mortie’s visits to deliver liquor to the mansion complicate matters, and Lora sends him to fetch milk, hoping to give Nanny a safer remedy. Mortie’s theft of milk from a delicatessen enables Lora to perform a milk bath for Nanny—a folk remedy recommended by the wary housekeeper, Mrs. Maxwell. Maxwell’s later drunken confession adds a crucial clue about the danger in the Ritchey household.

As the investigation deepens, Lora learns that Nanny Ritchey and Desney Ritchey have a trust fund from their late father, a financial stake that could change everything. The two girls’ vulnerable position is tied to a chilling scheme: Nick killed their sister with his car, and with Dr. Ranger’s help, he is secretly starving the children to trigger a grim inheritance outcome. If the children die, the trust fund would pass to Mrs. Ritchey, and Nick plans to marry her for the money.

Mortie’s threats prompt Dr. Bell to intervene, and he arrives just in time to examine Nanny. When he attempts to transfer her to a hospital for proper care, Nick denies him access, knocking him out. Mortie then intervenes again, ultimately saving Nanny’s life by keeping Nick at bay while Lora administers an emergency blood transfusion. The crisis marks a turning point when the doctor’s botched attempt at intervention collides with Lora’s resourcefulness and courage.

The following day, Mortie gives Lora a ride, and as they pass a string of police cars, he explains that Nick won’t be arrested because he has warned his criminal associates about his enmity toward him. The sense of looming danger lingers, culminating in a chilling image: an ambulance delivers a corpse dressed in a chauffeur’s uniform to the hospital’s morgue, underscoring the costly consequences of the Ritchey household’s secrets.

In the end, the story centers on Lora’s determination to protect the vulnerable, expose abuse, and navigate the complex moral terrain of a high-society world that masks violence and neglect. The characters are drawn with a steady, restrained realism that keeps the focus on the human stakes—the risk to innocent lives, the fragility of trust, and the quiet, persistent bravery required to shine a light into a house where danger festered behind party doors.