Secrets of a Nurse

Secrets of a Nurse (1938) is a drama, crime film directed by Arthur Lubin rated 5.5/10.

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

Nurse Katherine 'Mack' MacDonald

Dick Foran

'Killer' Lee Burke

Edmund Lowe

John Dodge

Leon Ames

Joe Largo

Horace McMahon

Larry Carson

Paul Hurst

Arlington Bysshe 'Slice' Cavanaugh

David Oliver

'Spud', the valet

Samuel S. Hinds

Judge Corrigan

Clarence Muse

'Tiger', Lee's Handler

Alan Ladd

Hospital Orderly (uncredited)