Parachute Nurse (1942) User Reviews (3)

Mediocre Quality WWII Flag Waver

[hogwrassler · 7/10 · 14 June 2022]

This is a Columbia studios effort to recruit women into the military during the early days of WWII.

Several civilian nurses hear about the new Parachute Nurse Corps and volunteer for the training. The preamble scrolling down the screen at the start of the movie says that this is a fictitious story, which may be fact in the future. In fact, no Parachute Nurse Corps was ever created for the military.

Glenda (Marguerite Chapman) and Dottie (Kay Harris) are the two main characters going through the difficult training at the jump school. Their two trainers are Lt. Woods (William Wright) and Sgt Peters (Frank Sully). There are the other assorted nurses from all across the country as background characters.

It's all a whitewashed version of military training. The girls are allowed to go the the base canteen, where everyone drinks chocolate soda, instead of beer and whiskey. The Lieutenant and sergeant are entirely too informal, and even drink chocolate sodas together in the canteen. Naturally, the four main characters develop a romance, another unrealistic portrayal of students and instructors fraternizing.

Nobody smokes in this movie, either. A couple of the girls mention going outside to have a cigarette, and one is seen holding a cigarette, but there is no actual smoking in Parachute Nurse. Very one is a true blue American with few vices.

Lauretta Schimmoler plays Captain Morgan, the very overweight commander of the students. Lauretta had created the Aerial Nurse Corps of America in 1936, but it was never officially recognized. It may, however, have been the predecessor of the Army Flight Nurse program, which was introduced during WWII. Lauretta also served as the technical advisor for the movie.

Paraxhute Nurse (1942) can be enjoyed if the viewer just remembers that the goal of making it was to encourage women to become military nurses. RKO and Universal did much better flag waver films during the war, but Columbia Pictures made a big effort also. That's what has to be remembered when judging the quality of these types of movies.

Low budget, low quality...

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 17 June 2017]

During WWII, Hollywood made a bazillion war films meant to drum up support for the services back home. Many of these were very good...and a few, like "Parachute Nurse", that are third-rate films which really weren't made very well.

"Parachute Nurse" was from Columbia Pictures, a studio that mostly made B-movies. Bs were short, lower budgeted movies that were meant as the second film for a double-feature. Some were very good, most, however, were quickly made and it showed it. In the case of "Parachute Nurse" the biggest problem isn't the mostly no-name cast but the terrible writing...something they never would have allowed with an A-picture. The women are generally called 'girls' and, frankly, they act like girls--with cat fights and petty problems instead of acting like women who want to serve their country. Also, the male instructors are horny sexual harassers...and the 'girls' love 'em for it! By today's standards, it's pretty embarrassing though such attitudes weren't exactly unusual for the day. There are also stereotypes (such as the stupid fat girl) are signs of sloppy writing. Overall, a dopey film that is watchable...but could have been so much better if the writing had been a priority.

Women supporting the war effort

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 22 April 2024]

I had never heard of this Columbia programmer until just a few days ago. It's a shame that it hasn't been restored, because I think it provides a unique window into the war effort during the time it was made and how Hollywood propaganda films were used to encourage enlistments as well as entertain, and on some level, start training. In this case the enlistees would have been women watching in the audience.

PARACHUTE NURSE has a story that was written by a female writer, and a real life aviatrix who helped establish the Aerial Nurse Corps of America- Lauretta Schimmoler- as one of the picture's stars.

Schimmoler does not play herself, because while she was a pilot and well-versed in flight, she was not a nurse. Instead, she is cast in a slightly fictional role as a captain who leads a squad of new recruits. Miss Schimmoler is no Greta Garbo in the glamour department and she is no Bette Davis in the acting department, but she brings with her credibility and an air of authenticity.

A bunch of the studio's prettiest starlets portray the recruits, headed by Marguerite Chapman who was very popular at Columbia in the 1940s. The less attractive female members of the cast are on board to provide some comic relief. But all these gals are sincere and show that team work is key. One of the women joining the squad gets drummed out by Schimmoler because she's a troublemaker- actress Louise Allbritton has a field day vamping it up before she's thrown out.

It's true there are some basic stock characters as all war films have them, but I would say in this case, it's more about how they band together for Uncle Sam that keeps us interested in them. Their efforts are jingoistic; we want them to succeed. Of course, some of their success is not just learning to keep their cots tidy or learning to parachute from a plane. Some of it involves their getting along with the men who help train them, and in a few instances, as with Chapman's character, there's romance with a handsome guy (William Wright).

One thing I appreciated about the film, despite its modest budget and standard performances, was how it relied on cliches but still managed to connect with me. It should be noted that I was watching it in 2024; so if it affected me this positively, imagine the impact it had on viewers in 1942 who left the movie theater and went off to get an application and sign up.