“Rules mean something,” a stern hospital matron admonishes would-be nurse Barbara Stanwyck at the outset of Night Nurse, which delivers a sharp critique of Hippocratic hypocrisy while also providing plenty of occasions for Stanwyck and gum-chewing sidekick Blondell to appear in dishy dishabille. The plot swiftly moves from the hospital with its lustful interns and bedpan jokes to a seriously dysfunctional household where Stanwyck is charged with the care of two girls suffering from a mysterious illness, at the mercy of their dipsomaniac mother, a dubious doctor, and a menacing chauffeur. (Of the young Clark Gable, who plays the chauffeur, Blondell said, “When he showed up the first day, Barbara and I had to sit down.”) The most upstanding guy in the picture is a bootlegger who sees no difference between his racket and the doctors’, underlining the moral of so many pre-Code movies: some rules mean more than others.

—Juliet Clark

• Written by Oliver H. P. Garrett, Charles Kenyon, based on a story by Dora Macy. Photographed by Barney McGill. With Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell, Clark Gable. (72 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Warner Bros.)