GOOD NIGHT NURSE (1918) – A slapstick trip down memory lane

Alright, so “Good Night, Nurse!”… Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle tossing around like meatballs in a hospital. That’s a combo that’s like late-night korv at Pressbyrån – always messy, always fun, but you’re never totally sure what you’re biting into. Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle is pulling triple duty here: directing, writing, tripping over himself while dressed in a nurse outfit. That alone is half the show! Keaton – young and stone-faced as ever – seems barely fazed by the chaos, even while being forcibly “cured” of drinking habits. Talk about Swedish style stubbornness.

So, what’s it about? Well, it’s this bonkers ride where Arbuckle gets stuck in a storm before being taken to a pretty suspect sanatorium with some real questionable medical ethics (I’ve seen stricter nurses aan the Motala hospital, honestly). It’s loud, quick, and everything is running on pure anarchy, just how slapstick should be. The jokes, sure, a bit dated (this film is more than 100 years old so, ya know, it’s not exactly talking about Tinder), but man, they still made me snort laugh. There’s one gag with a surgery knife that made me spill my Gevalia last Thursday.

The weirdest thing is, the mayhem kind of triggered a memory from my own life – back in ’83, after that disastrous Midsummer party, I woke up in a hospital ward in Sundsvall with sticky cake in my shoe and no recollection. Watching Arbuckle stumble around in his slippers, I felt a wild sense of déjà vu.

Would I recommend? If you wanna see where all modern movie clowns began, or catch a glimpse of old Hollywood being rude, goofy, and slightly insane – yes! Bring your sense of humor and skip the snobbery, please. Just, don’t expect Oscar drama or Swedish melancholy. It’s more like watching your uncle try to dance at a wedding – cringe, but kinda brilliant.

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