Secrets of a Nurse

Arthur Lubin
1938-12-02

A STARTLING CONFESSION THAT COULD SAVE THE MAN SHE LOVED...BUT HER PROFESSIONAL PLEDGE SWORE HER TO SILENCE!
3
75 min

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

Name Character Team
Helen Mack Nurse Katherine 'Mack' MacDonald Unowned
Dick Foran 'Killer' Lee Burke Unowned
Edmund Lowe John Dodge Unowned
Leon Ames Joe Largo Unowned
Horace McMahon Larry Carson Unowned
Paul Hurst Arlington Bysshe 'Slice' Cavanaugh Unowned
David Oliver 'Spud', the valet Unowned
Samuel S. Hinds Judge Corrigan Unowned
Clarence Muse 'Tiger', Lee's Handler Unowned
Alan Ladd Hospital Orderly (uncredited) Unowned