But I don't have a sister...

I came across an old movie last night that I've never seen. There are lots of old movies I've never seen before, so that's not surprising, but the fact that I actually put it on and watched it kind of was.

See, I love old movies, and I run across them all the time on my satellite channels, but I always find myself "saving" them for when I can watch them on the big screen at the Paramount Theater's classic film festival in the summer. Thing is, the last few years, the Paramount is showing fewer and fewer of the really old movies and more movies from the 70s and 80s that they've deemed "classic." It's kind of disappointing.

So, last night, when I saw this movie come on, and it was only about 75 minutes long, I figured what the hell. It probably wouldn't show up at the film festival anyway. So, I watched it.

It starred Barbara Stanwyck and was from 1931. It was called "Night Nurse." And no, it wasn't dirty - get your mind out of the gutter. It was about a nurse who is caring for two children who are wasting away. Turns out there's a murder plot to starve the children so that the mother and her gangster boyfriend can get control of the children's trust fund, and the nurse (Stanwyck) saves the kids with the help of her bootlegger boyfriend. I guess in 1931, instead of hookers with hearts of gold, you had bootleggers with hearts of gold.

As frequently happens, I got the chance to see a star-before-they-were-a-star in one of the supporting roles. Clark Gable played the part of the gangster. That was pretty cool. I was actually looking down when he first came on screen, but as soon as I heard his voice, my head snapped up because I knew who it was! Distinctive voice, that Gable.

Anyway, it was a good little movie, and several parts of it brought home to me how some things never seem to change. People are people no matter what era they live in. And the more I see movies with Barbara Stanwyck in them, the more I like her. She was somethin'. I definitely need to feed my enjoyment of old movies more often by watching them when they come on my movie channels and not waiting for the Paramount to show them.

Favorite line of the movie: "In a big way, sister!" Stanwyck said it several times - I guess as a catch phrase. I like it. I think I'll start saying it.