Young Doctors in Love
1982
Action / Comedy

Young Doctors in Love
1982
Action / Comedy
Plot summary
An 'Airplane!'-style spoof of hospital soap operas—a brilliant young trainee can't stand the sight of blood; a doctor romances the head nurse in order to get the key to the drugs cabinet; and there's a mafioso on the loose disguised as a woman.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Diagnosis: lukewarm comedy. (minor spoilers)
Diagnosis: lukewarm comedy. (minor spoilers)
Young Doctors in Love reminds me of the early 80s comedies Meatballs, Johnny Dangerously, and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Spoof comedies that, despite the abundance of gags and running gags, just can't quite seem to match the comedic brilliance of something like Airplane. Although, Young Doctors in Love certainly fares better than some of the others, it too, offers humor that may wear thin after several viewings (Airplane, on the other hand seems to remain of timeless quality).
The film follows a handful of med school interns, although the movie itself really focuses on 1) the relationship between the emotionally void Dr. Simon August (Michael McKean) and the melodramatic, and soon-to-ailing love interest, Dr. Stephanie Brody (Sean Young); 2) the bizarre budding relationship between Dr. Phil Burns (played by the hilarious 80s bit-part regular, Taylor Negron) and the somewhat held-back but probably secretly kinky Nurse Norine Sprockett (Pamela Reed); and 3) my particular favorite, the interaction between Dr. Charles Litto and Angelo Bonafetti (played famously by Hector Elizando who's best was the deadpan delivery of "I used to play guitar and then I broke it over my brothers head and then I went to work"), a mobster who disguises himself as a woman to get his father in the hospital who is meanwhile always unsuccessfully threatened to be bumped off by his mafia rival, Malamud Callahan (played by a young Michael Richards).
There is a lot of course going on in the film, and it even uses the old PA background gags like we heard in Airplane and Meatballs. And it does have it's funny moments. But, as a mild spoof comedy of medical soap operas using humor that is somewhat outdated (on the order of like old dirty-joke joke books), it may best be reserved for the spoof cult crowd who can appreciate it best. If nothing else, tune it in to see big names in the old days (like Dabney Coleman, Harry Dean Stanton, Billie Bird, and more).