Review of The New Interns

Picking up, in a way, from "The Interns", this follow up delivers more young doctors struggling with romantic and moral issues while partying their heads off at any opportunity. Callan is back and is referenced here as a prankster and a major womanizer even though in the original film he merely juggled one rich girlfriend and one older nurse. Now he's trying (not very stringently!) to complete his internship, which was cut short by a previous drug-induced meltdown, and is dating curvy tease Eden and pert, pretty Wells, both nurses living in the spanking-new ladies dormitory. One exploit has him dolling up in drag to prove that he can invade the tightly-guarded high-rise and, if not for his body language and voice, he makes a surprisingly convincing woman. Jones (taking over James MacArthur's part) and Powers (whose arctic shrew bears little relation to the perky, appealing nurse she played in the first film) are a newly-married doctor and nurse who hit a road bump when infertility rears it's ugly head. (Powers actually has to speak the line, "Infertility? How awful!") Segal, making his official film debut though he had acted in a few previously, plays an arrogant hothead who is smoothed out temporarily by the sensitive and fragile social worker Stevens. Savalas returns (this time fully bald) as the commandeering doctor in charge. Stevens also returns as the nurse trainer who throws the baby shower to end all baby showers for one of the intern's wives. Morris shows up as the lone black intern and Patrick plays the alternately stern and soft den mother to the men. Comic interludes are intertwined with more serious fare including a horrifying (offscreen) gang rape and its aftermath in which one character goes on a rabid war path for one assailant, even though the lady was attacked by THREE men! The film couldn't be categorized as boring, though not a lot of the scenarios ring particularly true. Contrivance is on display for more than one occasion. Callan hams it up a lot of the time. Jones isn't bad actually, but faced with the unbelievably petulant Powers, he hasn't got a great deal to work with. A pre-"I Dream of Jeanne" Eden is all kiss and run, but she's nice to look at, as is Wells who would soon go on to the TV legacy of Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island". Segal is often aggravatingly bullheaded. This was his second and more prominent medical drama following "The Young Doctors". Stevens has a difficult and unevenly written role to play, but she does it well and is extremely appealing and attractive. Mathers, who plays an ill orphan boy is the brother of Jerry Mathers from "Leave it to Beaver" and the resemblance is noticeable. Crane appears briefly as a drunken reveler at the out of control baby shower, a highlight of this film just as a New Years Eve party had been in the first. This type of multi-character, multi-issue soap opera went places that TV soaps couldn't go at the time, but has since become extinct as the standards have loosened over the years. It's a mildly entertaining time-killer, worthwhile for its noted cast, but nothing more.