New World Pictures' 1974 sex-comedy Candy Stripe Nurses was filmed inside a functioning Burbank hospital, and director Allan Holleb later recalled that the production quickly became a logistical and public-relations nightmare. The hospital was operating at roughly 95 percent capacity while the crew attempted to stage scenes involving teenage volunteer nurses, sexual situations, and medical misconduct. To secure permission, producer Julie Corman reportedly presented the hospital board with a sanitized version of Holleb's script under the far more respectable title Angels of Mercy, concealing the film's more provocative material behind an expurgated presentation.
The arrangement collapsed during production. While filming a scene in a linen closet with Candice Rialson topless, a worker from the linen service unexpectedly entered and discovered the shoot. Matters became even worse when someone found an uncensored copy of the screenplay, revealing what the hospital administrators had actually authorized. The unit was thrown out of the hospital and forced to relocate to a former clinic that looked nothing like the original location. Rather than abandon continuity, Holleb and the art department improvised a piece of cinematic misdirection: they installed a sign reading 'this way to the new west wing,' attempting to persuade viewers that the radically different building was merely another section of the same hospital. The episode encapsulated the low-budget exploitation system's combination of aggressive location tactics, concealed content, and last-minute production improvisation.
