PURPLE HEARTS—-bogus surgeon + nurse ÷ war = bull escapade from 1984 wastes Ken Wahl and doesn’t make a decent showcase for Cheryl Ladd. Setting their predictable love arc against Vietnam doesn’t do any better than older movies with older stars set in older wars did by mixing medicine, military and melodrama. No medals for this mission.*

Not believable, zip for chemistry, failing on a suspense angle. Directed by Sidney J. Furie, lasting for 116 dreary minutes, it also features Stephen Lee, Annie McEnroe, R. Lee Ermey, Lane Smith and James Whitmore Jr.  Reviews slammed, and patrons plunked down just $2,075,000.  Wahl went on to a TV hit as Wiseguy.  

* Doc & Nurses at the front: Homecoming, from 1948, has Clark Gable & Lana Turner pass the stethoscope in WW2, followed by Battle Circus, 1953, where Humphrey Bogart & June Allyson trade ointment in Korea. They were all preceded and followed by the ambulance driver-meets-nurse-over-bedpans emoting in the assorted versions of A Farewell To Arms, courtesy of the romance that was WW1.