Carry on Again Doctor

Fans of the original CARRY ON DOCTOR might well be forgiven for assuming that this rushed-out sequel offers more of exactly the same, and indeed for the first half of the production that's exactly the case. Once more, the setting of the film is a hospital, with Hattie Jacques as Matron and Kenneth Williams as a pompous doctor. It's all very warm and familiar, with most of the Carry On team present and correct. Once again, Jim Dale is the focus of the slapstick comedy, and there's also a meatier role for Charles Hawtrey who gets probably the most screen time of his Carry On career.

So far, so predictable and yet so amusing - fans will be in their element with another assured, confident piece of film-making, packed with seaside postcard-style humour. And then at the halfway point things change; there are exotic locales and a surprisingly densely-plotted narrative involving a magical weight loss elixir. This all builds to an unpredictable climax with multiple factions attempting to get one over on each other; it's the most complex script-writing of the series since the early 1960s, and proved to be a great and welcome surprise for this fan.

The 18th of the Carry On series and the third of the medical themed adventures, plot finds Jim Dale as Doctor Nookie, who is stitched up by his superiors and sent to a tropical Beautific island to tender medical treatment to the natives. What he actually finds when he gets there is a rainy windswept isle that has no need for his services at all. The compound is run by Gladstone Screwer (Sid James), a crafty old sort who deals in whisky and cigarettes and has a wife for every day of the week. Screwer also has something else of interest that perks up the flagging interest of Nookie, a potion that considerably aids weight loss. Nookie senses an opportunity to make a financial killing back in Blighty whilst simultaneously getting one over the superiors who had him sent to his island misery.

This was the last of 10 Carry On films for Jim Dale before he returned for the ill conceived "modern" reinvention that was Carry On Columbus in 1992. I don't know if the makers knew that Dale would be leaving the series and thus made him the lead character in this jovial farce? But it proves to be a smart move. One of the unsung heroes of the series, Dale's energy and comic reactions to plot situations were always a joy to watch, and here, with James in customary wise cracking support, he lifts the film above the ordinary with a show of endearing buffoonery. He also did his own stunts and broke his arm on this production. Director Gerald Thomas keeps things brisk, with the double location axis of the plot stopping things from stagnating visually, Charles Hawtrey goes undercover in drag to provide the last third of the film with some quality laughs and the likes of Barbara Windsor and Valerie Leron raise the pulses considerably.

Thin of plot but big on charm and laughs, one of the better Carry On movies. 7.5/10

Carry on Again Doctor fits a lot of different plot features into a short amount of time, there's also a lot of regulars here, in fact too many regulars to give enough screen time to each of them. One odd fact here is that Jim Dale broke his arm on set whilst doing one of his own stunts.

The plot is very odd, involving a magic (?) formula found in a jungle that gives everyone who drinks it incredible weight loss. And then they open a clinic to sell the stuff.

6/10: Jim Dale is lovable but the plot is just too bizarre for words. It's like three films put into one

After suffering one too many indiscretions, the disgraced Doctor Nookey is packed off to a remote island hospital by the go-getting Doctor Frederick Carver. Whilst this is intended as punishment for Doctor Nookey, the doctor soon learns that the orderly at this hospital Gladstone Screwer has created a secret potion which aids weight-loss. Doctor Nookey returns back to England and sets up a weight-loss clinic with Screwer supplying the potion. However, when several parties learn of Nookey's success they decide that they too want a piece of the action...

Whilst it has some similarities to Carry On Doctor (in the sense that Jim Dale's character is ousted through misunderstandings and mistreatment) Carry On Again Doctor just wasn't quite as good....

It was the first half of the picture for me where the film ran in to some problems; whilst Carry On Doctor didn't have the strongest narrative in the franchise it did feel more focussed; several people were feigning illness and each character was doing all they can to stay in hospital for as long as they could. There was also a small story arc connecting each of the patients which gave Carry On Doctor a bit more structure and purpose until we get to what is the crux of the story.

Carry On Again Doctor doesn't have the same structure and focus and honestly it's all a bit too whacky and I didn't find the characters or the jokes were quite as appealing second time around. Whilst it's hard not to laugh at some of the situations Nookey finds himself in, the laughs come a bit more cheaply and I also felt that Nookey wasn't quite as likeable as the character that he portrayed in Carry On Doctor.

Thankfully, the film does greatly improve in the second half when Nookey meets Screwer (Sid James was wonderful in this type of role and really lit the screen up whenever he was in front of the camera). It carries on is this vein when Nookey returns back to England and sets up the "Moore-Nookey" clinic which is an amusing visual gag in and of itself. Carver's slimy character doing everything he can to obtain the ingredients of said potion is really something and it's poor Dr Stoppidge who is the stooge that is used on this occasion. It must be said that what happens at the end when the wrong potion is administered was both hilarious and unexpected.

In summary then Carry On Again Doctor is saved by a strong second half and by the cast who, as usual, work wonderfully together in making this farce perhaps more enjoyable than it could have been (thank god nearly all of the regulars were here as I felt it could have been worse had they not have been).

It's funny enough to be worth seeing, but it's a tad more unfocussed and not quite as sharp as Carry On Doctor.

Being the third outing in the series to be set against a medical backdrop, I was fully expecting this to be a tired rehash of old gags and ideas; however, I found it quite an agreeable latter-day entry – if still essentially second-tier material.

The cast sees Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and Jim Dale in more or less similar roles as its predecessor CARRY ON DOCTOR (1967); on the other hand, Sid James, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey and Barbara Windsor play different characters. Also, the mid-section of the film reverts to a tropical island setting (to which Dale has been assigned as a punishment, and where wily orderly James is stationed – though, even in such remote surroundings, he manages to keep up-to-date with English soccer results via coded drum-playing from the natives!).

Some of the best gags involve Dale's accident-prone antics at the hospital early on (including his examination of scantily-clad starlet Windsor) and the latter stages set in Dale's private clinic (James has devised a concoction which turns out to be an effective slimming treatment – subsequently exploited by Dale under the patronage of wealthy Sims), which also sees Hawtrey once again in drag (he's a doctor who's jealous of Dale and has infiltrated the clinic on a mission for Dale's ex-superior/now-rival Williams). Series regular Peter Butterworth only has one wacky scene; other bits highlight Wilfrid Brambell (uncredited as an eccentric patient), lovely Valerie Leon (as Dale's sultry secretary) and future Mrs. Michael Caine Shakira Baksh (as a native-girl who successfully undertakes James' miraculous cure).