Doctor at Large

I hadn't seen this since I was a young teenager in the early 1970s and on rewatching it yesterday I realised that this film, along with Richard Gordon's book "Doctor in the House", inspired me to apply for medical school. Mind you, if I'd behaved like the students and doctors portrayed here I would have been struck off. I sure kissing patients, even private ones is not encouraged any more. It's not at all far fetched. If anything a rather restrained and gentle version of medical life.

The film is a succession of set-piece comedy sketches some of which are very creaky in a Carry On Doctor style but what must have got to the younger me was the time Simon Sparrow spent as a locum GP in Scotland (poached fish - I've certainly had some of them from patients) and his reassurance to a scared pre-operative patient which I used as a model in my own career.

After his adventures at sea Dr Sparrow returns to real life and a proper job in a hospital. Messing up his chances of getting a high level position within the hospital Sparrow heads out looking for another job but finds that nothing is going to come easily to him. Meanwhile his colleague Beskin cheats his way into greener pastures with a roguish mix of charm and good humour. Right, well I've done the best I can at providing a short plot summary to the film and I don't think it is that bad considering that in reality the plot is more a series of scenarios with Sparrow drifting around in the working world.

The tone is very much gentle British humour – i.e. not a lot of laughs to be had. It moves slowly enough due to the lack of plot and it is difficult to follow or care about because it does just seem to be drifting aimlessly from one thing to the next. I laughed once or twice at most ("big breaths") but the film just seems happy to exist on a gentle tone rather than having anything sharp or that good in regards material. The cast try hard to raise a laugh or two and push the material as hard as they can but all they can really do is contribute to the gently comic mood. Bogarde is OK in the lead role, hardly memorable but suitable smooth and gentle for the lead. Sinden has fun with a more interesting character and he is funny by force of personality. Justice is hardly in the film but makes his usual impact.

Overall this is an OK entry in an OK series of film. It isn't particularly funny and doesn't really have a plot worth speaking of but it has a gently comic air that might appeal to those looking for undemanding British fare to fill the television on a west Sunday afternoon. Nothing special but not bad so to say.

One of best of the series, the everlasting adventures of the Dr. Simon Sparrow that is running for a contest for surgery site, however the hospital was directed by the dictator and bad temper Dr. Sir Lancelot (James Robertson Justice) who don't like him, he moves away to a small town on countryside to aid the old Dr. Hackett (Lionel Jeffries) a kind of narrow-mind man, there Hackett's youngest wife Mrs. Jasmine always harassed Dr. Simon in the absence of Hackett, putting the Doctor's life in dangerous by the jealous Doctor, then he resigns and back to London and got a three mounts job at high class Clinic, to work with ladies with severe depressions of love, also prescribing medicines to wealthy old customers, after that going back to St. Swithins Hospital to start all over again, once more he screw up to believe in an insane patient that complains to him that was throw up nuts and bolts after a surgery, falling down on Dr. Lancelot's concept, which already was bad stays worst, further he has a friend the "bon vivant" Dr. Tony Benskin who haven't a proper ability to be a Doctor, the suddenly receives 15.000 pounds of an heritage to working for an eccentric old lady, although it wasn't exactly true, this series driven forces on light sexploitation, without be appealing, also displayed a unique British humoresque, although a slight dated, it stands the test of time!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

"Doctor at Large" is the third installment of the "Doctor" series, with Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde), losing a higher level position at St. Swithins, tries out several other scenarios where he can practice.

This is a very light film, without much plot, except that Simon comes up against Benskin (Donald Sinden), his rival at St. Swithins, who gets the position that Sparrow wanted. It's humorous without being riotous.

The best scene for me was when Simon and Nan McPherson (Shirley Eaton) stay overnight at an inn. The proprietress puts them on different floors, and when Simon attempts to sneak downstairs into Nan's room, the woman comes out into the hall. "I was looking for the bathroom," he says. "It's on your floor," she says. "The door is marked 'Bathroom.'" Then she sits in the hall, thus thwarting further attempts.

The cast is good, and Muriel Pavlov is back as Joy. It's really interesting to see Bogarde in this type of film, for which he is so well known, as he spent much of his career doing dark roles in deeper films: "The Servant," "The Night Porter," Death in Venice," and "Victim," to name only a few.

The commercial cinema traded on his matinée idol looks; but his heart was elsewhere. Nevertheless, he handled this type of film very well, giving the character a gentleness that people like to see in a real doctor.

I think it's a riot that when he appeared in Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma" on film, the British audience steered clear when they found out it wasn't part of the "Doctor" series. Obviously, these films are beloved, particularly in England.

After trying out being a ship's doctor in Doctor At Sea, Dr. Simon Sparrow returns home to Great Britain just looking for a place in the medical world. He gets a post at St. Swithins Hospital, but promptly insults the head honcho there James Robertson Justice. After that Dirk Bogarde as Sparrow for the third in the Doctor series gets to try and practice medicine in a variety of unusual and amusing situations.

Bogarde once again strikes the right note as the earnest, dedicated, but a little bit socially challenged Dr. Sparrow. He's got the knack of not bumbling so much as walking into these incredible situations and people and sometimes mucking it up. But somehow it all works out in the end.

Doctor At Large also boasts the usual memorable character players prominently as always James Robertson Justice as the tyrannical Dr. Lancelot Spratt who terrifies all who come within range of his booming voice. One guy who thinks he's got JRJ in his pocket is kiss up Dr. Michael Medwin who gains a coveted position on the surgical staff that Bogarde wanted originally. He screws up in the end though quite accidentally, still it's always good to see one of his kind lose out.

But the guy who actually steals this film whenever he's on the screen is Donald Sinden. That this guy could become a doctor should frighten everyone in the United Kingdom. You have to see his 'examination' and how he gets his medical degree to believe it. Basically this guy became a doctor to get girls and he pursues that avocation quite avidly. Quite the rake Sinden, he does everything but twirl his mustache like some Snidely Whiplash villain. Most American audiences know him from being Grace Kelly's earnest, but dull husband in Mogambo. This is quite a change.

Watching the Doctor series from Great Britain I'm struck by the fact that across the pond they seem to take a more lighthearted view of medicine than we do. It wasn't until after the Code was lifted that doctors were ever portrayed in a light hearted manner.

Doctor At Large holds up quite well even for American viewers like myself who would not be acquainted with the fine points of the British health system. This series could easily be revived today, I could see someone like Hugh Grant playing Dr. Simon Sparrow.