Doctor in Love

The first 'Doctor' film without Dirk Bogarde is also the first to strongly resemble a 'Carry On', with several veterans of the 'Carry On' series (including Joan Sims, also in the original 'Doctor in the House') and several others who became features of the smuttier parallel series. The humour was already becoming more off-colour here (and it's in colour, which the budget of the 'Carry On's didn't yet run to).

We actually see Lady Spratt in this episode (played by Ambrosine Phillpotts), but James Robertson Justice is himself absent much of the time; while in place of Bogarde we get the more abrasive Michael Craig, who plainly doesn't fit in with such frivolity and otherwise steered well clear of either series.

No Dirk Bogarde?! Well this Doctor installment is doomed before it even begins. No Sparrow, no Joy - Burke and Hare are adequate, but it's not the same calibre as the last films. Though James Robertson Justice is wonderful, his Lancelot Spratt seems to get better as they go along. His performance in this, as he is about to go under the knife himself, is indescribable, and not to be missed. Priceless comedy! Almost makes up for the silliness of the rest. Another great moment is when he and two young strippers (who have luckily not yet stripped!) burst through a screen showing a great ape and into an auditorium, full of stately old gentleman; who all seem pretty pleased at the disturbance. 6/10

By 1960 Dirk Bogarde deemed himself too old and serious to continue as Simon Sparrow in the series of medical romps from Richard Gordon's novels. Instead Michael Craig, a former extra who looked similar though more thickset, was top-billed in "Doctor in Love". That he and his partner Leslie Phillips should be named Drs Burke and Hare says everything about a string of mildly farcical incidents, laced with lavender-blue dialogue poised on the brink of permissiveness, which kept the pot boiling for Betty Box and Ralph Thomas.

In truth Craig also is too serious for the part. He had just co-written the anti-trade union screenplay for "The Angry Silence" and seems preoccupied, letting the ebullient Phillips treat him as a stooge in almost every joint scene. There are other dampeners. Lancelot Spratt (James Robertson Justice) is no longer hovering continuously in the background as the ogre of the medical school-- the doctors are taking first steps in general practice-- and the love interests are Carole Lesley (aka Maureen Rippingdale) and Virginia Maskell, both of whom could have featured in a "Pinewood Babylon" sleaze book as future suicides. Poor Miss Maskell, Craig's love interest, had the saddest starlet's eyes since Gail Russell.

Never mind: there's Joan Sims and Liz Fraser as randy strippers to enliven the earlier sequence in a cold-cure laboratory, plus Irene Handl playing against her usual charlady type as a very butch, tweedy female professor. More camp comes from the inimitable Reggie Beckwith as factotum in Craig's surgery-- "I'm a sort of Universal Aunt, you might say"-- and he puts on a fine drunk scene in a police station. For star spotters there is a glimpse of "Last of the Summer Wine"'s Peter Sallis, unbilled, as a patient. Other Britflick support favourites such as chinless wonder Nicholas Phipps, Esma Cannon and John Le Mesurier pop up.

One episode embroiling Spratt in a police raid on a strip club next to a lecture hall is notably well staged. The film rolls briskly along: Thomas, never more than a journeyman, was rarely less than competent at storytelling, a skill sadly missed these days. Three years later he persuaded Bogarde to come back for a final crack at Sparrow in "Doctor in Distress".

Just caught this film on the Talking Pictures TV channel, and thought I might as well watch it.

I thought that I had seen them all but apparently not, it's ok and pretty much par for the course.

There is absolutely no need to look for any kind of plot in these movies, they were always bereft of such frivolities.

Rather like the Carry On movies that I suppose should be thought of as their successors, or rather more of the Follow On's.

Oh dear I am afraid that is an example of my jokes and also somewhat, of the level of humour presented in these films.

They are all both improbable and predictable in their sets, scenes and characters, which fits in perfectly with the plethora of different actors.

What saved the movie for me from the usual run of them is the inimitable, James Robertson Justice as the irascible Sir Lancelot Spratt.

Personally he is the film he has by far the best lines and provides easily, the funniest scenes in the entire film.

I you are a fan of the British 'Doctor' films, this one is an example of one of the movies without the familiar Dirk Bogarde playing Dr. Sparrow. Instead, this one focuses on two other doctors, Burke and Hare (see IMDb Trivia for more about that)--two screw-ups who spend much of their time chasing women and trying to make a go of it in jobs outside of the hospital. As usual, James Robertson Justice is on hand but Dr. Spratt is seen less in this one because so much of the picture is set outside the hospital.

Like the other Doctor films, this one is a combination of light comedy and drama. A few of the funnier bits involved Burke and Hare hanging out at a research center investigating the common cold as well as Dr. Spratt attending a naughty show when the police make a raid. But the movie also has its touching moments, such as the dying boy. All in all, a very good film but also light and enjoyable as well--more an excellent time-passer than anything else.