Tammy and the Doctor

This was the third in the so-so TAMMY series, and it is certainly the best. Sandra Dee is absolutely adorable in the title role, the cute country bumpkin who is forever performing a good deed, for someone else, that is. This time she goes off with a sick, eldery friend(the great character actress Beulah Bondi) to a big city hospital and gets a job in the place to be near her. While she inadvertantly turns the hospital upside down with her hilarious mishaps, our folksy heroine falls for a handsome young doctor(Peter Fonda in his film debut). No classic, but this is a warm, funny, and occasionally touching movie. Sandra Dee is an absolute joy to watch; this was her second and last turn as the TAMMY character, her first was TAMMY TELL ME TRUE(1961) which was a sequel to TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR(1957) starring Debbie Reynolds.

As a young teen, I watched all of the " Tammy " movies that came on TV. It did not matter if the part was being played by Sandra Dee or Debbie Reynolds. I just couldn't wait to see what Tammy had to say next or how she was going to say it, to see the reaction on other faces and how they take it. I could really relate to this movie being from Alabama. I understood some of the sayings from her grandfather that the people in the movie didn't. I dreamed of being on a river boat having the adventures that Tammy had and I would sit with Tammy and listen to her stories. Sandra Dee is captivating, a wonderful actress, plays a loving friend role and is just so funny especially when she is trying to be so serious. I think everyone should see it, especially those in the medical profession.

I thought this movie was well done, and that Sandra Dee was a very good Tammy Tyree, however I think that Debbie Reynolds did a better job when she originally played this character in Tammy and the Bachelor. I also think that Tammy Tell Me True was a little bit sweeter than this movie. On it's own it is a great film, but when compared to the others, it's just not as good.

I am also a teenager and have deeply enjoyed this movie. Being from Mississippi Myself, I feel akin to her in her many plights, with dealing with folks that find many southerners to be very "funny peculiar"!! Anyway I know one thing i really enjoyed the Tammy in love song, it was so romantic how he was right there listening. Oh, I just really love this movie!!!!! I really like how Tammy takes God with her where ever she goes and that she isn't afraid to talk about him. Man, I kinda wish they still made movies like this, but with more African-Americans. Movies like this were just so innocent and didn't need all the hype and jive they need now.

I love the Tammy films, but one problem with them is continuity. In the first film, "Tammy and the Bachelor", it looks absolutely certain that she was about to marry her love (Leslie Nielsen). But in the second film he was gone and apparently lost interest in this delightful young woman. And, by the end of "Tammy Tell Me True", she was head over heels in love with a gorgeous and sweet professor (John Gavin)....and yet when "Tammy and the Doctor" begins he's gone! This is much more a problem for me than having Debbie Reynolds play Tammy in the first film and Sandra Dee in the next two.

This movie picks up after the second film. Tammy's good friend and companion, Annie (Beulah Bondi), is ill and needs to get surgery. However, she is awfully close to Tammy and Tammy wants to accompany her to the hospital. The hospital isn't about to let Tammy stay there and they come up with a compromise...to let her work at the hospital in order to be close to Annie.

So is it any good? Well, yes. But it isn't nearly as heart-warming and sweet as the previous two films. Much of it, in my opinion, is due to this film emphasizing comedy more than romance. Plus, I still kept worrying about her two previous boyfriends! Overall, a good film but not quite up to the very high standards set by the previous two movies.

By the way, Imdb mentions that this was Beulah Bondi's last film. This is not such as sad thing, as she lived another 17 years and made several notable television appearances during this period.