User reviews

I never had the opportunity to sample the popular “Doctor” series lampooning the medical profession (the inspiration for which was a novel by Richard Gordon – not the horror film-producer) until now; while I thoroughly enjoyed this first (and universally best-regarded) entry, I can’t quite see how the typical farcical situations could be stretched for seven pictures – especially since the rival “Carry On” stable made four films of its own on the subject over the years! Interestingly, at least five members of the film’s cast and crew would become fixtures of that even more durable series – actresses Joan Sims and Shirley Eaton, composer Bruce Montgomery, cinematographer Ernest Steward, and editor Gerald Thomas (director Ralph’s brother who would actually proceed to helm all 31 “Carry On” outings!); incidentally, the entire run of “Doctor” films were similarly Ralph’s domain.

Still, this series clearly had a bigger budget since they were all made in color and attracted a roster of top British stars – none more impressive than the one assembled here: Dirk Bogarde (he would feature in four of these – amazingly, even after he had gone on to more adult roles such as the blackmailed homosexual barrister in VICTIM [1961]!), Kenneth More (his one stint in the series), James Robertson-Justice (whose Sir Lancelot Spratt – turning up in all seven pictures – would become his signature role), Donald Sinden (he was featured in one other entry), Donald Houston (ditto), Muriel Pavlow (she too appeared in one more “Doctor” film – for what it’s worth, she had just co-starred with Alec Guinness in MALTA STORY [1953], shot on location), Geoffrey Keen (who had three series entries to his name), Kay Kendall (in what amounts to an extended cameo – she had just scored her biggest success with GENEVIEVE [1953], coincidentally in the company of two other cast members from this one i.e. More and Keen!) and George Coulouris (a native of Britain, he got his break into films while in Hollywood – though he seemed to have relocated back home by this time and, in fact, would make another two “Doctor” movies).

If one were to compare the “Doctor” series with the “Carry Ons”, judging by this preliminary view of one entry from the former franchise, I’d say that these were essentially genteel (the same goes for GENEVIEVE, itself a classic of British comedy) – which, being aimed at middle-class audiences, stressed characterization over gags…whereas the coarser, wackier style of the “Carry On” brand of humor had the working-class people in mind. Suffice to say that, for all the scrapes they got into, the medical students were no more than merry mischief-makers (with each character a well-established stereotype: charmingly gauche, amiable slacker, incurable womanizer, sports fanatic, etc.) whereas the “Carry On” gang were largely unethical and generally filthy-minded!

Among the comical situations found in DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE are: romantic complications involving Bogarde, More and Sinden; examinations (both scholarly and physical – with Coulouris as a willing, even helpful guinea pig); young girls having a crush on doctor types (Eaton); the students’ own attempt to break into high society by taking advantage of the eminence attached to their aspiring position (the Kendall subplot); being looked upon with suspicion when transporting a skeleton specimen on a bus; the old favorite of a student having a fainting spell inside the operating theater – but who eventually makes good when he has to deliver a baby (on Christmas Eve!) single-handed; college rivalry landing our heroes (they belong to St. Swithin’s, which has a gorilla for a mascot!) into trouble with both the law and their superiors – ditto for an incident in which Bogarde faces expulsion when he tumbles from the roof into the nurses’ quarters (and which is ultimately resolved by Spratt’s personal intervention, being the typical outwardly-gruff-but-essentially soft-hearted chap, reminding a couple of stuffy senior board members of their own past indiscretions), etc.

I guess it’s unfair, at this point, to state my preference for the admittedly patchy “Carry On” films since I’ve watched all 31 entries – all I can say is that the quality of DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE is readily evident, given the sheer amount of talent on display. For the record, the outlet from where I rented the R2 DVD has some (probably all) of the others handy, so I should just check them out now while I’m at it – though only one at a time, since the repetitive environment would no doubt lose its freshness and get tiresome rather quickly…

Dirk Bogarde was at the height of his matinée idol handsomeness when he made "Doctor in the House," a 1954 film that led to a series of films. It also stars Kenneth More, Kay Kendall, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice, and Donald Sinden.

The story concerns the hijinks of the young medical students as they flirt with the nurses, attempt to pass their boards (sometimes more than once), drink, and party.

Bogarde is Simon Sparrow, the naive, serious-minded young man who comes into this den of playboys. Everyone is very good, especially James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt, a role he truly made his own.

Bogarde, as always, injects some shyness and gentleness into the proceedings, and his scene with a new young mother when he delivers her baby is especially sweet.

Bogarde had a fascinating career path - he wasn't really interested in being a "movie star," as such, and worked his way into character parts and finally working with directors like Visconti in prestigious, if not widely distributed, films. He also had a very prolific writing career.

If you like these "Doctor" films, this one is probably the best, so you're sure to enjoy it.

Doctor In The House was so successful that it spawned not only six sequels (of diminishing quality) but also a television spin-off. Oddly enough this success works against it, as it is easy to forget how good the original was.

Medical school provides a good background for the comedy capers, as well as providing a sound plot structure that some of the sequels lacked.

Dirk Bogarde leads a very strong cast, which includes such familiar British comedy faces as Joan Sims and Shirley Eaton in small roles. Kenneth More provides strong support to Bogarde but the great James Robertson Justice, in his signature role as Sir Lancelot Spratt steals the movie. Despite only appearing in a handful of scenes, Justice dominates the screen, notably in the famous `What's the bleeding time' scene.

Luscious colour photography adds to the enjoyment as the movie delivers a great hour and half of escapist fun, still fresh and breezy after almost fifty years, I'd recommend this move to any one who is interested in British comedy.

Watching Doctor In The House which was the first in the Doctor Simon Sparrow series that was a standby for Dirk Bogarde it put me in mind of the American film Not As A Stranger which came out the following year. Both films dealt with medical students and their training. While the American film was quite serious and quite good this film overed a lot of the same ground.

Bogarde's Dr. Sparrow is an earnest and serious character who just keeps falling into comic situations that seem to find him. This is a funny film, but Bogarde plays it absolutely serious as he did in the whole series and the comedy just plays off him.

Kenneth More who is his best friend plays it far more laughs. If you see Not As A Stranger note Robert Mitchum as the lead like Bogarde and More is most like Frank Sinatra who was Mitchum's best friend. The parallels are quite striking.

A lot of familiar faces from British cinema are in the cast. James Robertson Justice of the booming voice is the terror of the students. He takes a special interest in Bogarde though like Broderick Crawford did in Mitchum in Not As A Stranger. Robertson Justice would return in the sequels so popular was his character.

Bogarde who always took on quirky and challenging roles throughout his career always came back to Simon Sparrow. I suspect he liked the money and some of his more challenging parts didn't yield well at he box office.

Doctor In The House holds up well as does the rest of the series I've seen so far.

A fairly good watch, especially considering the number of flaws in the film, it mixes good dialogue with British mannerisms to create a reasonably amusing picture. The film has no real sense of time, with years passing but only feeling like months, and the characters all look too old to be fresh medical students, plus there are quite a few lame jokes. The Technicolor looks a bit too colourful to be natural too, though colour does suit the film more than black and white would have. As has been alluded to already, the film is still quite reasonable entertainment in spite of its shortcomings, and James Robert Justice gives a highly memorable performance, keeping it all buoyant whenever he is on screen.

Doctor in the House is directed by Ralph Thomas and collectively written by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon (novel) and Ronald Wilikinson. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Kenneth More, Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Kay Kendall, James Robertson Justice and Donald Houston. Music is by Bruce Montgomery and cinematography by Ernest Steward.

Story follows the fortunes of Simon Sparrow (Bogarde), who starts as a medical student at St Swithins Hospital in London. Quickly hooking up with a couple of fun seeking students, Simon sets about trying to survive the 5 years of student life before passing the grade to become a doctor. Wine, women, song and adventure beckons; as does being expelled…

The most popular film of 54 at the British box office, Doctor in the House spawned 6 sequels and a TV series, whilst it also represented the point when Bogarde became a "name" actor. It looks a bit tame now of course, its affability hardly giving credence to the given observation that it's an important movie in the British comedy film pantheon. But its worth should not be under stated, nor should the flame of warm old time Brit comedy ever be extinguished as the sexually tinged comedy of today jettisons smiley simplicity in favour of overt crudeness.

Many behind the scenes of the production had family links to the team that would go on and produce the Carry On series of films that became a staple of British cinema, Doctor in the House represents the flip side of the Carry On medical adventures. Where boisterous sauce is replaced by awkward innocence and double entendres replaced by jovial japes; and of course there's a wealth of British talent across the cast list to enjoy as they deliver the well timed gags and scenarios. Lovely film really. 7.5/10

James Robertson Justice was born to play Sir Lancelot Spratt, an iconic figure who can't fail to bring a smile to your face simply by walking into a room......you just know what is coming next! I grew up with this film and the other Doctor films, and whilst the rest were average to good, this just stands out as the perfect example of British comedy making in the 1950's. The bridge from Ealing to Carry On! The cast is to die for, J R J, Kenneth More (so underrated), Donald Houston, Muriel Pavlow, Kay Kendall and Donald Sinden. The dialogue is superb...what's the bleeding time...ten past ten sir!!! I can't recommend this film high enough, if you ever are feeling a little low or just want to sit and watch something innocent and intelligent that will make you laugh.....Doctor in the House is just what should be ordered!!!!

Medical students navigate a five-year curriculum at a hospital university. It is a harmless comedy. It is also pretty much humorless. The episodic structure means there is little narrative flow, causing the film to drag somewhat. Justice provides the only laughs, as an overbearing doctor named Sir Lancelot. Unfortunately, he doesn't get much screen time. Bogarde is better known for his dramatic roles and he looks ill-at-ease here. Moore fares better. However, Bogarde at 33 and Moore at 40 were both a bit long in the tooth to be believable as twenty-something medical students. Surprisingly, this bland film became so successful that it spawned several sequels.

Even thirty odd years ago when I first saw it. I tried and tried, but 'What's the bleeding time?' wasn't funny to an adolescent in the 60s, and the script hasn't improved with age. I even read the 'Doctor' books to see what it was all about, and they left me cold too. Having said that though, it usually gets a look-see whenever it appears on the box (this afternoon for example), just for the quality of the cast and a look at the fifties; and to remind myself of the crush I had on Muriel Pavlow.

It really isn't a relevant film any more, other than as a historical document of Britain as it was and of some of the finest British actors of the period.

It will be on TV again in a few months I suspect, and I also expect that I'll catch a few minutes of it then, if I can. 4/10.

Dirk Bogarde is a marvellous innocent in the lead as Dr. Simon Sparrow enduring a four-year trial in Saint Swithens Medical School. But Kenneth More and James Robertson Justice each steal every scene they are in. The dialogue is hilarious and the sight gags even better, but the movie also works for me on a "truth and beauty" level as well. Marvellous, fast-paced entertainment that holds up well to this day!

Time hasn't been especially kind to this, but there is a strength amongst this pretty solid cast that, alongside some half decent writing that avoids the obvious smut and double entendre to be found in the "Carry Ons", makes it a passable watch. It centres around a group of medical students under the imperious supervision of James Robertson Justice's "Sir Lancelot" trying to get a grip with their studies - a task well beyond most of them - whilst their hormones rage a bit too. There is balance here: the girls and boys are as equally up for some fun and games and Dirk Bogarde, Kenneth More, Kay Kendall and Muriel Pavlow come across as if they are having quite a bit of fun making this. Sure, the scenarios are all very predictable (or just downright far-fetched) but the humour is harmless fun that I suspect, though maybe not to quite to the extremes depicted here, could remind many of us of our youthful japery when the studying was not so important. Uniquely British, I'd have thought - I can't think this will travel well, but almost 70 years on I still quite enjoyed it.

Were this med-school frolic made today, I expect the raunch factor would top out at 10. But this is 1954, and there are still limits, and something quaint called "good taste". As a result, the humor depends more on character and tempting the limits than it does on bedpans and tossing limits aside. The laughs come less from the obvious or outrageous, and more subtly from situations and wit (except for the street chase, which really doesn't come off that well). True, the movie may be no knee-slapper, but neither does it cause indigestion afterwards.

Well, you do have to accept that these 30-somethings are still young enough to be starting med-school, something of a stretch. Nonetheless, Bogarde and Co. come through as a likable crew, and I think I'll get sick on the off-chance that the cute little number Muriel Pavlow will be my nurse. Too bad we don't see more of that gifted and sexy comedienne Kay Kendall. I love the way she snubs Houston after he makes an untoward remark-- what a classy looking gal who died much too young. And, of course, there's the imperious James Robertson Justice looking and sounding like Emperor of the Universe, but really a regular guy when the chips are down.

I like the way the unassuming Sparrow (Bogarde) comes to a sense of confidence and pride after delivering his first baby. It's his first case and now, after all the training and sacrifice, he departs the house, a real doctor. What a fine, versatile actor Bogarde was. Anyway, the movie holds up pretty well, a nice balance of the antic and the affable.

Funnily enough, I can only remember the early 1970's ITV television update of the original "Doctor" comedy films of the 50's, of which this popular hit was the first and none of which I've ever seen. Just as funnily, I actually remember the TV series as being very similar to what I saw here, namely the misadventures of a bunch of young doctors, learning their profession under the tutelage of the seeming old battleaxe James Robertson-Justice, each of them invariably chasing after the pretty young nurses, who themselves are learning their profession under the tutelage of their own old battleaxe, senior nurse Sister Virtue played by Jean Taylor-Smith.

It's all light and enjoyable pre-sit-com stuff, with each man assigned to a girl, high-jinking their merry ways from one comic situation to another. Dirk Bogarde gets lead billing and gets most to do as we follow him from his first day to meeting up with his three amigos and eventually by a circuitous route, the feminine charms of nurse Muriel Pavlow. He's supported by his chums, played by the emergent Kenneth More, a barely recognisable young Donald Sinden and Donald Houston although it's the perfectly cast Robertson-Justice who steals the show as the regimental superior who turns out to have a heart, if not of gold, then maybe silver or bronze at least.

It's all good, mostly clean fun, with some jokes landing and some not, although there is one distinctly off-colour "joke" which would certainly be red-lined today, with a number of amusing comic situations, the best gag being Bogarde's Simon Sparrow response to Robertson-Justice's wonderfully-named Sir Lancelot Spratt's question about a specific medical procedure.

I enjoyed the film and particularly appreciated the many location shots encapsulating the British buildings, cars and fashions of a bygone era. Bogarde plays his Simon Sparrow character with a little detachment but there's more energy about More, Sinden and Houston even if the constant pursuit of la belle femme wears after a bit

Yes, some of the attitudes are very outdated today and deservedly so, but on the whole,, it's easy to see why this was the most successful British film of the year.

"Doctor in the House" is the very first film in the British 'Doctor' series. Through the 1950s, Dirk Bogarde played the lead and in later films, more emphasis was places on his boss (James Robertson Justice).

The film begins with Simon Sparrow arriving for his firs day at St. Swithens, a teaching hospital in London. He soon meets up with SIr Lancelot Spratt (Justice)...a total grouch who has all his students quaking in their boots. Can Simon manage to become a doctor or will the various rigors and distractions derail him?

In many ways, watching this movie reminded me of the American film "The Paper Chase". Both are about a new graduate student getting on the bad side of the scary professor/doctor. However, this British film is more of a comedy and with a more episodic feel, as repeatedly you see the various students getting into trouble of, occasionally, rising to the occasion.

In addition to some funny moments, I appreciated one of the poignant ones...when Simon delivered his first baby. Overall, a most enjoyable film...from a most enjoyable series.

"Doctor in the House" is the film credited with raising Dirk Bogarde to star status in cinema. Although he had been around and in films for several years, this film clearly catapulted his career. Bogarde is very good as Simon Sparrow. But with a supporting cast that includes several more prominent actors of the day, and a plot befitting their talents, how could this film go wrong.

It's a very good comedy, but not up there with the great ones. But anyone who enjoys British humor and comedies, will surely enjoy the many roles played here, in addition to Bogarde. Kenneth More Kay Kendall and James Robertson Justice lead a large cast of UK actors of the time.

This is one of the funniest movies from my youth, and I still love it completely. Dirk Bogarde is marvelous as the medical student with an incredibly bad streak of luck. Kenneth More steals every scene in which he appears. James Robertson Justice is hilarious as Sparrow's venerable mentor.

I was truly surprised to see this film was not as well received as I might have expected. Enter a young med student. He's surrounded by older students who can't seem to get out of the first year of studies. I'm told that does happen in Britain at least.

He does have some allies in navigating the unfamiliar course of study. There's the nurse who takes a liking to him and then there are some patients possibly malingerers on the ward who are won over to the inexperienced student.

Will our good med student make it through or will he be left by the wayside with the circle of students marking time and filling up space.

Certainly this film inspired such worthy American films as GROSS ANATOMY and BAD MEDICINE, which seemingly brought the essential plot up to date by eliminating the nurse scheming to become a doctor and substituting for her a female medical student.

I grew up watching these movies on TV. They seem to get better with age. This movie is right up there with "Genevieve", "Doctor at Sea" and the classic David Niven movie, "The Bishops Wife".

Kenneth More was one of the finest Actors of his generation, if you haven't seen "Reach for the Sky" you haven't lived. He was truly versatile as this movie shows.

Brilliant, a keeper.

I cannot see how anybody can dislike this delicious film. One liners stay in the mind like the infamous

"What's the bleeding time, son?" and

"Cut it out, man, cut it out"

from the wonderful James Robertson Justice.

Muriel Pavlow is the girlfriend that went on to, well, do not much else but Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and Donald Houston developed and honed their excellent comedy talent.

John Davis, the dreaded executive producer at Pinewood was so wary of setting a film in a hospital he made the cast wear sports jackets rather than white coats in the publicity pictures; fortunately it went on to be a big hit, and the rest is history.

Lavishly produced, it provides the pleasure of seeing plenty of familiar faces in Technicolor (not to mention Kenneth More's loud waistcoats), recording in colour a London in which people still carried ration books, a phone call cost thruppence and ten quid constituted a hefty fine.

Serving as the ego to the id of the Carry On's, some of whose regulars put in fleeting appearances (including a very young Shirley Eaton bearing very little resemblance to the svelte young sixties chick she ripened into), James Robinson Justice doesn't quite dominate the proceedings as he later did; while by bizarre coincidence Ernest Clark - who later took over his function as Professor Loftus in the seventies TV spin-off - is also in it. The lovely Kay Kendal briefly glides through it as a dinner date with a taste for caviare, while Lisa Gastoni also makes an uncredited but interestingly uncharacteristic appearance as a tart, bespectacled rival student.

This film was a major success in its day but the years haven't been kind to it and whatever made it stand out for British filmgoers in 1954 doesn't stand out today.

Having said that, this is by no means a bad film. It's fast-paced, cheerful, entertaining and with a pleasant and attractive cast. However, it's never really funny enough to be considered a successful comedy; there simply aren't enough hilarious moments. Much of the fault for this lies with the director Ralph Thomas who often is unable to obtain the potential humour out of a scene because he's simply not a skilful enough director.

As for the reasons why it was so highly regarded in its day, this can be better understood by what the people who made the film said. They attributed the film's success to the fact that before this film was made, hospitals and doctors had always been treated with the utmost seriousness and the public responded to the health system being treated with irreverence for a change.

Perhaps this explains the film having a somewhat dated feel about it these days. The public in part responded to it not necessarily because of the brilliance of the material but because of its irreverent attitude.