Carry on Doctor

The patient is Francis Bigger, played by Frankie Howerd, and the line is a sly reference to the funniest scene in Carry On Nurse. It's probably the cleverest line in Carry On Doctor. Like Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor takes place in hospital and, as the movie says, is a bedpanorama of hospital life.

The long-running Carry On movies were bawdy, low-comedy, good-natured madhouses that featured a repertory company of comics we came to recognize instantly. Here, the company is made up of Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Hattie Jacques, Sid James, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Barbara Windsor and Bernard Bresslaw, among others. They play the patients, the doctors and the nurses at Finisham Hospital. If you relish jokes about bedpans and hernias, where any possible activity below the waist will wind up as corny, corny jokes or wheezing double entendres, Finisham is the place to be. Says Dr. Kilmore (Jim Dale) to Francis Bigger, "Just as I thought. You fell on your coccyx." "I did not," says Bigger, "I fell on my back." "Your coccyx is at the base of the spine," points out Dr. Kilmore. Says Bigger, "Well I've never heard it called that before."

A Carry On hospital movie always has lots of nubile nurses assisting the longing denizens of the male ward. "Nurse, I dreamt about you last night," says a hobbled Ken Biddle (Bernard Bresslaw) to the stacked Nurse Clarke (Anita Harris). "Did you?" she asks? "No," Biddle says, "you wouldn't let me." And of course we have to deal with the Matron, a large woman more indomitable than a battleship, who knows how to keep any male quivering at the thought of one of her enemas or her ice baths. Has a matron ever been played as perfectly as Hattie Jacques? Her matrons always know what they want, and in this movie, Matron wants Dr. Kenneth Tinkle (Kenneth Williams), the hospital's chief physician. "Matron," Dr. Tinkle says, "you may not realize it but I was once a weak man!" "Doctor," says Matron, "once a week is enough for any man!"

Who cares what the plot is when we have lines like these? We even have Charles Hawtrey who, in film as well as in life, raised mincing about to an art form, playing a father-to-be suffering from false pregnancy symptoms. It's a small, unlikely and vivid bit. The whole movie is a funny, gently off-color and totally innocent experience...such as the small boy who swallowed half a crown and was taken to hospital. Two days later the boy's mum asks the doctor, "How's he doing?" "Sorry, missus," the doctor says, "there's still no change."

Francis Bigger is a notorious charlatan who tours the country lecturing on the subject of mind over matter. During one of his performances he falls off the platform and is taken to the local hospital where he causes total chaos. The regular Carry On team is joined by Frankie Howerd in this 'bedpanorama of hospital life'.

The second, and most possibly my favourite Medical carry on. It has the usual gags and slapstick routines. The rooftop scene with Jim Dale had me in stitches. Frankie Howerd is a brilliant addition to the usual star cast - Hattie Jacques, Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey - and has some good lines, but Joan Sims is a scene stealer as a dim witted lady with hearing problems. This is Carry on at its best, released at the time when series at its peak.

A lighthearted romp from the Carry On crowd, featuring many of the players you have come to know and love in all the other films. As the title suggests, this film takes place in a hospital. As expected, the film is full of slapstick, sexual innuendos and one liners. Not perfect, but a good addition to the other Carry On films. You know what you're getting, and the film succeeds. See it, its fun and easier to swallow than the medicine the patients have to take. I especially liked the comic timing of everyone and the silly things that happen just make the film more enjoyable. Not much to think about, but its the kind of film where you find yourself smiling often.

I've always loved the Carry On... movies. I guess growing up in Britain, these movies were the first real movies you get to see, where they use words like 'bum', 'arse', and 'knickers', and you don't have to feel embarrased in front of your parents, because you knew that whilst there was a lot of innuendo, there's never be anything actually rude.

This one was filmed in and around my home town, and features loads of local landmarks. It is also a showcase for the cream of british comedy actors from the seventies, such as Sid James, Frankie Howard, Kenneth Williams, Charlie Hawtrey, and the very under-valued Jim Dale. The plot is simple. Two doctors in a hospital. One is popular with staff and patients, is good at his job, and is loved from afar by the pretty nurse. The other doctor is resentful, and enlists the help of the old battle-axe Matron to engineer his dismissal. Cue some saucy humour ('Oh, youve got a nice pear!') and some slapstick to match keaton, and you have the movie. You all know how it'll end, but that's OK. Just watch and enjoy.

Thinly plotted but funny hospital comedy.

My favourite part is the early sequence depicting Frankie Howerd's first morning in the ward. Bernard Bresslaw's character is also funny and involved in a cute romance with a woman patient, Dilys Laye.

The main story has the matron (Hattie Jacques) and a doctor (Kenneth Williams) engineer the expulsion of young Doctor Kilmore (Jim Dale). This story is a bit more mean-spirited than usual for a Carry On but this doesn't kill the film. Jacques later has a great scene where she double-crosses Williams.

With such a large cast many have reduced screen time. So Sid James (as a malingering patient), Barbara Windsor, Peter Butterworth and Charles Hawtrey are very much in support roles. They're good, but it seems weird to have James and Windsor in smaller roles.

The biggest disappointment is having Joan Sims in not only a support role but as a dull spinster besotted with Howerd's character.