Sandra und der Doktor

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.

"Tammy and the Doctor" is the third of four films made over a 10-year period, based on the character, Tammy Tyree. She is the heroine of the 1948 novel, "Tammy Out of Time," by Cit Ricketts Sumner. Three different actresses played the role. The very best was Debbie Reynolds in the first film, "Tammy and the Bachelor" of 1957. Sandra Dee made the second film in 1961, and this one two years later. I haven't seen the fourth, which starred little known and remembered Debbie Watson and a supporting cast of little known actors. Watson did star in a TV series of Tammy, from 1965-67, but she had a short acting career that virtually ended shortly after this film.

While Sandra Dee did a fairly good job picking up as Tammy in the second film, "Tammy Tell Me True," this film goes so overboard with her bayou drawl and lingo that that's almost funny inn itself. The story picks up with the last one ended. She has been in college for some time and a companion to Annie Rook Call, who is living with her on the houseboat. But Annie has taken sick and needs surgery. The doctor arranges for her to be a patient of a world-famous specialist in the field in Los Angeles. So, Tammy flies with her in a private plane to L. A.

Tammy gets a job at the hospital so that she can room there with staff nurses while she also continues as a companion for Annie. The bulk of this film consists of Tammy making one goof after another that disrupts things in the hospital. It would be funny except that no one could imagine anyone with no training at all being put in the positions she is seen working at. She mixes up babies in the newborn nursery when she changes them and puts them in the wrong cribs. Then, she's in the OR and touches a surgeon who's about to do surgery. Then she's in a room off of surgery and takes one of the scissors on a table that has just come out of surgery before the instruments are checked. There are several like this, and after each one, she's back mopping floors.

The attempt at humor by putting her in all these positions doesn't work well. It would have worked if she had been kept in the cleaning job, which she didn't mind, and then have a much better script with some good comedy Instead, the funny dialog that was part of the first two films is missing completely here. In place of that, Sandra Dee's Tammy is overboard hokey with the strange lingo and drawl. By this time, she should have toned it down some, and learned enough not to keep referring to doctors as leechers, and medicine practice as leeching. I think she did that around a dozen times in this film.

Oh, and Tammy finally finds real love this time - the third time's a charm? It with the master surgeon Dr. Bentley's intern assistant, Dr. Mark Cheswick. Peter Fonda plays the role that varies from listless to wooden. The only thing that keeps this film from tanking completely is the supporting cast, especially Beulah Bondi returning as Annie Rook Call, and three new faces. One is Margaret Lindsay as Head Nurse Rachel Colman who adds a touch to the story in her love from Dr. Bentley who doesn't know she exists until Tammy straightens things out. Another is Alice Pearce as Nurse Millie Baxter who provide some little comedy as she job-sits Tammy. And Reginald Owen as patient Jason Tripp. He turns from sour grapes to a good companion and chess player with Annie.

The hokeyness that was magnified in this third film I think helped do it in. Here's a sample line - the closest to funny, in the film.

Dr. Cheswick, asking Tammy for a date, "You wanna go to the Bowl?" Tammy, "Bowl? I never heard it called that. Uh, but don't you worry. I'll go afore we leave."

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.

In the final movie in the Tammy trilogy Sandra Dee once again stars and calamities ensue. Tammy's houseboatmate Mrs. Call falls ill and needs an operation. Tammy tags along and gets a job at the hospital to be close by and keep Mrs. Call's spirits up. But of course due to Tammy's naive nature trouble follows wherever she goes and it's a wonder no one dies due to some of the mishaps. This time Tammy falls for a doctor played by Peter Fonda. Bonus points for spotting Adam West as a doctor!