Dentist on the Job

This so-so sequel to the superior DENTIST IN THE CHAIR sees the trio of Bob Monkhouse, Kenneth Connor, and Ronnie Stevens return from the first film. This time around, they're working for a marketing company who decide to put a brand new type of toothpaste out on on the market, only to discover that it isn't much cop. So they make their own brand instead, with predictably unforeseen consequences.

I found the script of this sequel to be inferior to that of the first, because the humour is of a more sub-CARRY ON standard here. The first film had slapstick routines and character humour, whereas this is all about innuendo for the most part. There are still some funny sequences, but there just aren't as many as previously.

Monkhouse is still on fire here, ably supported by Stevens and in particular Connor, who gets to impersonate various characters as part of the fun. The superior supporting cast includes the fresh-faced Shirley Eaton (soon to go on to greater things with GOLDFINGER) alongside genre stalwarts Richard Wattis and Eric Barker. Watch out for Charles Hawtrey, cameoing early on.

This is a sequel to DENTIST IN THE CHAIR (1960), which I haven't watched; excerpts from the opening sequence were memorably featured as a gag at the start of the "Special Edition" DVD of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975)!

The film is no classic, but harmless and certainly palatable for what it is – dealing with the invention and promotion of a new brand of toothpaste and going from a college to a factory, a TV studio and ending with a commercial being broadcast from space! It was possibly inspired by the popular "Doctor" series – of which I've yet to catch any entry – though in style it may actually be closer to the "Carry Ons", with a number of mild double entendres and two stalwart members from that series in the cast i.e. Kenneth Connor and guest star Charles Hawtrey.

Nominal star Bob Monkhouse is okay, but his repertory doesn't seem to be particularly distinctive; in fact, it's Connor who steals the show as an ex-con who's made to act as a door-to-door salesman for the new product (and faring disastrously at the task) and even impersonates an American senator at the climax! Future Bond girl Shirley Eaton provides the eye-candy as the actress promoting the old toothpaste and who joins Monkhouse & Co. in their scheme to make their own superior brand. The supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Richard Wattis and Reginald Beckwith.

Silliness abounds in this comic affront to British advertising. Beckwith, an ad executive, enlists the services of wacky dentists, Monkhouse and Stevens, to revive the sagging sales of a toothpaste. They invent a new wonder toothpaste and their nutty attempts at promoting the product comprise the rest of the film.

Not better -or worse- than the average 50s/60s comedies. Although I expected Norman Wisdom coming in and shout "Mr Grimsdale!!!!"

Intermitently funny, but made in 1961, with an eye for inclusion in the then unformed, and as then, unreleased, as yet, uninvented, DVD of the future film MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL in the year of our Lord, 2001 AD. I'd say the wait was worth it...

Is one of the more memorable throw-away lines in this follow-up to DENTIST IN THE CHAIR. Squeezing some fun out of toothpaste sums up both plot and the general level of humour. Has a more professional look than its predecessor and Bob Monkhouse seems more at home, but the set-pieces such as the disastrous attempt to make a commercial go for nothing. With the always reliable Eric Barker in a dual role, Kenneth Connor with his impersonations and funny voices and Shirley Eaton providing the glamour it's less painful than it might have been. Includes a glimpse at the then popular quiz show Take Your Pick with Michael Miles, which I find infinitely funnier than many comedies of the day.