Dentist on the Job

As a movie, I'm not entirely sure how "Dentist On The Job" stacks up. However, i must say that when i first watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (special edition) This movie really made me sit up and take notice. Especially how it wasn't the movie i was expecting. As the movie opened on the unfamiliar black and white of "dentist" i was a bit taken aback. I admit that i restarted the movie to make sure i had got the right DVD in the player.

Whoever allowed this movie to preempt Holy Grail is a genius... it encouraged me to IMDb it to see just what the draw was. And i still am unsure.. much like many of the troupe's gags in and out of the mainstream. For random sake... i think it is hilarious.

The cast of this film are familiar names to fans of British comedy, with major roles going to Eric Barker, Kenneth Connor and Bob Monkhouse, amongst others. Stylistically this film is more a precursor to the Talbot Rothwell era of Carry On films than a nod back to the Doctor films as there is quite a dependence on double entendre (you know the thought of thing, dentist says to girl "I want you on that couch"). Some of the jokes are lifted straight from a Bob Monkhouse stand-up comedy performance, and they show, but there are genuinely funny moments in this film. Some of the slapstick sequences also work quite well, although they are a little reminiscent of the kind of material to be found in a Norman Wisdom film. The highlight of the film was the scene where Shirley Eaton, in a film studio, is in a bath full of foam advertising the company's latest soap product. Watching in the wings is Monkhouse standing next to a very large wind machine. He's leaning on the machine, elbow frighteningly close to the on/off lever. You know just what's going to happen, and it's quite funny when it does.

In a film such as this the plot is secondary and involves two recently graduated dental students falsely lured to work for a toothpaste company. Once they have been hired they discover that they were employed to advertise the toothpaste, not to further their dental careers. Some of the scenes in this film are funny, some are not; it is more hit and miss than the Carry Ons.

Charles Hawtrey has a guest appearance right at the start of the film yet he has the scene stolen from him by an unknown (to me) female actress. Richard Wattis plays the unlikeable corporate bully, Eric Barker the 'barking' boss. A major role goes to Ronnie Stevens, who although does not bring very much to the film, does at least manage to avoid being embarrassing. Bob Monkhouse is the 'handsome' lead; we are expected to believe that hoards of women will melt at his merest uttering. In an ironic way that's perhaps the best joke in the film.

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.

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!!!!"

I do vaguely remember actually paying to see this dross at the ABC Golders Green back in 1961.I want my money back.I saw it again last week and i have to say that it must be one of the unfunniestfilms produced in the 1960s by the British cinema and that takes in a lot of territory.The only decent actor in this was Kenneth Connor.Charlie Hawtry is totally wasted.As for Bob Monkhouse,did he really think that any of this was funny .At the time this was made he was riding the crest of his first wave of TV popularity.British film producers were in the initial stages of transferring TV hits to films.From this film there is a natural progression through to "On the Buses".All i can say is that if you want to watch a film which is 100% genuinely unfunny thane you must watch this