Carry on Again Doctor

Loaded with funny jokes, and featuring Kenneth Williams at his very finest, this is one of the strongest entries in the Carry On series. Sure, it is rather silly in a number of different ways, and the music and sound effects choices are quite poor, plus there is some fast motion used very ineffectively - but otherwise there is little not to like in it. The characters are simply great, the plot is rather interesting, and there are some good, though briefly shown, tropical locations. It is all rather well shot and definitely well written. Overall, it is surprising that this entry does not have a better reputation.

I never really took to Jim Dale in these films, and here he isn't really any better. He is the disgraced "Dr. Nookey" who after an assignation that went a bit wrong, is despatched to a distant hospital where he encounters "Screwer" (Sid James) - the procurer of a miraculous slimming formula. Determined to capitalise on this, he returns to Britain and with Hattie Jacques again donning her matron's uniform is soon making a mint. His good fortune attracts the attention of his erstwhile boss "Dr. Carver" (Kenneth Williams) and soon he has to fend of those not just envious of his success, but also those who want to see him six feet under (theatrically speaking!). I think the clue here is in the title: "Again". This is really just a rehash of old jokes and old scenarios just topped and tailed with a different front page. The jokes have been versioned several times before and to be honest, I felt the cast looked a little battle-weary. Barbara Windsor is growing in confidence and owning the screen more now, Joan Sims still has some of the best one-liners (along with James) and the film certainly doesn't hang about - but there are only just so many times Williams can flare his nostrils before you actually want some smoke to come out.

Fans of the original CARRY ON DOCTOR might well be forgiven for assuming that this rushed-out sequel offers more of exactly the same, and indeed for the first half of the production that's exactly the case. Once more, the setting of the film is a hospital, with Hattie Jacques as Matron and Kenneth Williams as a pompous doctor. It's all very warm and familiar, with most of the Carry On team present and correct. Once again, Jim Dale is the focus of the slapstick comedy, and there's also a meatier role for Charles Hawtrey who gets probably the most screen time of his Carry On career.

So far, so predictable and yet so amusing - fans will be in their element with another assured, confident piece of film-making, packed with seaside postcard-style humour. And then at the halfway point things change; there are exotic locales and a surprisingly densely-plotted narrative involving a magical weight loss elixir. This all builds to an unpredictable climax with multiple factions attempting to get one over on each other; it's the most complex script-writing of the series since the early 1960s, and proved to be a great and welcome surprise for this fan.

Carry on Again Doctor fits a lot of different plot features into a short amount of time, there's also a lot of regulars here, in fact too many regulars to give enough screen time to each of them. One odd fact here is that Jim Dale broke his arm on set whilst doing one of his own stunts.

The plot is very odd, involving a magic (?) formula found in a jungle that gives everyone who drinks it incredible weight loss. And then they open a clinic to sell the stuff.

6/10: Jim Dale is lovable but the plot is just too bizarre for words. It's like three films put into one

The Carry On troupe takes on the medical profession in Carry On Again Doctor. Of course Carry On is exactly what at least one doctor is doing.

In fact Jim Dale is the bane of the existence of Doctors Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey who run a clinic in London. The Dickensian named Dale as Dr. Nookey has little trouble getting plenty of that at the clinic and he keeps Williams and Hawtrey constantly agitated.

But an accidental and I do mean accidental indiscretion with a female patient brings Dale an assignment to a south seas island clinic run by the cheerfully hedonistic Sid James. James has invented a weight loss remedy and the shapely shape of some of the south sea native female population is proof it works. Funny how everyone seems interested in only seeing how it works on women.

Lots of typical Carry On bawdy humor in Carry On Again Doctor. I do so love seeing Hawtrey in drag on an industrial espionage mission so to speak.