Docteur en détresse

The Doctor series had run its course by the time this film was made. Its a sort of down-market Carry On. There are two particularly cringe making performances from Graham Stark and Graham Chapman.

The script was poor and the standard of production was truly awful. A sad demise.

Leslie Phillips made a number of bedroom farces in the 1970s. Aside from this film he also starred in NOT NOW DARLING, DON'T JUST LIE THERE, SAY SOMETHING, Spanish FLY and NOT NOW COMRADE. DOCTOR IN TROUBLE is more a vehicle for Phillips to do his "thing" rather than a true entry in the DOCTOR film series. It's also the weakest of the five Phillips farces in my opinion, but still very enjoyable nonetheless.

The plot is simple - a doctor finds out the woman he's in love with is going away on a cruise. He wants to propose to her so he decides to go aboard the ship and ends up being a stowaway, hunted down by the crew. While Phillips is the star of the film, the film itself focuses much of the time on the antics of the other passengers of the ship. This isn't a bad thing, though, since Harry Secombe especially is very funny in the film. But he's enjoyable to watch nonetheless and fans of British humour will find his mishaps funny.

Phillips is on form in this film. I wouldn't say he was at his best and most energetic, like in NOT NOW DARLING and DON'T JUST LIE THERE, SAY SOMETHING. His caddish on screen persona is less exploited in this film than in those for one thing. Secondly, this film plays out more like a CARRY ON film rather than a stage farce, so lacks the usual clothes coming off, mistaken identities and so on to quite an extent. Finally, his hiding out from the crew and running away when looks like getting caught, gets a bit repetitive after a while.

Janet Mahoney is fun to watch as a stripper who hooks up with Harry Secombe (thinking he has recently come into a fortune). The striptease scene is also the best scene in the film, with a wonderfully catchy stripper theme composed by Eric Rogers, playing in the background. I could listen to that theme all day; it's that catchy. It was later re-used in CARRY ON BEHIND and CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE.

There are good supporting roles played by Irene Handl, Freddie Jones, John Le Mesurier and others. Sadly, James Robertson Justice appears in only scene, with most of his role being played by Robert Morley, who plays his on screen brother. Morley is very good as the captain of the ship and his exchanges with Secombe are very funny and provide much of the delight of this film's very British humour. Graham Chapman also turns up playing a comic gay character.

There really isn't much more to say. For fans of the DOCTOR series, I recommend it only if you can accept that this is more of a Leslie Phillips film rather than a true DOCTOR film. For fans of Leslie Phillips or the CARRY ON films, it's definitely worth at least one viewing.

A fascinating piece of film history, with a cast that just for starters manages to include Simon Dee, Fred Emney, a Python, a Goon and Joan Sims as an amorous, cigar-smoking Russian captain.

Shot almost entirely on a soundstage in Pinewood, it also works well as a quiz with a point for each offensive stereotype as it appears: Graham Stark in blackface and a 'hilarious' Indian accent (check), a camp fashion photographer (check), dolly birds in big hair and short skirts (check). And so on.

A famous television "doctor" goes on a cruise that includes a pools winner, models, a camp photographer and a stern captain (a relation to Sir Spratt himself). Dr Burke tries to get onto the same cruise to talk to the wild Ophelia but finds himself stuck when it sails. He tries to hide as a stowaway. Lots of people run around, women are sexy, men are quite horny and so the whole horrible lot sails off into a period of British cinema that some like to forget, some thing of as fun and others call "sh1te".

If you want a potted history of how British film comedy changed in a few decades there are several places you can go but one place is the "Doctor" series of films that started in the 1950's and ended with this one in 1970. At the start the series was light to the point of blandness and very clean humour, however by this point the series has "sunk" to the sexual level of other British comedies of the 1970's such as the Carry On or Confessions type of film. Watching this will show you what I mean as there is loads of partial nudity, suggestive dialogue, Benny Hill ogling and so on. This doesn't mean it is better or worse than the original film but just a different thing and some viewers will enjoy it. Although it isn't high class or that funny, it does have a rough energy to it even if the sexual stuff hits the ground with a massively dated clang. It doesn't really stand out from anything else similar from the period but it is amusing and very genre and will perhaps please those expecting just that. The plot is meaningless of course but this shouldn't surprise anyone.

The British cast help on paper even if there isn't that much strong material for them. Philips has been much better elsewhere but he is a good sport and does his best with the "ooh I say" material that he was forever delivering. Justice barely makes an impression but his role is well covered by Morley who is amusing. Secombe is probably the pick of the cast – in real life I would have drowned myself to be free of his character but in the film he was pretty funny and he played it really well. Scoular is rubbish but to be honest most of the female cast are there for their bodies and the material only uses them for such. Dee is flat and seems all at sea alongside much more talented people. Small turns from Chapman and Le Mesurier are of good value though.

Overall this is a very basic film that tries to do all the things that the other sexual comedies of the period were doing. As such it is nothing special although happily it is not painful to watch (as some of them are). Fans of the original Doctor films will feel that this has drifted far from port, while others may just feel it is not that funny but it is distracting if dated stuff that can be enjoyed if in the mood.

By now a long way from the innocence of 'Doctor In The House', this, the seventh and last movie in the series, sees Leslie Phillips romping around a luxury liner, in what comes across as a less funny cross between 'Doctor At Sea' and 'Carry On Cruising'

I never expected to like this movie for a number of reasons, firstly, James Robertson Justice (for me the heart and soul of the 'Doctor' series) is restricted to a brief cameo (and very ill-looking he is too), while watching it you can't help notice how cheap looking and studio bound the movie is. While the script is at times very poor, the 'Pill' joke was especially dire and yet they included it in the trailer! In addition, it seems clear that the director is running out of ideas when he (often) resorts to speeded up photography to raise a laugh.

Yet I quite enjoyed it. Leslie Phillips was his usual, dependable self, doing wonders with the often-ropey script, at one point even enduring a drag scene! While the cast is a strong one, full of familiar faces. Harry Secombe steals the movie with a very funny performance, one that makes you wish he made more movies, and Irene Handle was also well used. There was even a small role for 'Monty Python's' Graham Chapman, as a very camp photographer.

Despite it's (many) flaws, 'Doctor In Trouble' is a fun little movie, while not in the same comic league as some of the earlier 'Doctor' films, it's far funnier than the previous movie in the series, the lukewarm 'Doctor In Clover'.