Doctor at Large

'At large' turns out to be a polite term for 'out of work' - but never for long, in the orderly Fifties, when there would always be another job just round the corner. This makes a good basis for a picaresque tour of medical surgeries from the highest to the humblest, as the Dirk Bogarde character is repeatedly told to take his talents elsewhere.

It comes at the cost of a steady, developing narrative, but it provides opportunities for an exceptionally large cast of popular performers. Donald Sinden gets plenty of exposure as an old-style moustachioed seducer, Michael Medwin as the governor's blue-eyed boy, Shirley Eaton as every man's fantasy of a blonde nurse, Dandy Nichols as the nuisance patient who just wants yet another repeat prescription. A most watchable duo are Lionel Jeffries as the weird-looking head of a run-down surgery in the North, and his playful blonde wife acted by Dilys Laye - the only time I've seen her outside the Carry Ons, where she's always made-up to look goofy, but genuinely glamorous here. James Robertson Justice simply acts himself, though that quarterdeck roar is a bit too Fifties to stomach now. And I can't think why they wheeled-on the eccentric Edwardian leftover A.E. Matthews, whose talent never seemed to me to compensate for the trouble he always caused on-set. But if you know who to look out for, you may catch the author of the Doctor books, Richard Gordon, doing his few seconds' walk-on, à la Hitchcock.

This is not rated as the best of the series, the dialogue being pretty clichéd, and the comic sub-plots mostly silly (especially the piece of business over a rich patient leaving her fortune to the Donald Sinden character), and we now know that Bogarde was getting bored with just doing his matinee-idol every time. But his career was just about to take some interesting turns...

Not as good as the first (Doctor In The House), but easily better than the second, Doctor At Sea, and it's great to see Joy (Muriel Pavlow) make a welcome return. James Robertson Justice is at his acerbic best in this installment, and the predicaments Dirk Bogarde gets himself into in the rural practitioners are hilarious. 7.5/10.

"Doctor at Large" is the third installment of the "Doctor" series, with Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde), losing a higher level position at St. Swithins, tries out several other scenarios where he can practice.

This is a very light film, without much plot, except that Simon comes up against Benskin (Donald Sinden), his rival at St. Swithins, who gets the position that Sparrow wanted. It's humorous without being riotous.

The best scene for me was when Simon and Nan McPherson (Shirley Eaton) stay overnight at an inn. The proprietress puts them on different floors, and when Simon attempts to sneak downstairs into Nan's room, the woman comes out into the hall. "I was looking for the bathroom," he says. "It's on your floor," she says. "The door is marked 'Bathroom.'" Then she sits in the hall, thus thwarting further attempts.

The cast is good, and Muriel Pavlov is back as Joy. It's really interesting to see Bogarde in this type of film, for which he is so well known, as he spent much of his career doing dark roles in deeper films: "The Servant," "The Night Porter," Death in Venice," and "Victim," to name only a few.

The commercial cinema traded on his matinée idol looks; but his heart was elsewhere. Nevertheless, he handled this type of film very well, giving the character a gentleness that people like to see in a real doctor.

I think it's a riot that when he appeared in Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma" on film, the British audience steered clear when they found out it wasn't part of the "Doctor" series. Obviously, these films are beloved, particularly in England.

I hadn't seen this since I was a young teenager in the early 1970s and on rewatching it yesterday I realised that this film, along with Richard Gordon's book "Doctor in the House", inspired me to apply for medical school. Mind you, if I'd behaved like the students and doctors portrayed here I would have been struck off. I sure kissing patients, even private ones is not encouraged any more. It's not at all far fetched. If anything a rather restrained and gentle version of medical life.

The film is a succession of set-piece comedy sketches some of which are very creaky in a Carry On Doctor style but what must have got to the younger me was the time Simon Sparrow spent as a locum GP in Scotland (poached fish - I've certainly had some of them from patients) and his reassurance to a scared pre-operative patient which I used as a model in my own career.

After his adventures at sea Dr Sparrow returns to real life and a proper job in a hospital. Messing up his chances of getting a high level position within the hospital Sparrow heads out looking for another job but finds that nothing is going to come easily to him. Meanwhile his colleague Beskin cheats his way into greener pastures with a roguish mix of charm and good humour. Right, well I've done the best I can at providing a short plot summary to the film and I don't think it is that bad considering that in reality the plot is more a series of scenarios with Sparrow drifting around in the working world.

The tone is very much gentle British humour – i.e. not a lot of laughs to be had. It moves slowly enough due to the lack of plot and it is difficult to follow or care about because it does just seem to be drifting aimlessly from one thing to the next. I laughed once or twice at most ("big breaths") but the film just seems happy to exist on a gentle tone rather than having anything sharp or that good in regards material. The cast try hard to raise a laugh or two and push the material as hard as they can but all they can really do is contribute to the gently comic mood. Bogarde is OK in the lead role, hardly memorable but suitable smooth and gentle for the lead. Sinden has fun with a more interesting character and he is funny by force of personality. Justice is hardly in the film but makes his usual impact.

Overall this is an OK entry in an OK series of film. It isn't particularly funny and doesn't really have a plot worth speaking of but it has a gently comic air that might appeal to those looking for undemanding British fare to fill the television on a west Sunday afternoon. Nothing special but not bad so to say.