Dentist in the Chair

Dentist in the Chair is directed by Don Chaffey and adapted to screenplay by Val Guest from Matthew Finch's book. It stars Bob Monkhouse, Kenneth Connor, Peggy Cummins, Eric Barker and Ronnie Stevens. Music is by Ken Jones and cinematography by Reginald Wyer.

A pretty unfunny Brit comedy that has good intentions but even a talented cast and writer can't lift this above the maudlin. Plot revolves around dentistry students at The King Alfred Dental Hospital, who get involved in stolen instruments and affairs of the heart, the latter complicated since the focus of the boys' attention is The Dean's niece!

It's all very innocent of course, but as it lacks daring or any sort of worthy story based cohesion, it's a chore to get through. Not helped by a damp squib of a finale. Cast are fine enough but all involved in this venture have better legacies elsewhere. 4/10

I'm confused by the quantity of negative reviews on this site for DENTIST IN THE CHAIR, a low budget British comedy released in 1960 and starring the comic double-act of Bob Monkhouse and Kenneth Connor. Monkhouse and his cronies are the youthful students of a dental school and Connor is a bumbling thief who through various machinations of the plot ends up masquerading as one of the students himself.

The laughs in DENTIST IN THE CHAIR come thick and fast and most of them take the form of character humour which in the hands of Monkhouse and Connor is very funny. Certainly this is no worse than the likes of CARRY ON CABBY from the same era so I'm not sure why all the hatred. At the same time I can understand that this sort of humour feels very genteel and dated by modern standards, but as I despise modern comedy that's fine by me.

The script was written by the ubiquitous Val Guest, although bizarrely he didn't direct in this instance; those duties were handled by Don Chaffey, who went onto helm one of the all-time classics, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. The supporting cast includes the illuminating Peggy Cummins, familiar from the horror classic NIGHT OF THE DEMON, with the likes of Eric Barker in more minor parts. I can't lie and say DENTIST IN THE CHAIR is a classic, but it's certainly a fun movie for fans of British comedy. A sequel, DENTIST ON THE JOB, was to follow.

Dentistry is hardly a barrel of laughs, and if this was to be the start of a rival to the Doctors series, all had their work cut out from the kick off. It does begin well with the students' antics and their diffidently exasperated tutor Reginald Beckwith. Kenneth Connor gives the funniest performance, Eric Barker is ideal as the bemused Dean and Peggy Cummins lovely and charming as his niece; Monkhouse a bit of a fish out of water. Half way through things are running out of steam, and the ending is a bit wet. All quite painless overall though for fans of British comedies of the period. Wasn't that the superb comedienne Avril Angers in the small role as the second tea lady Maggie, masquerading under the rhyming slang moniker Rosie Lee?

What is worse,having a tooth pulled or watching this film? Probably the later.The film has a reasonable cast.However Bob Monkhouse is not to everybody's taste,certainly not mine.What's worse it is clear from the writing credits that he bore part of the blame for this mess.Rather surprisingly Val Guest wrote the screenplay but did not direct..Ronnie Stevens has a large part and he is really not up to it.Kenneth Connor gives his usual reliable performance but even he cannot make this film seem funny.Peggy Cummins,near the end of her career is the female lead.This film tries and fails to latch onto the coat tails of the successful Doctor series.

This was to be the first of a series of comedies cued to the enormous success of, and utilizing many of the same players from, England's "Carry On" comedies. Only two were made, and this one demonstrates the principal shortcoming leading to the series' end. Despite the presence of an attractive cast, and the same frantic pace which commanded audience approval for the "Carry On" films, "Dentist in the Chair" is betrayed by an extraordinarily inane script.