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.

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.

After suffering one too many indiscretions, the disgraced Doctor Nookey is packed off to a remote island hospital by the go-getting Doctor Frederick Carver. Whilst this is intended as punishment for Doctor Nookey, the doctor soon learns that the orderly at this hospital Gladstone Screwer has created a secret potion which aids weight-loss. Doctor Nookey returns back to England and sets up a weight-loss clinic with Screwer supplying the potion. However, when several parties learn of Nookey's success they decide that they too want a piece of the action...

Whilst it has some similarities to Carry On Doctor (in the sense that Jim Dale's character is ousted through misunderstandings and mistreatment) Carry On Again Doctor just wasn't quite as good....

It was the first half of the picture for me where the film ran in to some problems; whilst Carry On Doctor didn't have the strongest narrative in the franchise it did feel more focussed; several people were feigning illness and each character was doing all they can to stay in hospital for as long as they could. There was also a small story arc connecting each of the patients which gave Carry On Doctor a bit more structure and purpose until we get to what is the crux of the story.

Carry On Again Doctor doesn't have the same structure and focus and honestly it's all a bit too whacky and I didn't find the characters or the jokes were quite as appealing second time around. Whilst it's hard not to laugh at some of the situations Nookey finds himself in, the laughs come a bit more cheaply and I also felt that Nookey wasn't quite as likeable as the character that he portrayed in Carry On Doctor.

Thankfully, the film does greatly improve in the second half when Nookey meets Screwer (Sid James was wonderful in this type of role and really lit the screen up whenever he was in front of the camera). It carries on is this vein when Nookey returns back to England and sets up the "Moore-Nookey" clinic which is an amusing visual gag in and of itself. Carver's slimy character doing everything he can to obtain the ingredients of said potion is really something and it's poor Dr Stoppidge who is the stooge that is used on this occasion. It must be said that what happens at the end when the wrong potion is administered was both hilarious and unexpected.

In summary then Carry On Again Doctor is saved by a strong second half and by the cast who, as usual, work wonderfully together in making this farce perhaps more enjoyable than it could have been (thank god nearly all of the regulars were here as I felt it could have been worse had they not have been).

It's funny enough to be worth seeing, but it's a tad more unfocussed and not quite as sharp as Carry On Doctor.

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.

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.