Manda Ver, Doutor

The patients of a suburban town hospital rebel against the registrar Dr Tinkle (Kenneth Williams) and the matron (Hattie Jacques) who got a popular doctor and nurse the sack.

Fairly amusing entry in the series which manages to hold up because it has the charm of an England that never was and the fact that it isn't always hilariously funny dosen't really matter. Frankie Howerd is excellent as the mind over matter charleton who goes around the country persuading people that they don't need medicines or doctors for cash and the ever reliable Syd James also carries the picture with his usual charm this time as a lazy out of work good for nothing who fakes illness just so that he can stay in hospital. Dandy Nichols also turns up as Syd's nagging wife in a funny moment where he listens to the hospital radio while pretending to listen to his wife's constant nagging and she's too busy having a go at him to notice.

I've always loved the Carry On... movies. I guess growing up in Britain, these movies were the first real movies you get to see, where they use words like 'bum', 'arse', and 'knickers', and you don't have to feel embarrased in front of your parents, because you knew that whilst there was a lot of innuendo, there's never be anything actually rude.

This one was filmed in and around my home town, and features loads of local landmarks. It is also a showcase for the cream of british comedy actors from the seventies, such as Sid James, Frankie Howard, Kenneth Williams, Charlie Hawtrey, and the very under-valued Jim Dale. The plot is simple. Two doctors in a hospital. One is popular with staff and patients, is good at his job, and is loved from afar by the pretty nurse. The other doctor is resentful, and enlists the help of the old battle-axe Matron to engineer his dismissal. Cue some saucy humour ('Oh, youve got a nice pear!') and some slapstick to match keaton, and you have the movie. You all know how it'll end, but that's OK. Just watch and enjoy.

The patient is Francis Bigger, played by Frankie Howerd, and the line is a sly reference to the funniest scene in Carry On Nurse. It's probably the cleverest line in Carry On Doctor. Like Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor takes place in hospital and, as the movie says, is a bedpanorama of hospital life.

The long-running Carry On movies were bawdy, low-comedy, good-natured madhouses that featured a repertory company of comics we came to recognize instantly. Here, the company is made up of Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Hattie Jacques, Sid James, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Barbara Windsor and Bernard Bresslaw, among others. They play the patients, the doctors and the nurses at Finisham Hospital. If you relish jokes about bedpans and hernias, where any possible activity below the waist will wind up as corny, corny jokes or wheezing double entendres, Finisham is the place to be. Says Dr. Kilmore (Jim Dale) to Francis Bigger, "Just as I thought. You fell on your coccyx." "I did not," says Bigger, "I fell on my back." "Your coccyx is at the base of the spine," points out Dr. Kilmore. Says Bigger, "Well I've never heard it called that before."

A Carry On hospital movie always has lots of nubile nurses assisting the longing denizens of the male ward. "Nurse, I dreamt about you last night," says a hobbled Ken Biddle (Bernard Bresslaw) to the stacked Nurse Clarke (Anita Harris). "Did you?" she asks? "No," Biddle says, "you wouldn't let me." And of course we have to deal with the Matron, a large woman more indomitable than a battleship, who knows how to keep any male quivering at the thought of one of her enemas or her ice baths. Has a matron ever been played as perfectly as Hattie Jacques? Her matrons always know what they want, and in this movie, Matron wants Dr. Kenneth Tinkle (Kenneth Williams), the hospital's chief physician. "Matron," Dr. Tinkle says, "you may not realize it but I was once a weak man!" "Doctor," says Matron, "once a week is enough for any man!"

Who cares what the plot is when we have lines like these? We even have Charles Hawtrey who, in film as well as in life, raised mincing about to an art form, playing a father-to-be suffering from false pregnancy symptoms. It's a small, unlikely and vivid bit. The whole movie is a funny, gently off-color and totally innocent experience...such as the small boy who swallowed half a crown and was taken to hospital. Two days later the boy's mum asks the doctor, "How's he doing?" "Sorry, missus," the doctor says, "there's still no change."

This was the second of the Carry On films set in a hospital and was released in 1967. It featured the first appearance in a Carry On film by the late, great Frankie Howerd and he is excellent here. He went on to appear in Carry On Up The Jungle in 1970. Most of the Carry On regulars appear here, though Charles Hawtrey is somewhat more subdued than normal. Kenneth Williams is also excellent as a smarmy doctor, as is Hattie Jacques as the matron and Anita Harris also appears as a nurse. It was rumoured that Jim Dale did some of his own stunts and he has a great set-piece here on a rooftop, as he hangs on for dear life. Sid James, who suffered a heart attack just before the film was due to start shooting, has less to do here, though and spends most of the film in bed. I did not enjoy Barbara Windsor in this film, though, but I could never tolerate her as an actress, she couldn't act for toffee and she only got parts in films because of her generous bosom. The film is funnier than some of the other Carry On films, though and it has always remained one of my favourites of the series. I watched it again recently and I still found myself laughing, even after all these years. I regard it as one of the best of the series and much better than most of their films to come during the 1970s. If you haven't already seen it, then watch it on TV or DVD. You won't regret it.

The Carry On gang are admitted to hospital once again for more medical mirth-making, the marvellous ensemble cast bringing to life an eclectic range of eccentric characters. Jim Dale plays bumbling Dr. Kilmore, who is forced to resign by conniving Matron (Hattie Jacques) and egotistical Dr. Tinkle (Kenneth Williams) who falsely accuse him of the sexual harassment of several nurses (including ditzy Babs Windsor and the lovely Anita Harris). Sid James, Bernard Bresslaw, Frankie Howerd, Charles Hawtree and Peter Butterworth are among the crazy patients who decide to use whatever means necessary to force a confession from the devious pair and have the wronged physician reinstated.

Not quite as ribald as the 70s movies, but not without its saucy moments, the fourteenth in the Carry On series is a delightful mixture of harmless slapstick, mild innuendo and cheap titillation. Even though I tend to prefer the period piece/genre Carry On films to the contemporary efforts, Carry On Doctor remains a firm favourite thanks to memorable performances and a sparkling script packed full of priceless moments, such as the classic 'What a lovely looking pear' gag, Harris accidentally having her skirt pulled down on the hospital roof, and a few textbook 'phwooarrrs' from a variety of randy men as Babs wiggles her way to the wards.