All at Sea
The Rank Organisation was quick to capitalise on the unexpected popularity of "Doctor in the House" by releasing this seaborne sequel, which proved to be just as successful at the box-office. Dirk Bogarde reprised his earlier leading role as the handsome and well-meaning if put-upon Dr Simon Sparrow, although I would hesitate to call him intelligent especially as he can't recognise the obvious doppelgangers in his midst in the shapes of James Robertson-Justice, Noel Purcell and Joan Sims amongst others who were "in the house" with him before under different disguises.
To escape his landlord's daughter Sims' very obvious advances, he takes the rather extreme step of becoming a ship's doctor under the severe command of Robertson Justice's officious captain. Naturally, there has to be female interest on the boat, no women, no movie, I guess, which duly arrives in the shape of the shipping line owner's middle-aged man-eating daughter, who points her compass at Robertson-Justice and her companion, a young Brigitte Bardot who likewise sets sail for Bogarde.
Over ninety rather choppy minutes, we're served up some rather predictable occasionally suggestive and sexist humour, from which one can easily predict the later success of the even more low-brow "Carry On" films of the 60's.
Personally, I just found the movie to be a lot less humorous than its predecessor. To paraphrase the old song, all the sailors appear to love a nice girl with the camera lingering on the nubile form of Bardot and there's even a scene with one tar in his bed poring over a magazine containing 3D pictures of the then current British sex-symbol Diana Dors. Worst of all, we briefly follow around one of the ship's company at an evening party who carries around with him an alcoholic concoction he plans to administer to render unsuspecting girls helpless, which today we'd call spiking their drinks.
Other supposedly comedic episodes are played out while the boat is in port and at sea but none of them are very funny so that long before the end, I'd run up the white flag on this rather predictable and stereotypical comedy which really wasn't a patch on the freshness of the original.
To escape his landlord's daughter Sims' very obvious advances, he takes the rather extreme step of becoming a ship's doctor under the severe command of Robertson Justice's officious captain. Naturally, there has to be female interest on the boat, no women, no movie, I guess, which duly arrives in the shape of the shipping line owner's middle-aged man-eating daughter, who points her compass at Robertson-Justice and her companion, a young Brigitte Bardot who likewise sets sail for Bogarde.
Over ninety rather choppy minutes, we're served up some rather predictable occasionally suggestive and sexist humour, from which one can easily predict the later success of the even more low-brow "Carry On" films of the 60's.
Personally, I just found the movie to be a lot less humorous than its predecessor. To paraphrase the old song, all the sailors appear to love a nice girl with the camera lingering on the nubile form of Bardot and there's even a scene with one tar in his bed poring over a magazine containing 3D pictures of the then current British sex-symbol Diana Dors. Worst of all, we briefly follow around one of the ship's company at an evening party who carries around with him an alcoholic concoction he plans to administer to render unsuspecting girls helpless, which today we'd call spiking their drinks.
Other supposedly comedic episodes are played out while the boat is in port and at sea but none of them are very funny so that long before the end, I'd run up the white flag on this rather predictable and stereotypical comedy which really wasn't a patch on the freshness of the original.
- Lejink
- Nov 29, 2024