Rendez-vous à Rio

'Doctor at sea' is your average English fifties-comedy, as were turned out by the dozen at the time. Television was hardly around, so on Saturday nights the public crowded into their many local cinema-theaters to watch films like these.

Although overall acting in 'Doctor at sea' is pretty competent, it's clear that this film only escaped a thick layer of dust for one single reason: Brigitte Bardot's participation.

Even stronger than that: Brigitte's picturing in this film surely ranks among the very best in her entire career. More than half a century after its production, one can safely conclude that the British did a great job on her.

That's nearly all there is to say about this light comedy. Apart from Brigitte Bardot, the performance of young Dirk Bogarde as the ship's doctor deserves a mentioning, too.

The late Richard Gordon was one of those authors who outlived his fame. In the fifties, sixties and seventies his "Doctor" books, comic novels set in the world of medicine, were immensely popular and the subject of many cinema and television adaptations, but by the time he died in 2017 he was a largely forgotten figure. "Doctor at Sea", based on one of those novels, follows the fortunes of a young doctor, Simon Sparrow who, to avoid the amorous attentions of a young woman he has no interest in marrying, signs on as ship's doctor on board a cargo ship plying between Britain and South America.

There were a total of seven films in the "Doctor" series, of which this was the second. The first film, "Doctor in the House", had introduced James Robertson Justice as the overbearing, autocratic surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt. Because of the nautical setting Spratt could not be used as a character in this film, but someone obviously though that Justice was too good to waste, so he returns as the overbearing, autocratic ship's captain, Wentworth Hogg. Brigitte Bardot makes her first appearance in an English-language film as Sparrow's love-interest Helene, an attractive young French passenger. Someone thought that the film should be a double romance, because a love-interest is also provided for Hogg in the shape of Helene's travelling companion Muriel.

Dirk Bogarde as Dr Sparrow was supposedly playing the lead character, but he seemed more like a straight man to Justice's monstrous captain, and Justice, when in his overbearing/autocratic mode, can be very much an acquired taste. (The Hogg/Muriel romance never seems convincing, given Hogg's misogynistic attitudes and fiery temper). Bardot came up against the same problem which would confront her in her future English-language movies like "Viva Maria!" or "Shalako". A fine actress in her native language, she never learned to speak English with any fluency and could never act in it with any conviction. It is a long time since I last read any of Gordon's "Doctor" books, but from what I can remember they were sharp and funny. That is not, however, a description I could use of this film, which struck me as rather dull, and, at best, only fitfully amusing. 5/10

2 years out of medical school now, Dr. Simon Sparrow takes a post as a ship's doctor to escape the not-so-good intentions of an amorous female friend. His post is on a cargo ship, so there's no girls aboard! Naturally this all changes when they acquire two female passengers, one being, as it would happen, Miss Bardot. Pretty predictable after that, but there are some good laughs and a lot of fun, though it's not as good as Doctor In The House. The hilarious James Robertson Justice is here again, though in a different role to the last movie, but it's a huge shame that the delightful Muriel Pavlow is missing from the cast! Considering Bogarde ended up with her at the end of the last movie, it's curious where her character seems to have gotten to; she doesn't even garner a mention from him at the start of the film. At least she appears to be in the further sequels.

7/10 - Pavlow over Bardot any day!

One year after the highly successful 'Doctor In The House', Bogarde is back as the hapless medic Doctor Simon Sparrow. Unusually, 'St Swithins' is nowhere to be seen, neither are most of the supporting from the first movie. Even the great James Robertson Justice is playing a different character (a 'Doctor' movie without Sir Lancelot? Unthinkable!)

That said, it's pretty much business as usual, as Doctor Sparrow runs away to sea and gets himself involved in several embarrassing situations, while James Robertson Justice roars and blusters as Captain Hogg.

One shapely distraction is none other than Brigitte Bardot, in her first English-speaking role. A shower scene especially raises our hero's temperature!

Veteran actor Maurice Denham makes the most of a supporting role, while familiar British faces fill out the rest of the cast.

While not as good as the first movie, it never outstays it's welcome and is good fun.

The second in the popular British comedy series already shows signs of flagging from the class evident in the original film. For one thing, the change of setting proves a bit of a quandary: it both opens up and cramps the jokes (while generally ship-bound, we do get a stretch on dry land – which sees the hero first involved with a drunken blonde and falling foul of her father and then put to jail for being 'under the influence' himself!).

Incidentally, while Dirk Bogarde reprises his role of Simon Sparrow, both James Robertson Justice and George Coulouris (who were also in DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE [1954]) play new characters here – the former's gruffness, while amusing at first, borders on caricature eventually; similarly, Brenda de Banzie's middle-aged passenger (pampered daughter of the seafaring company's President) is somewhat over bearing, evoking memories of Kay Walsh in an episode from the portmanteau film TRIO (1950). Bogarde's love interest, then, is rather incongruously filled by Brigitte Bardot – who's undeniably attractive but not yet the sex symbol of subsequent repute (although she does get to be seen taking a shower at one point).

Gags and innuendo sometimes approach the broad humor one normally associates with the rival "Carry On" series (which was actually still three years away from its inception) and CARRY ON CRUISING (1962) in particular (both films, in fact, culminated in a party on deck which ends in disaster).