Dentist on the Job

There were two styles of British comedy in the 50's/60's, the wonderful Ealing comedies and the pretty awful, but watchable Carry on Films. This is more reminiscent of a Carry on, indeed the music score is almost identical, though the comedy is better. Bob Monkhouse also starred in the very first Carry on movie, Carry on Sergeant; and Shirley Eaton was literally the Golden Girl in James Bond's Goldfinger.

This is a sequel to DENTIST IN THE CHAIR (1960), which I haven't watched; excerpts from the opening sequence were memorably featured as a gag at the start of the "Special Edition" DVD of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975)!

The film is no classic, but harmless and certainly palatable for what it is – dealing with the invention and promotion of a new brand of toothpaste and going from a college to a factory, a TV studio and ending with a commercial being broadcast from space! It was possibly inspired by the popular "Doctor" series – of which I've yet to catch any entry – though in style it may actually be closer to the "Carry Ons", with a number of mild double entendres and two stalwart members from that series in the cast i.e. Kenneth Connor and guest star Charles Hawtrey.

Nominal star Bob Monkhouse is okay, but his repertory doesn't seem to be particularly distinctive; in fact, it's Connor who steals the show as an ex-con who's made to act as a door-to-door salesman for the new product (and faring disastrously at the task) and even impersonates an American senator at the climax! Future Bond girl Shirley Eaton provides the eye-candy as the actress promoting the old toothpaste and who joins Monkhouse & Co. in their scheme to make their own superior brand. The supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Richard Wattis and Reginald Beckwith.

This so-so sequel to the superior DENTIST IN THE CHAIR sees the trio of Bob Monkhouse, Kenneth Connor, and Ronnie Stevens return from the first film. This time around, they're working for a marketing company who decide to put a brand new type of toothpaste out on on the market, only to discover that it isn't much cop. So they make their own brand instead, with predictably unforeseen consequences.

I found the script of this sequel to be inferior to that of the first, because the humour is of a more sub-CARRY ON standard here. The first film had slapstick routines and character humour, whereas this is all about innuendo for the most part. There are still some funny sequences, but there just aren't as many as previously.

Monkhouse is still on fire here, ably supported by Stevens and in particular Connor, who gets to impersonate various characters as part of the fun. The superior supporting cast includes the fresh-faced Shirley Eaton (soon to go on to greater things with GOLDFINGER) alongside genre stalwarts Richard Wattis and Eric Barker. Watch out for Charles Hawtrey, cameoing early on.

I mean, in its entirety? I don't think it's fair to rate it if you've only seen the credits and first 49 seconds included in Holy Grail.

So c'mon, you 13 who have rated it -- let's see a proper review! And how about a plot outline? Is it available on DVD yet? Why not?

Silliness abounds in this comic affront to British advertising. Beckwith, an ad executive, enlists the services of wacky dentists, Monkhouse and Stevens, to revive the sagging sales of a toothpaste. They invent a new wonder toothpaste and their nutty attempts at promoting the product comprise the rest of the film.

Not better -or worse- than the average 50s/60s comedies. Although I expected Norman Wisdom coming in and shout "Mr Grimsdale!!!!"