Docteur en détresse

I was given this film on DVD as a birthday present, so sat down and gave it a go. I had seen a few of the other Doctor films and thought them gentle, inoffensive but ultimately unfunny. This one is very similar.

James Robertson Justice's irritable surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt is the central character, with Dirk Bogarde as Dr Stephen Sparrow hovering about. It's really James Robertson Justice's performance that makes this film, with his wonderful fruity bark, and seeing him given the chance to show off other sides of his acting ability, coming over as a rather affable chap now and again.

Like a lot of these British comedy films, the plot is wafer-thin, you really have to suspend your disbelief, and ultimately it isn't really very funny at all.

But for me I came away with a satisfied smile on my face, having enjoyed the film for other reasons. The supporting cast is a real who's who of British screen acting, with people like Timothy Bateson, John Bluthal, Donald Houston and many others. Being a fan of Flanders and Swan, it was a nice surprise to see Michael Flanders as the food writer at the health farm.

My favourite scene is at the railway station, where rail buffs can ooh and ahh at British Railways-era carriages and locos, the history buffs at the posters for milk and rail rovers. There's also lots of street shots full of classic British cars, black-and-white striped sign posts and cafés where you can get beans on toast for 10d and fried egg, beans, chips and fried bread for the princely sum of 2/6! Not a great film, you sometimes find yourself pushing the fast forward button. But for James Robertson Justice, and as a kind of time capsule of early 60s Britain it's perfect.

Dirk Bogarde stars as a young doctor in this lightweight drama – comedy, light on situations and jokes even for this franchise, as it lacks the rivalry from the other junior doctor, who is absent completely in this film.

Leo McKern as a film producer and Dennis Price as a fashion agent are completed wasted in a subplot that peters out and goes nowhere. Most of the film follows the annoying chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt pursuing a love interest with a physiotherapist which also finishes without a conclusion. Another love interest between Bogarde and a French physiotherapist also ends inconclusively.

It appears the film was made from a number of different plot lines from the book series which the studio didn't complete in order not to require an 18 certificate.

We have Dirk Bogarde doing his gentle, sensible young doctor character again. He has a polite, gentle romance with Samantha Eggar amidst the medical high jinks.

This is my favourite of the Doctor In The House series, though, because it's the one which gives most screen time to James Robertson Justice as the impossible Professor Lancelot Spratt. He is, for most of the picture, a patient, and given how he behaves when he's a consultant surgeon, it is hardly surprising that he is the most unco-operative and demanding patient in the annals of medical science.

JRJ makes full use of the opportunities offered, playing every scene for all it is worth (but, thank goodness, *only* for what it is worth - he doesn't extravagantly overplay it) and with obvious relish.

The job of the rest of the movie is to provide the canvas for him to display on, so it's not as though it's anything difficult or consequential.

Enjoyable fare for a weekend afternoon.

The usual formula for this series featuring the urbane Bogarde, the irascible Robertson-Justice and - pardon my political incorrectness - some top notch tottie.

Probably considered quite risque in its time but hardly likely to provoke an "ooh err, missus!" these days, it mostly raises smiles rather than laughs although the odd bits of slapstick made my 7 year old son laugh.

Perhaps the most fun is to be had spotting future starts down the cast list: Richard Briers (The Good Life), John Bluthal (Vicar of Dibley), the uncredited Denise Coffee (Do Not Adjust Your Set), Ronnie Barker (Two Ronnies) and Derek Fowlds (Yes, Minister) are all here, not to mention Frank Finlay (Casanova) and Leo McKern (Rumpole of the Bailey). No Richard Wattis or John Le Mesurier though - they must have been working on 5 other British comedies that week.

Bogarde returned one final time to the 'Doctor' series for old time's sake to maintain the box office clout he was otherwise happily squandering on his films with Joseph Losey; and the funniest moment in the film is probably the in-joke reference to Bogarde's previous film when Simon Sparrow stands in front of the huge round mirror "gentleman's gentleman" Barrett polished in 'The Servant' (I wonder were it is now?) and his head appears to be on a platter.

The opening credits reveal that Nicholas Phipps was still one of the scriptwriters (although that's hardly a recommendation); but the script was this time only "by arrangement with Richard Gordon", not based on any of his original novels (although that was never much of a recommendation either). Although prettily photographed in Eastmancolor with a huge cast of familiar faces (the tiny handful that are still alive looking heart-breakingly youthful); the reappearance over the final shot of Norrie Paramor's jaunty music from the opening sequence serves simply to remind one of how one's spirits had initially lifted only to be deflated by the dreary hundred minutes you'd then sat through.