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Toubib en liberté

Original title: Doctor at Large
  • 1957
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 44m
IMDb RATING
6.0/10
936
YOUR RATING
Toubib en liberté (1957)
Dr. Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) graduates and sets out into the world. Hilarious internships with a miserly doctor and his young wife, a country doctor paid in kind not cash, and a quack specializing in rich neurotic women.
Play trailer2:41
1 Video
82 Photos
Comedy

Recent medical graduate Dr. Sparrow navigates humorous internships with eccentric mentors. After insulting a senior surgeon, he impresses hospital officials through timely intervention, secu... Read allRecent medical graduate Dr. Sparrow navigates humorous internships with eccentric mentors. After insulting a senior surgeon, he impresses hospital officials through timely intervention, securing a staff position.Recent medical graduate Dr. Sparrow navigates humorous internships with eccentric mentors. After insulting a senior surgeon, he impresses hospital officials through timely intervention, securing a staff position.

  • Director
    • Ralph Thomas
  • Writers
    • Richard Gordon
    • Nicholas Phipps
  • Stars
    • Dirk Bogarde
    • Muriel Pavlow
    • Donald Sinden
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.0/10
    936
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Ralph Thomas
    • Writers
      • Richard Gordon
      • Nicholas Phipps
    • Stars
      • Dirk Bogarde
      • Muriel Pavlow
      • Donald Sinden
    • 16User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:41
    Trailer

    Photos82

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    Top cast68

    Edit
    Dirk Bogarde
    Dirk Bogarde
    • Dr. Simon Sparrow
    Muriel Pavlow
    Muriel Pavlow
    • Dr. Joy Gibson
    Donald Sinden
    Donald Sinden
    • Dr. Tony Benskin
    James Robertson Justice
    James Robertson Justice
    • Sir Lancelot Spratt
    Shirley Eaton
    Shirley Eaton
    • Nurse Nan McPherson
    Derek Farr
    Derek Farr
    • Dr. Potter-Shine
    Michael Medwin
    Michael Medwin
    • Dr. Charles Bingham
    Martin Benson
    Martin Benson
    • Maharajah of Rhanda
    John Chandos
    • O'Malley
    Edward Chapman
    Edward Chapman
    • Wilkins
    George Coulouris
    George Coulouris
    • Pascoe
    Judith Furse
    Judith Furse
    • Mrs. Digby - Innkeeper
    Gladys Henson
    Gladys Henson
    • Mrs. Wilkins
    Anne Heywood
    Anne Heywood
    • Emerald
    Ernest Jay
    • Charles Hopcroft
    Lionel Jeffries
    Lionel Jeffries
    • Dr. Hatchet
    Mervyn Johns
    Mervyn Johns
    • Smith
    Geoffrey Keen
    Geoffrey Keen
    • Second Examiner
    • Director
      • Ralph Thomas
    • Writers
      • Richard Gordon
      • Nicholas Phipps
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews16

    6.0936
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    Featured reviews

    7bkoganbing

    Dr. Sparrow comes home

    After trying out being a ship's doctor in Doctor At Sea, Dr. Simon Sparrow returns home to Great Britain just looking for a place in the medical world. He gets a post at St. Swithins Hospital, but promptly insults the head honcho there James Robertson Justice. After that Dirk Bogarde as Sparrow for the third in the Doctor series gets to try and practice medicine in a variety of unusual and amusing situations.

    Bogarde once again strikes the right note as the earnest, dedicated, but a little bit socially challenged Dr. Sparrow. He's got the knack of not bumbling so much as walking into these incredible situations and people and sometimes mucking it up. But somehow it all works out in the end.

    Doctor At Large also boasts the usual memorable character players prominently as always James Robertson Justice as the tyrannical Dr. Lancelot Spratt who terrifies all who come within range of his booming voice. One guy who thinks he's got JRJ in his pocket is kiss up Dr. Michael Medwin who gains a coveted position on the surgical staff that Bogarde wanted originally. He screws up in the end though quite accidentally, still it's always good to see one of his kind lose out.

    But the guy who actually steals this film whenever he's on the screen is Donald Sinden. That this guy could become a doctor should frighten everyone in the United Kingdom. You have to see his 'examination' and how he gets his medical degree to believe it. Basically this guy became a doctor to get girls and he pursues that avocation quite avidly. Quite the rake Sinden, he does everything but twirl his mustache like some Snidely Whiplash villain. Most American audiences know him from being Grace Kelly's earnest, but dull husband in Mogambo. This is quite a change.

    Watching the Doctor series from Great Britain I'm struck by the fact that across the pond they seem to take a more lighthearted view of medicine than we do. It wasn't until after the Code was lifted that doctors were ever portrayed in a light hearted manner.

    Doctor At Large holds up quite well even for American viewers like myself who would not be acquainted with the fine points of the British health system. This series could easily be revived today, I could see someone like Hugh Grant playing Dr. Simon Sparrow.
    bob the moo

    Gently comic and bland entertainment that might fill a west Sunday afternoon

    After his adventures at sea Dr Sparrow returns to real life and a proper job in a hospital. Messing up his chances of getting a high level position within the hospital Sparrow heads out looking for another job but finds that nothing is going to come easily to him. Meanwhile his colleague Beskin cheats his way into greener pastures with a roguish mix of charm and good humour. Right, well I've done the best I can at providing a short plot summary to the film and I don't think it is that bad considering that in reality the plot is more a series of scenarios with Sparrow drifting around in the working world.

    The tone is very much gentle British humour – i.e. not a lot of laughs to be had. It moves slowly enough due to the lack of plot and it is difficult to follow or care about because it does just seem to be drifting aimlessly from one thing to the next. I laughed once or twice at most ("big breaths") but the film just seems happy to exist on a gentle tone rather than having anything sharp or that good in regards material. The cast try hard to raise a laugh or two and push the material as hard as they can but all they can really do is contribute to the gently comic mood. Bogarde is OK in the lead role, hardly memorable but suitable smooth and gentle for the lead. Sinden has fun with a more interesting character and he is funny by force of personality. Justice is hardly in the film but makes his usual impact.

    Overall this is an OK entry in an OK series of film. It isn't particularly funny and doesn't really have a plot worth speaking of but it has a gently comic air that might appeal to those looking for undemanding British fare to fill the television on a west Sunday afternoon. Nothing special but not bad so to say.
    5thinker1691

    " Oh, alright, . . . . If you must be a doctor, . . do it quietly "

    English medical comedy in the dark medium of a theater, is often subtle, urbane and sleigh of hand. For American audiences, we see British laughter in two ways, either loud and in your face, such as Monte Python's Flying Circus or tall abrupt and seriously stuffy as in this offering. This film " Doctor at Large " is the second installment and although much is expected, falls a bit flat. Despite having two of the finest English actors like Dirk Bogarde as Dr. Simon Sparrow and James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt, the movie, like the story is hampered with fractured scenes and little adhesion to comedy. One wonders if the characters are seeking sympathy for the script or for the jumbled set of patients which range from the very neurotic to the very eccentric. The movie strives for understanding, but despite its best efforts never achieves the nobility of the original. A great waste of serious talent. ***
    7elo-equipamentos

    One of my favorite British series, clever with strong sexual appealing!!!

    One of best of the series, the everlasting adventures of the Dr. Simon Sparrow that is running for a contest for surgery site, however the hospital was directed by the dictator and bad temper Dr. Sir Lancelot (James Robertson Justice) who don't like him, he moves away to a small town on countryside to aid the old Dr. Hackett (Lionel Jeffries) a kind of narrow-mind man, there Hackett's youngest wife Mrs. Jasmine always harassed Dr. Simon in the absence of Hackett, putting the Doctor's life in dangerous by the jealous Doctor, then he resigns and back to London and got a three mounts job at high class Clinic, to work with ladies with severe depressions of love, also prescribing medicines to wealthy old customers, after that going back to St. Swithins Hospital to start all over again, once more he screw up to believe in an insane patient that complains to him that was throw up nuts and bolts after a surgery, falling down on Dr. Lancelot's concept, which already was bad stays worst, further he has a friend the "bon vivant" Dr. Tony Benskin who haven't a proper ability to be a Doctor, the suddenly receives 15.000 pounds of an heritage to working for an eccentric old lady, although it wasn't exactly true, this series driven forces on light sexploitation, without be appealing, also displayed a unique British humoresque, although a slight dated, it stands the test of time!!!

    Resume:

    First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25
    petsitter

    Unfunny "comedy"

    A typical film of the "doldrums" era of British cinema.

    A formulaic, lacklustre comedy with the type of populist humour that was acceptable, perhaps even funny, to audiences of the 1950's.

    You can see it very much as a forerunner to the smutty humour of the Carry On series but this was 1957 and they couldn't get away with very much just yet.

    What humour there is is very lame and pretty cringey. The big breaths "joke" particularly. It's no wonder British cinema was disregarded so roundly in this era.

    It's obviously before the era of "medical ethics" too, with Dr Sparrow overstepping the doctor/patient boundary quite worryingly at times, putting one rich female patient over his knee and slapping her on the rear end. Again, all a bit cringey. Stereotypes of all kinds abound, racial, social and sexual.

    As a period piece on how films were made in the 1950's it's a classic example. It hasn't stood the test of time very well though!

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Richard Gordon: The author of the original books (and of the screenplay here) is on-screen, hidden behind the anaesthetist's mask in the "patient wakes up" scene. Gordon did the job in real-life before turning to writing.
    • Goofs
      After Sparrow takes the letter from Sir Lancelot out of its envelope, the letter is folded into four, yet when he takes it out of his coat pocket while in the pub, it is folded in three.
    • Quotes

      Dr. Simon Sparrow: [brandishing stethoscope] Now, Eva, big breaths!

      Eva: Yeth, and I'm only thixteen.

    • Connections
      Featured in Muriel Pavlow in Conversation with Jo Botting (2024)

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • April 25, 1958 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Doctor at Large
    • Filming locations
      • University College Hospital, London, England, UK(St Swithins Hospital)
    • Production company
      • Rank Organisation Film Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 44 minutes

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