Carry on Again Doctor

Carry On Again Doctor returns to a well-tilled field, with bedpans, undressed patients, discussions about symptoms, from wind to bowels, being regular dialog fodder. This time the flimsy yarn is mainly geared around the discovery in the Beatific Islands by Jim Dale, an accident-prone young doctor, of a serum which helps girth-control. Jealousy and Machiavellian plots to prevent him making a fortune out of the discovery leads to doublecrossing, female impersonation and a lot of predictable hanky-panky.

In this film much of the patter is flat and vulgar without being over-funny. Some situations (such as when Dale ‘blows’ an electric contraption and turns the hospital into chaos) are very funny. But there aren’t enough.

Jim Dale, as the comedy hero, Sid James an an alcoholic steward of a medical mission, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey all play the nonsense without tongue in cheek, giving it a lift. Barbara Windsor, a blonde, curvey cutie, is in for pulchritude.

Stock shots cover the arrival of characters at the mythical Beatific Islands. The rest is Pinewood studio. It stands out a mile, but does it matter?