Doctor in Love

The fourth film in the Doctor collection, produced by Betty E Box & Ralph Thomas, was the first that did not not star Dirk Bogarde, or feature the character of Simon Sparrow. Instead it follows a Doctor named Richard Hare, (Michael Craig), who is basically a more over the top, love struck version, of Sparrow. Dr Hare leaves St Swithin’s to take up a role in private practice, after his colleague and love interest Sally Nightingale, suddenly departs the hospital.

As you would expect in a Doctor Film, things get interesting when Dr Hare’s new boss temporarily moves to California, leaving the inexperienced Richard in charge. A floundering Dr Hare turns to and end up hiring his old friend Tony Burke (Leslie Phillips, [in his first of three appearances in the series]), as a second in command, which with hindsight is something that he could of easily done without!

There are certain aspects of this film which admittingly are quite distracting, such as Craig randomly appearing to replace the focal role of Dirk Bogarde’s Simon Sparrow. Apparently, after a bit of research some 61 years later, it turns out that back in 1960 Dirk Bogarde actually refused to do another Doctor picture, which led to the series producer Betty Box deciding to hire a virtually complete new cast, with the exception of Joan Sims, (who’d been in the first two films) and James Robinson Justice, (who’d been in all three previous films).

(An interesting footnote in the economics of post-war film production), Betty Box went on to describe how the Rank Organisation were able to hire an entire new cast of leading actors, for the same amount as Dirk Bogarde’s fee for a single film. They took a leap and decided to save a bit of cash by putting in some fresh faces, totally relaunching the entire series, although at the time it must have felt rather disconcerting and out of place for the cinema crowd, which had loyally flocked to every new Doctor Film.

Anyway, back to the actual movie review itself. Confusingly, there are a few scenes in the film, which really needed to be expanded upon, or completely removed. They would leap up and run down a metaphoric cul-de-sac, then slowly fizzle out, going nowhere. Not only were they distracting, but they had nothing to do with the overall direction of the film. Though that being said, this is still a good comedy film of it’s time with some very funny gags and a really heart-warming third act, which I thoroughly enjoyed. James Robinson Justice has a far-bigger role in Doctor in Love, than he did in the previous film, Doctor at Large. He really was so much fun to watch, with his unparalleled acting and comedy style, with the script really giving his character Sir Lancelot Spratt the opportunity to excel, probably more than in any of the other six instalments. To conclude, I would say that, although this isn’t as good as some of the other films in the series, it’s still worth watching if you’re fan of classic British films.

6/10 – Calum Roberts