Doctor in Clover

The sixth Doctor film in the series produced by Betty.E.Box & Ralph Thomas was the second film in the series to feature Leslie Philips this time in the lead role as Dr Gaston Grimdyke. (Which is one of two characters Philips played in the series, along with another Doctor with a similar sort of distracted, womanizing persona Antony Burke, who Philips played in the third and seventh film respectfully.)

The plot of In Clover follows Grimdyke, who gets sacked from his job working as a prison doctor and decides to go on a course at St Swithin’s hospital, where he learns to become a surgeon under the watchful eye of Lancelot Sprout (James Robinson Justice), though at the same time he’s supposed to be studying he becomes obsessed with a French Girl he wants to settle down with marry as well as trying to grab hold of a senior medical post his cousin Miles (John Fraiser) has already signed up for. While the hospital wards themselves are filled to the brim, with the most eccentric kind of people. From a pretentious ballerina (Fenella Fielding) to a cranky & eccentric war vertrain (Arthur Haynes), which Sprout, Grimdyke and the rest of the staff have a hard time keeping all under control.

Although it’s fun to see Leslie Philips play the usual type of character he played so well, back in his heyday and James Robertson Justice is a pleasure to watch in nearly every film he was in during his 25 year span as an actor. (He was one of those actors who came to films late and died relatively young, he was in his late 60s, when he died suddenly in 1975.) This is one of the weaker Doctor films in the series it feels like a less funny prototype of something like Carry On Doctor or other nursing comedies to come out of the 70s and while it’s not dreadful, it does when watching it today (especially with all the other Doctor films quite weary and dated.) Though the last 15 minutes, which although are quite clichéd and can be seen done far better in other films, are really enjoyable and wrap up what is a somewhat mediocre and forgettable film of its time, quite nicely.

5/10 – Calum Roberts