What makes it different from others?

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I find it truly difficult to review Carry on Doctor, a film that has been there when I've needed it, it's helped with exams, tragedies and all sorts. The humour even now is loud, brash, bawdy, saucy and just plain old fashioned funny. I find it difficult to understand how on earth someone could watch it and not find it funny, it provides uplifting fun, gag after gag, and an innocence that has long since past. The performances all around are just sensational. Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and Sid James in particular are all magical. Nurse had previously shown that the medical format worked extremely well, as would the later hospital based films, but Doctor will always be the pick of the bunch. Still shown on TV, DVD and download sales aplenty, hard!y surprising, Carry on Doctor is a gem, a true British institution.

I had seen the follow up film Carry On Again Doctor before this, and compared this isn't as classic, but it is still watchable, it apparently follows from where Carry On Nurse left off. Basically Francis Bigger (Frankie Howerd) is the "preacher and healer" who doesn't believe in hospital treatment, that's only until he needs it himself. So we follow him to hospital, where Francis is terrible agony, and hanging out with fellow patients "sick" Charlie Roper (Sid James, who was really bed-written at the time of making, after suffering a heart attack), overly sympathetic - at his (wife's) pregnancy - Mr. Barron (Charles Hawtrey) and broken-legged Ken Biddle (Bernard Bresslaw). There is not much story for a while, just a load of chaotic incidents with Francis and his injury, some shouting to his deaf "girlfriend" Chloë Gibson (Joan Sims), the arrival of the endearing Nurse Sandra May (Barbara Windsor), and some discussions between Dr. Kenneth Tinkle (Kenneth Williams) and his accomplice Matron (Hattie Jacques). But a story does develop when clumsy Dr. Jim Kilmore (Jim Dale) is sacked for apparently spying on Sandra May, pulling down the bottoms of Nurse Clarke (Anita Harris), and landing in the bath of another nurse. All the patients know he innocent, and revolt against the staff to get him his job back, even if that means torturing Tinkle and Matron. Also starring Peter Butterworth as Mr. Smith and Carry On Camping's Dilys Laye as Mavis Winkle. There are some good old fashioned slapstick gags, and a tiny bit of sauciness, and even though Again Doctor has much more of these things, doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. Worth watching!

There is a slight air of desperation about "Carry on Doctor" as if England is in the process of re - inventing itself ,rather belatedly,for the swinging sixties.Radio stars,Pop stars and TV stars come together in a not entirely successful mishmash of styles and techniques.It must be said that the refugees from the Light programme come off best.The three Hancock alumni,Mr S.James,Mr K.Williams and Miss H.Jacques rise above the rest of the cast along with Mr F. Howerd,another performer steeped in the Sound medium.He "ooohs "and "aahs" very satisfactorily but all too clearly is under restraint and fails to give full rein to his unusual gifts. Mr J.Dale,who,I believe,made his movie debut in "Six - Five Special" in 1957,was the sort of pop singer admired by those who considered Cliff Richard to be too ballsy.If you were to take Norman Wisdom ,remove the pathos and the talent for slapstick you might be left with the nearest thing to a role model for him.He pouts rather a lot too.It was unkind of someone to put him on the screen with Mr Williams and Miss Jacques who appear to be acting in another dimension. There is very little point in talking about the plot because,as in most of the other "Carry On" films it is a magnificent irrelevance. Miss B. Windsor happily gets her kit off at the first available opportunity and Miss A.Harris gets her skirt ripped off in a rooftop escapade that goes on for far too long as well as proving beyond all doubt that Mr Dale has absolutely no talent for physical comedy. It's nice to see stalwarts like Mr H Locke and Mr D. Guyler proving once again that less is very often more;not,perhaps,a proposition other members of the cast would go along with. "Carry on Doctor" does have many felicitous moments nonetheless,and its political incorrectness only adds to its appeal.Admirers of Mr Williams will find that he gives of himself most generously throughout. There is a rather sly tribute to the original "Doctor" series in the form of a portrait of one of the Hospital's founders who bears a remarkable resemblance to Sir Lancelot Spratt;otherwise most of the jokes are of the battering - ram persuasion.I particularly enjoyed the performance of Miss J.Sims as Mr Howerd's affianced(as unlikely an alliance as you are likely to find in all cinema).Acquiescent to the point of being totally self - effacing until they are married,she instantly turns into a domineering harridan in a fine piece of comic acting. By 1967 the "Carry On" franchise was running on empty.It staggered and spluttered on for a few years,but the deeply unfunny "Confessions of a window Cleaner" was on the horizon and good old - fashioned English smut was overtaken by an unpleasant sleaziness that made one feel grubby simply by watching it. Happily ,in contrast to the "Carry On"sagas,it has not travelled well and it is now all but forgotten,a fate that will never befall the late Mr Williams and his companions.

Normally when I write reviews of films I have seen I open with a short plot summary – it helps me focus my thoughts on the film I have just seen and also provides a bit more information for any readers. However with Carry on Doctor the plot is little more than a series of antics involving the patients and the doctors. In fairness, this may not be a bad thing since the "plot" in the film Carry On Matron was the worst part of it. Anyway, here we have a collection of love-struck patients, flirting doctors, pratfalls and women with ample breasts and giggles. So far so basic and to be honest none of any of these really work that well, producing a film that isn't that funny and pretty much does what you expect it to do.However, what makes it better than these aspects and better than Matron is the presence and material of Frankie Howerd. For those that like him he is great with a constant tongue in his cheek and material that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the script. Whether he is giving the nurses a hard time or dropping wonderful in-jokes (he greets a daffodil with "oh no you don't – I've seen that movie") he is the best thing in the film and makes it much better than it should have been. The rest of the cast are OK without really doing much. Having seen them be good in Matron, Williams and Jacques were a disappointment with not a great deal to do. Dale's clumsy doctor is obvious and easy while Windsor is all breasts and Butterworth and Bresslaw don't have much more to do. James is his usual self to good effect but I must admit that I liked the fact that Sims wasn't immediately recognisable as the sort of characters she usually plays.Overall this is an enjoyable film but not consistently; instead it is the presence of Howerd that raises everything to a higher level – his delivery is classic and his material is head and shoulders above the rest of the script. I generally prefer the Carry On movies that have more of a setting and some narrative to them but Howerd makes this one work and it is an enjoyable entry in the series just as it started to go further down the road of crudity that would kill it late in the seventies.