[[Leslie Phillips]]
[[Robert Morley]]
[[Angela Scoular]]"},"music":{"wt":"[[Eric Rogers (composer)|Eric Rogers]]"},"cinematography":{"wt":"[[Ernest Steward]]"},"editing":{"wt":"Peter Boita"},"studio":{"wt":"[[Rank Organisation]]"},"distributor":{"wt":"[[Rank Film Distributors]]"},"released":{"wt":"{{Film date|df=yes|1970|06|16|UK}}"},"runtime":{"wt":"90 minutes"},"country":{"wt":"United Kingdom"},"language":{"wt":"English"},"budget":{"wt":""},"gross":{"wt":""}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwCQ">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme)>div:not(.notheme)[style]{background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme) div:not(.notheme){background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media(min-width:640px){body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table{display:table!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>caption{display:table-caption!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>tbody{display:table-row-group}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table tr{display:table-row!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table th,body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table td{padding-left:inherit;padding-right:inherit}}
Doctor in Trouble | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ralph Thomas |
Written by | Jack Davies |
Based on | Doctor on Toast by Richard Gordon |
Produced by | Betty Box |
Starring | Harry Secombe Leslie Phillips Robert Morley Angela Scoular |
Cinematography | Ernest Steward |
Edited by | Peter Boita |
Music by | Eric Rogers |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Doctor in Trouble is a 1970 British comedy film, the seventh and last film in the Doctor series. It was directed by Ralph Thomas and stars Leslie Phillips as a doctor who gets accidentally trapped on an outgoing cruise ship while it begins a round the world trip. The cast was rounded out by a number of British comedy actors including James Robertson Justice, Harry Secombe and Angela Scoular. [1] It was based on the 1961 novel Doctor on Toast by Richard Gordon.
Renowned surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt arranges a cruise for his patient, the famous television star Basil Beauchamp. The captain of the ship is Lancelot Spratt's brother George Spratt.
Doctor Burke becomes a stowaway by mistake when chasing his girlfriend Ophelia onto the ship to propose to her. She is one of a group of models doing a fashion shoot with camp photographer Roddy. Other passengers aboard ship include pools winner Llewellyn Wendover and Mrs. Dailey, a socially ambitious lady hoping to find a wealthy match for her daughter Dawn.
Burke is pursued by the Master-at-Arms who correctly suspects that he does not have a ticket. Burke tries various ruses to try to escape him, including dressing up as a doctor. Eventually he is caught and exposed as a stowaway. Captain Spratt orders him to serve as an orderly, scrubbing the ship.
When the ship's doctor falls ill from a tropical disease, Burke takes over his duties. He is called into action when a Soviet cargo ship sends a request for help due to a patient with acute appendicitis. Burke is transferred to that ship to perform an operation. By the time he has finished his own ship has departed, and he is forced to stay on board the Soviet vessel until it reaches Grimsby. When the cruise ship finally returns to port, Burke learns his girlfriend has married the ship's doctor, now recovered from his illness.
Meanwhile, Dawn Dailey, having failed to snare Captain Spratt, decides to marry Wendover. She learns after the wedding that he is not as wealthy as she had imagined.
The film was based on the book Doctor on Toast , published in 1961. [2] The plot of the book focused on Dr Grymsdyke and was different from the final film. [3]
The original intention was for James Robertson Justice to play two roles, Sir Lancelot Spratt and his twin-brother Captain George Spratt (a variation of the part of Captain Hogg that he had played in Doctor at Sea ) – "the best part of any we'd done together" according to producer Betty Box. [4]
However, shortly before filming, Justice had a cerebral stroke and was rushed from his home near Inverness to Aberdeen for brain surgery. Justice recovered and wanted to play both roles as planned but the filmmakers decided he would be unable to do so, in part because he now had an uncontrollable tremor in his right arm. The part of Captain Spratt was offered to Robert Morley (who had been considered for the role of Lancelot Spratt in Doctor in the House but had wanted too much money). James Robertson Justice still played the smaller role of Lancelot. "It must have taken every ounce of energy he possessed to do it", said Box. "We knew he needed the money and paid him for both parts – he certainly deserved it for long and loyal service." [5]
Producer Betty Box said the film "wasn't a happy time for" her and director Ralph Thomas as they knew it "was the last movie we'd be able to make" with Justice. [6] She felt Robert Morley's casting undermined the picture. "Situations which would have been hilarious with James were just mildly amusing with Morley, and the whole point of the piece was lost", she said. Despite good performances from other members of the cast, she thought "the entire project was doomed... from the day a real life surgeon said the world 'Scalpel' over dear James's unconscious bulk." [7]
It was Leslie Phillips’ third appearance in a "Doctor" film. He played Dr Tony Burke, the same character he played in Doctor in Love . In Doctor in Clover , he played Dr Gaston Grimsdyke.
It was the first time Angela Scoular acted opposite Leslie Phillips; the two would later fall in love and marry. [8]
The film was in production concurrently with the first series of the Doctor in the House television series, in which Yutte Stensgaard (Eve) had a recurring role and Graham Chapman (Roddie) was one of the writers.
Ralph Thomas did not like the film saying "the unit was getting desperate, of course, and the title says it all; but it still, fortunately, continued making money, but I couldn't bear to make any more films in the series. And so Rank said "Well, right. Would you allow us to dispose of your interest in a television series. And I said "yes I've love to" and so they did." [9]
Box thought the Doctor series "died" when James Robertson Justice did. [10]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "By far the unfunniest of the Doctor series – plotless, witless, and reaching the peak of its invention with the joke about the passenger who puts his clothes through a porthole under the impression that it is a washing-machine. Leslie Phillips is in due (and relentless) course called upon to lose his trousers, do a female impersonation and fall down a ventilator, but the film has expired from a surfeit of corn and Simon Dee long before that." [11]
Penelope Mortimer of The Observer wrote "why all this talent, of various kinds, gets absolutely nowhere must be the fault of the screenplay... For it is a dreadful story, a terrible script, inadequately seasoned with worn out laughs. In all fairness I must say that a large section of the audience was hooting with laughter. It is on occasionals like this that one feels one has dropped from Mars." [12]
The film receives two stars out of five in the Radio Times Guide to Films, which describes it as "innocently smutty" and feeling like it has been made up of "leftovers from Doctor at Sea ". [13]
Leslie Samuel Phillips was an English actor. He achieved prominence in the 1950s, playing smooth, upper-class comic roles utilising his "Ding dong" and "Hello" catchphrases. He appeared in the Carry On and Doctor in the House film series as well as the long-running BBC radio comedy series The Navy Lark. In his later career, Phillips took on dramatic parts including a BAFTA-nominated role alongside Peter O'Toole in Venus (2006). He provided the voice of the Sorting Hat in three of the Harry Potter films.
Some Girls Do is a 1969 British comedy spy film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was the second of the revamped Bulldog Drummond films starring Richard Johnson as Drummond, made following the success of the James Bond films of the 1960s. Some Girls Do even featured a white Aston Martin DB5, the same marque used by Bond.
Doctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, Kenneth More, Donald Sinden, Donald Houston and James Robertson Justice. It was produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Gordon, and follows a group of students through medical school.
James Robertson Justice was an English actor. He often portrayed pompous authority figures in comedies, including each of the seven films in the Doctor series. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in several adventure movies, notably The Guns of Navarone. Born in south-east London to a Scottish father, he became prominent in Scottish public life, helping to launch Scottish Television (STV) and serving as Rector of the University of Edinburgh.
Very Important Person is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and written by Jack Davies and Henry Blyth. The cast includes several well-known British comedy and character actors, including James Robertson Justice, Stanley Baxter in a dual role as a dour Scottish prisoner and a German prisoner-of-war camp officer, Eric Sykes, John Le Mesurier, Leslie Phillips and Richard Wattis.
Patrick David Barr was an English actor. In his career spanning over half a century, he appeared in about 144 films and television series.
Angela Margaret Scoular was a British actress.
Richard Gordon, was an English ship's surgeon and anaesthetist. As Richard Gordon, Ostlere wrote numerous novels, screenplays for film and television and accounts of popular history, mostly dealing with the practice of medicine. He was best known for a long series of comic novels on a medical theme beginning with Doctor in the House, and the subsequent film, television, radio and stage adaptations. His The Alarming History of Medicine was published in 1993, and he followed this with The Alarming History of Sex.
Doctor in Clover is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Leslie Phillips, James Robertson Justice and Shirley Anne Field. The film is based on the 1960 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon. It is the sixth of the seven films in the Doctor series.
Crooks Anonymous is a 1962 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin, and starring Leslie Phillips and Stanley Baxter and Julie Christie, in her film debut.
Raising the Wind is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Gerald Thomas and starring James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Liz Fraser, Eric Barker and Sid James. The storyline, screenplay and musical score of the film were by Bruce Montgomery.
Doctor in Distress is a 1963 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, James Robertson Justice, and Samantha Eggar. It is the fifth of the seven films in the Doctor series. After a one-film absence, it was the final return to the role of Simon Sparrow by Dirk Bogarde, and also the return of Donald Houston. The film uses some of the characters in Richard Gordon's Doctor novels, but is not based on any of them.
The Doctor novels are a series of 18 comic novels by British physician Richard Gordon, covering the antics of a group of young doctors. They were published between 1952 and 1986.
Doctor at Large is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas starring Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice and Shirley Eaton. It is the third of the seven films in the Doctor series, and is based on the 1955 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon.
Burke & Hare is a 1972 horror film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Derren Nesbitt, Harry Andrews, and Glynn Edwards. It is based on the true story of the Burke and Hare murders, and was the last film to be directed by Sewell.
Doctor at Sea is a 1955 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas, produced by Betty E. Box, and based on Richard Gordon's 1953 novel of the same name. This was the second of seven films in the Doctor series, following the hugely popular Doctor in the House from the previous year. Once again, Richard Gordon participated in the screenwriting, together with Nicholas Phipps and Jack Davies, and once again Dirk Bogarde played the lead character Dr Simon Sparrow. The cast also includes James Robertson Justice and Joan Sims from the first film, but this time playing different characters. This was Brigitte Bardot's first English-speaking film.
Doctor in Love is a 1960 British comedy film, the fourth of the seven films in the Doctor series, directed by Ralph Thomas and starring James Robertson Justice and Michael Craig. It was the first film in the series not to feature Dirk Bogarde, although he did return for the next film in the series Doctor in Distress. It was loosely based on the 1957 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon.
Zeta One, also known as The Love Slaves, Alien Women and The Love Factor, is a 1970 British comedy science fiction film directed by Michael Cort and starring James Robertson Justice, Charles Hawtrey and Dawn Addams. It was written by Cort and Alistair McKenzie, based on a comic strip short story in the magazine Zeta, and was produced by George Maynard and Tony Tenser for Tigon Films.
Doctor on Toast is a 1961 comedy novel by the British writer Richard Gordon. Part of his long-running Doctor series, it features Doctor Grimsdyke and his superior Sir Lancelot Spratt in a series of amusing situations.
Doctor in Clover is a 1960 comedy novel by the British writer Richard Gordon. It is part of Gordon's long-running Doctor series of books.