User Reviews

Copyright 1955 by Group Film Productions. Released in the U.S.A. through Republic Pictures Corp. New York opening at the 52nd St Trans-Lux: 29 February 1956. U.S. release: 23 February 1956. U.K. release through Rank Film Distributors: September 1955. Australian release through British Empire Films: 29 December 1955. Sydney opening at the State. 8,370 feet. 93 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Now a qualified doctor, Simon Sparrow becomes bored with the life of a general practitioner and signs on as ship's doctor on a cargo steamer en route for the tropics. What with one thing - the ferocious Captain Hogg — and another — a luscious passenger Helene Colbert — Simon has a hectic time, culminating in the removal of Hogg's appendix with Helene acting as nurse. Simon, now a hero to the crew, decides to remain a sea-going doctor, but...

NOTES: Second of the seven Doctor films that commenced with Doctor in the House (1954).

Number three attraction at the U.K. box-office for 1955. Only The Dam Busters and White Christmas did better business. Number eighteen of the twenty top films at Australian ticket windows for 1956.

Dirk Bogarde was voted by British exhibitors and cinema owners not only as the number one British star at the U.K. box office, but as number one over all. James Stewart was second.

VIEWER'S GUIDE: Both the British and Australian censors reckon this one is suitable for the whole family. Who am I to argue against the experts?

COMMENT: Not one for Brigitte Bardot fans. In this one Mademoiselle Bardot forsakes her customary, sultry sex vamping in favor of an entirely different — and in my opinion utterly charming - screen persona. She is cute, beguiling, bewitching, doll-like and completely captivating. I love her entrancing accent, her girlish clothes, her dazzling smile, her air of bemused innocence and naivety in which she seems only half aware of her own attraction.

This modest, shy, retiring Bardot is so much more intriguing than the anything-but-subtle, so-called "sex kitten" she enacts in most of her French-language roles. But as I say, her fans will probably not warm to this far less blatant Bardot.

Bardot is the main reason I look at "Doctor At Sea" whenever I get the opportunity. (In fact, I consider this Doctor to be the only one worth seeing). The rest of the players, led by Dirk Bogarde in his lightweight slapstick mode and the physically and verbally overpowering James Robertson Justice (temporarily deserting his customary role of chief surgeon at St. Swithin's) are pretty much par for this course of strong medical slapstick and mild innuendo.

"Doctor in the House" appeared in 1954 and it must have been a success because it begat several sequels. This was the first. It's light hearted throughout, sometimes silly and sometimes amusing. The comedic style fits somewhere between the "Carry On" series and the velvety understatement of the best of the Ealing Comedies, like "The Man in the White Suit."

"Doctor at Sea" has Dirk Bogarde forced to take a position as a doctor on a cruise ship to South America that carries no passengers. It may be economically suicidal but the plot kind of requires it. On the trip, we get to know the various characters of the crew and their malfunctions, major and minor. The ship's carpenter has a fit of the DTs and runs about wailing that he's being followed by various breeds of dogs. It's treated as a joke.

Once in port, the officers and men have an opportunity to get drunk and wind up in jail, an event which is treated as a festival. The ship also picks up two passengers. One is Brenda de Banzie, who sets her cap for the bellowing powerhouse of a skipper, James Robertson Justice, an ill-tempered whale. The other is Brigitte Bardot, barely out of her teens. She and Bogarde get glandular. If the outbound voyage showed us the general milieu, the trip home allows for developing romances and animadversions involving the opposite sex. Bardot is something to behold. She has a chirpy voice and a prancing manner, a la gamin, an Audrey Hepburn with a succulent build. I don't know if anyone remembers any longer the sensation she was to become in the next few years.

Like the "Carry On" series, but unlike the best of Ealing, "Doctor at Sea" is episodic. There's practically nothing to the story itself. The film lurches from one comic scene to the next, jammed with puns and double entendres and sometimes pratfalls. At the climax, Captain Justice gets thoroughly stoned and begins screaming insane orders, and it feels forced.

There are good moments too. Bogarde's predecessor as ship's doctor suffered "a melancholy fate" which no one want so talk about. Finally, Bogarde asks his medical assistant what the previous doctor died from. "Very sad it was. We was in port and he had ideas above his station." "Above his --?" "He tried to walk ashore."

This second installment of the Doctor series with Dirk Bogarde finds the young doctor a bit scared. His new private practice isn't all it's cracked up to be, as his partner makes him do all the work. But this isn't what scares him--it's the partner's unattractive and VERY frisky daughter who won't take no for an answer. In desperation, he signs up as a ship's doctor for a voyage--knowing it's a lot safer to hang out with a lot of butch men. But, oddly, the Captain of the ship turns out to be played by James Robertson Justice--the same guy who plays Bogarde's boss throughout the series! This IS confusing and strange and no mention is made that the two people look exactly like the other (since it is the same actor). What's also unusual is that this 'men's only' boat later turns out to accept some female passengers (much to the Captain's dismay)--one of which is the very young Brigitte Bardot--and is probably the first exposure most in the audience had of this future super-star. Her English was fairly good and she was adorable...but looked way too young for her scenes with Bogarde.

Overall, this film picks up very nicely after the second one--with equally good writing and production values. Unfortunately, the later ones seemed much more forced and silly, so this is the last of the series I heartily endorse as it is well made and enjoyable.

By the way, among the questionable medical practices I saw in this film were hitting a man in the back when he has back trouble and prescribing pretty much as many pills to the Captain as he'd like--and he swallows them by the handful.