Summary
Newly graduated from medical school, Dr Simon Sparrow joins a medical practice but finds
himself the victim of the amorous intentions of his partner’s daughter. His solution
is to runaway to sea – to become a ship’s doctor on a cargo ship, where his patients include
the irascible Captain Hogg and a crew of sex-starved mariners. At the next
port of call, Sparrow and his new friends go ashore and soon end up in jail. When
the ship sets off once more, it has two extra passengers: Muriel, the daughter of the
shipping line, and her singer friend, Hélène. Sparrow’s professional
duties are once more confounded by his attraction for the fair sex...
Review
Doctor at Sea was the second in the Rank Organisation’s popular series of film
adaptations of the autobiographical novels by Richard Gordon. Although somewhat
less memorable than the first (Doctor in the House), the film has its charms and
some great comic moments. Dirk Bogarde once again plays the adorable Dr Sparrow
(his most popular screen persona) whilst the magnificent James Robertson Justice appears
to taunt him, not as Sir Lancelot Spratt, but as the even more lugubrious Captain Hogg.
The film also stars French beauty Brigitte Bardot in one of her earliest film roles (several
years before she acquired a reputation as a sex goddess), although she does appear slightly
out of place in this quintessentially English comedy.
© James Travers 2003
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Useful links
- Best French films of 2011
- Best French films of the 2000s
- Best of the French New Wave
- Best of French film comedy
- The best 100 French films
- The most successful French films
- Great French filmmakers
Related links
- The best British comedies
- Other British films of the 1950s
- The best British films of the 1950s
- Other British comedies
- Biography and films of Ralph Thomas
To buy this film
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Credits
- Director: Ralph Thomas
- Script: Jack Davies, Richard Gordon (novel), Nicholas Phipps
- Photo: Ernest Steward
- Music: Bruce Montgomery
- Cast: Dirk Bogarde (Dr. Simon Sparrow), Brigitte Bardot (Hélène Colbert), James Robertson Justice (Capt. Hogg), Maurice Denham (Easter), Michael Medwin (Sublieutenant Trail), Hubert Gregg (Archer), James Kenney (Fellowes), Raymond Huntley (Capt. Beamish), Geoffrey Keen (Hornbeam), Jill Adams (Jill), Joan Sims (Wendy)
- Country: UK
- Language: English
- Runtime: 93 min
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Comedy






