Doctor in the House (1954) - film review

It is with trepidation that Simon Sparrow begins his five year stint as a medical student at St Swithin’s Hospital in London.  He strikes up an immediate friendship with Richard Grimsdyke, who is determined to remain a medical student forever (by repeatedly failing his exams) so that he can profit from an annuity left to him by a wealthy relative.  Simon’s attempts to knuckle down to his studies are thwarted by his increasingly complicated love life...

The first and best in the series of film adaptations of Richard Gordon’s Doctor novels benefits from the teaming of 1950s heartthrob Dirk Bogarde with Kenneth More and Donald Sinden and a script which offers clean good fun, rather than the cheap vulgarity of later entries in the series.  This is the film that catapulted Dirk Bogarde to stardom after several film appearances in unmemorable supporting roles.   The film was directed by Ralph Thomas, whose brother Gerald later directed the series of Carry Ons, including several hospital-based entries, notably Carry On Nurse, which were clearly influenced by this film.

Doctor in the House was a runaway box office hit in the UK when it was released in 1954, surprising the film’s distributors, Rank, who were sceptical that the public would pay to watch a film set in a hospital.  The most enjoyable scenes are those in which Lancelot Spratt (played to perfection by James Robertson Justice) goes on the rampage, terrorising the life out of patients and doctors alike.  Although this film (in common with its six sequels) now appears somewhat dated, it retains some of its charm and offers one or two highly amusing gags.

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