Doctor, Doctor I feel like a pair of curtains... (Doctor In Clover (DVD))

Member Name: Ailran

Product:	Doctor In Clover (DVD)
Date:	23/03/09 (223 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good mix of comedy styles and one of the best of the series

Disadvantages: It is all becomng a bit familiar now

Doctor In Clover the sixth and penultimate film in the Doctor series sees a personnel change again. Dirk Bogarde, as Simon Sparrow, has once again left the confines of St Swithin's to be replaced by Leslie Phillips. For some strange reason he is no longer Dr. Burke, as he was in Doctor In Love, but as the suave, debonair ladies man (of course!) Dr Gaston Grimsdyke.

In need of a job after getting kicked out of prison, for fooling around with the Governors daughter, Grimsdyke rather fortuitously bumps into his old associate and boss Sir Lancelot Spratt (still played by the indomitable James Robertson Justice)
With a little extra help from his cousin, Miles Grimsdyke, Gaston manages to secure a position at St Swithin's and before long he is not only charming all the females, on staff and patients, but has also been given an important mission by Spratt to deal with a new matron who is in his ward and is annoying him no end.

Doctor In Clover once again follow the loose tenets of the previous films while still messing them up a smidgeon to liven things up a little bit. It cuts down on the out and out farce from In Love, keeps the nice Doctor from the Bogarde ones (Miles Brimsdyke played by John Fraser) and enlarges Spratts participation in the whole thing, including a love interest again just like in the last one Doctor In Distress.
This one is much better than In Love, the concentration being spread between three or four characters means that it doesn't get too much like a farce. Small bits of slapstick, as you would expect from Phillips, is about as far as it goes.

The mix of slapstick, gentle humour and amorous adventures makes this not only the second best of the Doctor movies (with only one left to watch) but also the only one other than the original that I have any recollection of having even seen before.
The expansion, once again, of Spratts role is one of the real bonus points, and one of the main reasons that Clover is so good. Spratt and Grimsdyke are the two main characters and all of the stories revolve around them. All the secondary characters, and there are a number of them, are really only there for the two of them, mainly Grimsdyke, to play off.

There are two main plots in Clover. The first is the removal of Miss Sweet as matron. Joan Sims making her third appearance in the series, which oddly enough is more than Phillips, plays Miss Sweet.
The second is all about Grimsdyke trying to charm a beautiful young swimming instructor/physiotherapist away from one of the new young doctors.
As the means to both involve charm and romance there is a lot of trademark Phillips leers and 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink' comments. It is not as if you wouldn't expect this going into the movie though. Phillips has had that persona pretty much throughout his whole working life.

Doctor In Clover is a frothy and fun British comedy that both stands the test of time and is a typical example of the late fifties and early sixties we produced. It is very much a product of the time, bringing in the mild sex side that the Carry On films had been peddling successfully for a few years.

It is also set almost entirely in the Hospital plus a couple of sets. Sets that look like exactly what they are. It occasionally spoils things every now and again, ruining that suspension of disbelief you need in any movie, but most of the time you are enjoying it too much to care.

Of all of the Doctor movies it is this one, and the original, that I would recommend watching, as long as you actually like British comedies from the fifties and the sixties. It is full of British stars and character actors from the period, and of the future. Spotting them is almost as much fun as the film, especially noticing people who keep turning up again and again as different characters, like Joan Sims and Fenella Fielding (also making her third appearance as a patient in the hospital)
It is amazing how many future big time TV stars appeared in these movies. Getting a part in a British comedy film at the time was obviously a good breeding ground, and a great way to learn your art.

If you want to see a good fun comedy that all the family can watch then you cannot go far wrong with this. It is a slight bit dated but the characters and situations are still familiar ones for our times.

Summary: The Doctor series reaches its penultimate adventure