7/10
Jim Dale's opus
15 August 2020
Jim Dale is the focus of this funny medical comedy.

Carry On Doctor had Dale as a clumsy doctor in a disastrous interaction with Barbara Windsor. Kenneth Williams' supercilious higher-level doctor and Hattie Jacques' scheming matron use Dale's highly public accidents to oust him.

This one starts out like that but Williams and Jacques here play warmer, funnier characters. The relatively complex story has Williams eager to open a fancy clinic funded by Joan Sims' wealthy widow. This involves Dale, who created some explosive disasters at the hospital while trying to woo scantily clad patient Windsor, being packed off to a clinic on a monsoonal island. There he meets Sid James' character, the orderly of the non-functioning medical outpost, who has developed a slimming potion.

Dale is the focus throughout, and he is great fun. This puts Sid James into a reduced role, though he, and Jacques, Windsor, Sims, and Williams, get enough good scenes scattered through the story to keep fans happy. Charles Hawtrey here plays a devious doctor and has many good scenes - in some Carry Ons he is more a recurring comedy bit but here he is more crucial to the story.

Patsy Rowlands makes her debut in a small role with a fun twist. Peter Butterworth has a cool cameo.
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