Doctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on the 1952 novel by Gordon, and follows a group of students through medical school.
It was the most popular box office film of 1954 in Great Britain. Its success spawned six sequels, and also a television and radio series entitled Doctor in the House.
It made Dirk Bogarde one of the biggest British stars of the 1950s. Other well-known British actors featured in the film were Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and Donald Houston. James Robertson Justice appeared as the irascible chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt, a role he would repeat in many of the sequels.
Plot summary
The story follows the fortunes of Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde), starting as a new medical student at the fictional St Swithin's Hospital in London. His five years of student life, involving drinking, dating women, and falling foul of the rigid hospital authorities, provide many humorous incidents.
When he has to leave his first choice of lodgings to get away from his landlady's amorous daughter (Shirley Eaton), he ends up with three amiable but less-than-shining fellow students as flatmates: Richard Grimsdyke (Kenneth More). A relative had left him a small but adequate annuity while he remains in medical school, so he deliberately fails his exams each year. Tony Benskin (Donald Sinden), an inveterate woman chaser. Taffy Evans (Donald Houston), a rugby fanatic.
Towering over them all is the short-tempered, demanding chief surgeon, Sir Lancelot Spratt (played by James Robertson Justice in a manner quite unlike Gordon's original literary character), who strikes terror into everyone.
Simon's friends cajole him into a series of disastrous dates, first with a placidly uninterested "Rigor Mortis" (Joan Sims), then with Isobel (Kay Kendall), a woman with very expensive tastes, and finally with Joy (Muriel Pavlow), a nurse at St Swithin's. After a rocky start, he finds he likes Joy a great deal. Meanwhile, Richard is given an ultimatum by his fiancée Stella (Suzanne Cloutier) – graduate or she will leave him. He buckles down.
The climax of the film is a rugby match with a rival medical school during Simon's fifth and final year. After St Swithin's wins, the other side tries to steal the school mascot, a stuffed gorilla, resulting in a riot and car chase through the streets of London. Simon and his friends are almost expelled for their part in this by the humourless Dean of St Swithin's (Geoffrey Keen). When Simon helps Joy sneak into the nurses' residence after curfew, he accidentally falls through a skylight. This second incident gets him expelled, even though he is a short time away from completing his finals. Sir Lancelot, however, has fond memories of his own student days, particularly of the Dean's own youthful indiscretion (persuading a nurse to reenact Lady Godiva's ride). His discreet blackmail gets Simon reinstated. In the end, Richard fails (as does Tony), but Stella decides to enroll at St Swithin's herself so there will be at least one doctor in the family. Simon and Taffy graduate.
Cast
Dirk Bogarde as Simon Sparrow
Muriel Pavlow as Joy Gibson
Kenneth More as Richard Grimsdyke
Donald Sinden as Tony Benskin
Kay Kendall as Isobel Minster
James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt
Donald Houston as Taffy Evans
Suzanne Cloutier as Stella
George Coulouris as Mrm William Briggs
Jean Taylor Smith as Sister Virtue
Nicholas Phipps as Magistrate
Geoffrey Keen as Dean
Martin Boddey as lecturer at pedal machine
Joan Sims as "Rigor Mortis" Gudrun Ure as May Harry Locke as Jessup Cyril Chamberlain as Policeman Ernest Clark as Mr. Parrish Maureen Pryor as Mrs. Cooper George Benson as lecturer on drains Shirley Eaton as Milly Groaker Eliot Makeham as Elderly Examiner Joan Hickson as Mrs. Groaker Brian Oulton as Medical equipment salesman Shirley Burniston as Barbara Mark Dignam as Examiner at microscope Felix Felton as Examiner Lisa Gastoni as Jane Geoffrey Sumner as Forensic Lecturer Amy Veness as Grandma Cooper Mona Washbourne as Midwifery sister Felix Felton and Wyndham Goldie as Examiners (uncredited) Richard Gordon as Anaesthetist (uncredited) Noel Purcell as "Padre", landlord at the doctors' pub (uncredited) Bruce Seton as Police driver (uncredited) Richard Wattis as Medical book salesman (uncredited)