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{{about|the film}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2013}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Doctor in the House
| image = Doctor in the House poster.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Original British cinema poster
| director = [[Ralph Thomas]]
| producer = [[Betty E. Box]]
| screenplay = {{Plainlist|
* [[Richard Gordon (English author)|Richard Gordon]]
* [[Nicholas Phipps]]
* Ronald Wilkinson}}
| based_on = {{based on|''[[Doctor in the House (novel)|Doctor in the House]]''|Richard Gordon}}
| starring = {{Plainlist|
* [[Dirk Bogarde]]
* [[Muriel Pavlow]]
* [[Kenneth More]]
* [[Donald Sinden]]
* [[Kay Kendall]]
* [[James Robertson Justice]]
* [[Donald Houston]]}}
| music = [[Edmund Crispin|Bruce Montgomery]]
| cinematography = [[Ernest Steward]]
| editing = [[Gerald Thomas]]
| studio = Group Film Productions
| distributor = [[General Film Distributors]]
| released = {{Film date|1954|03|23|UK|1955|02|02|US|df=y}}
| runtime = 87 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget = £120,000<ref>Geoffrey Macnab, ''J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry'', London, Routledge (1993) p224</ref> or £97,000<ref name="brian">Brian McFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'' Metheun 1997 p 87</ref> pr £109,000<ref name="Collected Interviews p110">''Collected Interviews: Voices from Twentieth-century Cinema'' by Wheeler W. Dixon, SIU Press, 2001 p110</ref>
}}
'''''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 (English author)|Richard Gordon]] and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on [[Doctor in the House (novel)|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 [[Doctor (film series)|six sequels]], and also a television and radio series entitled ''[[Doctor in the House (TV series)|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 football|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==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[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 (actor)|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 (English author)|Richard Gordon]] as Anaesthetist (uncredited)
* [[Noel Purcell (actor)|Noel Purcell]] as "Padre", [[Landlord#Licensed victualler|landlord]] at the doctors' [[pub]] (uncredited)
* [[Bruce Seton]] as Police driver (uncredited)
* [[Richard Wattis]] as Medical book salesman (uncredited)
{{div col end}}

==Production==
Producer [[Betty Box]] picked up a copy of the book at [[Crewe]] during a long rail journey and saw its possibility as a film. The film rights had been optioned to [[Associated British Picture Corporation]] (ABPC) but they decided not to make the movie, and Box bought the rights. She and [[Ralph Thomas]] had a job convincing the [[Rank Organisation]] to make the movie because of the lack of a central story. But Box said "I think I know how to do it. I take my four students through three or four years of medical training and make that the story."<ref name="brian"/>

She later said she was "very lucky" to get [[Nicholas Phipps]] to write the script. "There wasn't a great deal of the book in it, except for the characters", she said.<ref name="brian"/>

"I'd never made comedies before but I reckoned I wanted to make it both real and funny and so I wouldn't deal with comedians."<ref name="Collected Interviews p109">''Collected Interviews: Voices from Twentieth-century Cinema'' by Wheeler W. Dixon, SIU Press, 2001 p109</ref>

Rank executives thought that people would not be interested in a film about medicine, and that Bogarde, who up to then had played [[spiv]]s and Second World War heroes, lacked sex appeal and could not play light comedy. As a result, the filmmakers got a low budget and were only allowed to use available Rank contract artists.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/245626%7C0/Doctor-in-the-House.html |title=Doctor in the House |last1=Thomas |first1=Frank |website=TCM.com |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |access-date=2016-03-20 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320154101/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/245626%7C0/Doctor-in-the-House.html |archive-date=2016-03-20}}</ref>

"They didn't really have any funny actors to work with; they were all straight actors. Dirk Bogarde... had never played a funny line in his life", said Thomas.<ref name="Collected Interviews p109"/>

"Not one of them ever did anything because they wanted to make it funny", Thomas added. "They played it within a very strict, tight limit of believability. Dirk was able to do that, he got away with it and it stopped him from being just another bright, good looking leading man and made him a star."<ref name="brian2">Brian McFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'' 1997 p 557</ref>

St Swithin's Hospital is represented by the front of [[University College London]], and is thought to be based upon [[Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry]], the medical school attached to [[St Bartholomew's Hospital]], where Richard Gordon was a student.

[[Kenneth More]] had just made ''[[Genevieve (film)|Genevieve]]'' (1953) when he signed to appear in the cast, but ''Genevieve'' had not been released yet. Accordingly, his fee was only £3,500.<ref>Kenneth More, ''More or Less'', Hodder & Staughton, 1978 p 160</ref> [[Robert Morley]] was approached to play the surgeon but his agent insisted on a fee of £15,000 so they cast James Robertson Justice instead at a fee of £1,500.<ref name="brian"/>

Filming started in September 1953.<ref>{{cite news|title=RANDOM OBSERVATIONS ON PICTURES AND PEOPLE|author=HOWARD THOMPSON|work=New York Times|date=20 Sep 1953|page=X5}}</ref>

==Reception==
The film was a massive success at the box office.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/Screen_Volume_32_Issue_3/page/n17|magazine=Screen|page=259|volume=32|issue=3|title=The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry|first=Janet|last=Thumim}}</ref> Betty Box estimated it recouped its budget in the first six weeks of release.<ref name="brian"/> Thomas says it paid for itself in two weeks and claims it was the first "purely British picture without any foreign involvement to make a million pounds' profit within two years."<ref name="Collected Interviews p110"/>

It became the most successful film in Rank's history and had admissions of 15,500,000 – one third of the British population.<ref>{{cite news|title=NOTED ON THE LONDON SCREEN SCENE: 'Doctor' Proves to Be A Bonanza -- Command Film Show Panned|author=STEPHEN WATTS LONDON|work=New York Times|date=19 Dec 1954|page=X7}}</ref>

Thomas put its success down to the fact that "it was about something which, until that time, had been treated with about as much reverence as you would treat your confessor. People used to hold medicine in great awe... In our film, people liked and identified with the funny situations they had seen happen or which had happened to themselves as patients, doctors or nurses."<ref name="brian2"/>

===Critical===
''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' noted "A topdraw British comedy...bright, diverting entertainment, intelligently scripted...and warmly played";<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/1953/film/reviews/doctor-in-the-house-1200417700/|title=Doctor in the House|work=Variety|date=1 January 1954}}</ref> while ''[[TV Guide]]'' wrote "Shot with the appropriate lighthearted touch in bright,
shiny color, with fine performances all around (Kenneth More is particularly good), this sometimes hilarious film started the series off on a high note."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/doctor-in-the-house/review/113129|title=Doctor In The House | TV Guide|website=TVGuide.com}}</ref>

==Awards==
* Kenneth More won the 1955 [[BAFTA]] Film Award for Best British Actor
* Nominated for the 1955 BAFTA Film Award, Best British Film
* Nominated for the 1955 BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from any Source
* Nicholas Phipps was nominated for the 1955 BAFTA Film Award, Best British Screenplay

==Sequels==
{{Main|Doctor (film series)}}
''Doctor in the House'' was the most popular film at the British box office in 1954.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27253063 |title=JOHN WAYNE HEADS BOX-OFFICE POLL. |newspaper=[[The Mercury (Hobart)|The Mercury]] |location=Hobart, Tasmania |date=31 December 1954 |access-date=24 April 2012 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Its success resulted in six sequels, three starring Bogarde, one with [[Michael Craig (actor)|Michael Craig]] and [[Leslie Phillips]], and the other two with Phillips, as well as a successful television series from [[London Weekend Television]].

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0046921|Doctor in the House}}
* {{tcmdb title|73277|Doctor in the House}}
* {{Screenonline title|457556}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160807192335/http://www.britmovie.co.uk/films/Doctor-in-the-House_1954 ''Doctor in the House''] at Britmovie
{{Gordon Doctor}}
{{Ralph Thomas}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doctor In The House}}
[[Category:Doctor in the House| ]]
[[Category:1954 films]]
[[Category:1954 comedy films]]
[[Category:British comedy films]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films set in hospitals]]
[[Category:Films based on British novels]]
[[Category:Films set in London]]
[[Category:Films shot in London]]
[[Category:Films shot at Pinewood Studios]]
[[Category:Films directed by Ralph Thomas]]
[[Category:Films produced by Betty Box]]

Doctor in the House - Revision history

Kurt at 04:52, 14 February 2023

Kurt: /* External links */

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en>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: /* External links */add Category:1950s British films

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en>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: Removing from Category:British films no longer non-diffusing using Cat-a-lot