one of my absolute favorites!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A typical film of the "doldrums" era of British cinema.A formulaic, lacklustre comedy with the type of populist humour that was acceptable, perhaps even funny, to audiences of the 1950's.You can see it very much as a forerunner to the smutty humour of the Carry On series but this was 1957 and they couldn't get away with very much just yet.What humour there is is very lame and pretty cringey. The big breaths "joke" particularly. It's no wonder British cinema was disregarded so roundly in this era.It's obviously before the era of "medical ethics" too, with Dr Sparrow overstepping the doctor/patient boundary quite worryingly at times, putting one rich female patient over his knee and slapping her on the rear end. Again, all a bit cringey. Stereotypes of all kinds abound, racial, social and sexual.As a period piece on how films were made in the 1950's it's a classic example. It hasn't stood the test of time very well though!

English medical comedy in the dark medium of a theater, is often subtle, urbane and sleigh of hand. For American audiences, we see British laughter in two ways, either loud and in your face, such as Monte Python's Flying Circus or tall abrupt and seriously stuffy as in this offering. This film " Doctor at Large " is the second installment and although much is expected, falls a bit flat. Despite having two of the finest English actors like Dirk Bogarde as Dr. Simon Sparrow and James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt, the movie, like the story is hampered with fractured scenes and little adhesion to comedy. One wonders if the characters are seeking sympathy for the script or for the jumbled set of patients which range from the very neurotic to the very eccentric. The movie strives for understanding, but despite its best efforts never achieves the nobility of the original. A great waste of serious talent. ***

The third film in the series of British comedies based on the novels of Richard Gordon. Dr.Simon Sparrow ( Dirk Bogarde ) is competing with the conceited Dr.Bingham ( Michael Medwin ) for the job of senior house surgeon. But after accidentally being rude to one of the Board of Governors, he gets the push.Sparrow takes on one job after another; from Dr.Hackett's ( Lionel Jefferies ) Northern practice to Dr.Potter-Shine's ( Derek Farr ) Harley Street surgery, but each time things go wrong. Eventually, he finds himself right back where he started - at St. Swithins...A wonderful supporting cast - Dandy Nichols, Edward Chapman, Shirley Eaton ( as a sexy nurse ), Barbara Murray, Ronnie Stevens, Dilys Laye, George Coulouris and so on - enlivens this episodic comedy. Watching it now you can see where most of the ideas for the 1971 London Weekend Television sitcom ( starring Barry Evans ) came from. There's the man who claims to cough up nuts and bolts, a woman panicking when Dr.Sparrow refuses to prescribe her any more red medicine, the patients complaining about the new Doctor being too young, Benskin inheriting a fortune only to learn it must be donated to a hospital of his choice, and so on.Whereas the main characters underwent name changes for the series ( 'Dr.Sparrow' becoming 'Upton', 'Benskin' inspiring the character of 'Stuart-Clark' etc. ), 'Dr.Bingham' made it into the show more or less intact. Medwin plays him as a tweedy, humourless twit in a bow-tie, whereas Richard O'Sullivan's version was unpleasant and yet very funny.Back after a one film absence are Muriel Pavlow as 'Joy' and Donald Sinden as 'Benskin'. Bogarde was keen to make this his last appearance in the series, hence the ending implies that he and Joy are to be married. The next film - 'Doctor In Love' - starred Michael Craig and Leslie Phillips. Bogarde returned as 'Sparrow' ( sans 'Joy' ) for 1964's 'Doctor In Distress'.What secures this a place in British comedy film history is the famous 'big breaths' gag - a mother takes her well-endowed teenage daughter Eva to see the doctor. As Sparrow puts on his stethoscope, he tells her: "Big breaths, Eva!". The lisping girl replies: "Yeth. And I'm only thixteen!".

Not as good as the first (Doctor In The House), but easily better than the second, Doctor At Sea, and it's great to see Joy (Muriel Pavlow) make a welcome return. James Robertson Justice is at his acerbic best in this installment, and the predicaments Dirk Bogarde gets himself into in the rural practitioners are hilarious. 7.5/10.