Dentist in the Chair (1960)

Director:

Don Chaffey

Writers:

Matthew Finch (novel)
Val Guest (screenplay)

Release Date:

August 1960 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Even your eyeteeth will pop when you see the girls!

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel | Independent Film

Cast

Bob Monkhouse	...	David Cookson
Peggy Cummins	...	Peggy Travers
Kenneth Connor	...	Sam Field
Eric Barker	...	The Dean
Ronnie Stevens	...	Brian Dexter
Vincent Ball	...	Michaels
Eleanor Summerfield	...	Ethel
Reginald Beckwith	...	Mr. Watling
Stuart Saunders	...	Inspector Richardson
Ian Wallace	...	Dentist
Peggy Simpson	...	Miss Brent
Jean St. Clair	...	Lucy
Rosie Lee	...	Maggie
Charlotte Mitchell	...	Woman in Surgery (as Charllotte Mitchel)
Philip Gilbert	...	Young Man in Surgery

Runtime:

USA:84 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:U | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Briand Film Productions

Quotes:

[Sam Field is masquerading as a fictitious student John Sam. The instructor is not impressed with his efforts in class]
Dental Instructor: Would you like to hear the substance of my report to the Dean? "Lecturer's Report, 18th instant. Dear Sir. The student John Sam appears to me to be the epitome of all that is retrogressive and reprehensible. He is vacuous, indolent, disputatious and completely illiterate. He is, in your own splendid phrase, Sir, 'a perfect coagulation of the plasma'."
Sam Field: [shaking the instructor's hand] And I thought you didn't like me. What does that mean, Sir, 'a coagulation of the plasma'?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Followed by Dentist on the Job (1961)

Very bad indeed.

Being an expatriate Brit, I watch quite a lot of vintage British movies of any genre. I watched this movie mainly because I had never before seen a movie with Bob Monkhouse appearing in it. However. it didn't take long to see that the movie was headed towards being inane and pathetic. I don't know whether the director thought "the more the merrier" but ninety nine percent of the movie showed large numbers of people crammed into small halls or rooms within the dental hospital. It was all too frenetic and random to be amusing. And the silly old-fashioned elevator was hopelessly over-used. Of course, the story line was limp also - not even worth recounting, indeed just like all the "Carry On" movies but this one fell short of even those, as if that was at all possible! No wonder Monkhouse made relatively few movies. As a scriptwriter, TV show host and stand up comic he was a bit (but not much) better. As an actor (in this movie at any rate) he was remarkably wooden and dull. As I mentioned at the beginning, my curiosity was that I not seen a Bob Monkhouse movie before. After having viewed this painful offering, I will not let my curiosity about Monkhouse movies get the better of me again!