Rent Doctor in the House (1954)

Hospital Pass. - Doctor in the House review by Steve

Actually no... the past is another planet. The mob of posh, male student doctors are so alien, this might as well be sci-fi. Maybe for anyone who was there, this is nostalgia. But it really does feel like it's from another millennium! While the US counterculture began to make pictures about the Beats and juvenile delinquency, these undergrads are getting into scrapes over the college mascot.

And yet, this was the UK's biggest box office hit of the year. It made Dirk Bogarde a huge star and triggered six further sequels. Which are all inferior. It matters less that the actors are too old (Kenneth More was 40) than their characters are entitled pests who treat the nursing staff as a personal harem guarded by a battleaxe Matron. It's no more than an upmarket Carry On film.

Donald Sinden (31) is a ludicrous lech. There is no unifying plot so the sketches have to stand on their jokes. And these situations were squeezed of laughs long ago. It's people walking into doors or crashing through ceilings. There must be a book in explaining why this scored so deeply with '50s audiences. Maybe the Technicolor? The reassurance of conservative values?

Still, there's a decent support cast, with a cameo from Kay Kendall. James Robertson Justice became a cultural icon as Lancelot Spratt, the irascible surgeon. What's the bleeding time? And, miraculously, Bogarde (33) emerges from the hijinks with dignity as the flustered Simon Sparrow. It's far from the arthouse roles he is remembered for but his star charisma is unmissable.

*warning- there is a character in blackface.