Dentist on the Job (1961)
Directors
Stars
Dentist on the Job
Overview
The marketing department of a pharmaceutical company decides to enlist a dentist to endorse its brand of toothpaste although they would be struck off for doing so. They hire two recent graduates who find themselves tied into a contract they failed to read. Having decided that the product is rubbish, the graduates set about developing a new, better toothpaste which they consider worthy of being struck off for.
Dentist on the Job Film Details
Overview: The marketing department of a pharmaceutical company decides to find a dentist to endorse its brand of toothpaste.
Tagline: For The First Time In Your Life…You’ll Really Laugh!
Review: The cast of this film are familiar names to fans of British comedy, with major roles going to Eric Barker, Kenneth Connor and Bob Monkhouse, amongst others. Stylistically this film is more a precursor to the Talbot Rothwell era of Carry On films than a nod back to the Doctor films as there is quite a dependence on double entendre (you know the thought of thing, dentist says to girl “I want you on that couch”). Some of the jokes are lifted straight from a Bob Monkhouse stand-up comedy performance, and they show, but there are genuinely funny moments in this film. Some of the slapstick sequences also work quite well, although they are a little reminiscent of the kind of material to be found in a Norman Wisdom film. The highlight of the film was the scene where Shirley Eaton, in a film studio, is in a bath full of foam advertising the company’s latest soap product. Watching in the wings is Monkhouse standing next to a very large wind machine. He’s leaning on the machine, elbow frighteningly close to the on/off lever. You know just what’s going to happen, and it’s quite funny when it does. In a film such as this the plot is secondary and involves two recently graduated dental students falsely lured to work for a toothpaste company. Once they have been hired they discover that they were employed to advertise the toothpaste, not to further their dental careers. Some of the scenes in this film are funny, some are not; it is more hit and miss than the Carry Ons. Charles Hawtrey has a guest appearance right at the start of the film yet he has the scene stolen from him by an unknown (to me) female actress. Richard Wattis plays the unlikeable corporate bully, Eric Barker the ‘barking’ boss. A major role goes to Ronnie Stevens, who although does not bring very much to the film, does at least manage to avoid being embarrassing. Bob Monkhouse is the ‘handsome’ lead; we are expected to believe that hoards of women will melt at his merest uttering. In an ironic way that’s perhaps the best joke in the film.
Country: UK
Language: English
Duration: 88 min
Genre: Comedy
Also known as: Dentist on the Job,Get on with It!,Dentista à força,Carry on TV,Die Creme, von der man spricht,Nu tar vi tanden