Dentist on the Job ** (1961, Bob Monkhouse, Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton, Eric Barker, Ronnie Stevens) – Classic Movie Review 9790

In Dentist on the Job [Get On with It], C M Pennington-Richards’s 1961 sequel to 1960’s hit comedy Dentist in the Chair, Bob Monkhouse and Ronnie Stevens return to play David Cookson and Brian Dexter, young dental-school graduates inventing and promoting a new toothpaste called New Dream and planting an advertising jingle for it in a space satellite.

Monkhouse and Stevens are entertaining again in a sometimes funny farce in the Carry On-style (note the smutty Carry On-style title), though it is the camp turns in support (from Richard Wattis, Reginald Beckwith and Charles Hawtrey) that contribute most of the laughs.

Monkhouse had a hand in the then topical script about space satellites, contributing additional sequences, along with main screen-writers Hazel Adair (screenplay) and Hugh Woodhouse (screenplay).

TV hosts Michael Miles (your ‘quiz inquisator’ on the 1955-68 TV game show series Take Your Pick) and Keith Fordyce appear as themselves.

It also stars Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton, Eric Barker, Richard Wattis, Reginald Beckwith, Charles Hawtrey, Graham Stark, Jeremy Hawk, David Horne, Ian Whittaker and Patrick Holt, with David Glover, Richard Caldicot, Anthony Bate, Mercy Haystead, Charlotte Mitchell, Alf Dean, Neil Hallett, Julian Holloway, Arthur Mullard and Cyril Chamberlain.

Julie Samuel plays Penelope Allcock (!) in her feature film debut. She was born on May 15, 1944 in London and is known for Ferry Cross the Mersey (1964). Her last TV was in 1980.

Dentist on the Job [Get On with It] is directed by C M Pennington-Richards, runs 88 minutes, is made by Bertram Ostrer Productions, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (1961) (UK) and Governor Films (1963) (US), is written by Hazel Adair, Hugh Woodhouse and Bob Monkhouse, is shot in black and white by Stephen Dade, is produced by Bertram M Ostrer, is scored by Ken Jones, and designed by Anthony Masters.

It is made at Shepperton Studios.

Bizarrely, it will forever be linked with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The opening titles and a portion of the first scene of this movie appear on the 2001 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Special Edition DVD. A voice is eventually heard mumbling that it is the wrong movie, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail starts instead.

Richard Wattis walks towards the camera with a sandwich board saying ‘The End’.

Connor and Hawtrey were both Carry On regulars and Hawtrey receives a guest star credit. Monkhouse was the star of the original Carry On Sergeant (1958), but passed on Carry On Nurse (1959) because he thought the fee was far too low, so now we know why he did not become a Carry On regular.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9790

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