The great British institution, the Carry On film, gets a Hong Kong twist with Shaw Brothers comedy ‘Carry On Doctors and Nurses’. Packed with familiar faces from Hong Kong comedy of the era, is this more ‘Carry on Loving’ (my favourite) or ‘Carry on Columbus’?
St. Mordant’s Hospital is under fire for poor performance and, with an inspection on the way, has to massively improve standards. To push things forward, the hospital has a new intake of nurses and trainee doctors, though hijinks between the two sexes ensue. Meanwhile, the head doctor deals with his insanity slowly unravelling, while the prim and proper matron starts to fall in love with him.
For many, the Carry On film is not a British tradition they want to shout about. Personally, I’ve grown to really enjoy many of them, though when they are bad, they are horrid. Much of the enjoyment comes from the familiar ensemble cast, usually headed by Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques et al., and their typecast characters. ‘Carry On Doctors and Nurses’ simply doesn’t engender the same affection, even though there are popular Hong Kong performers populating the cast. That helps, especially as the likes of Alfred Cheung and Lawrence Cheng are fine comic performers in other films. The material, however, is quite thin – and I do know the irony of saying that shortly after praising the original British Carry Ons.
While ‘Carry On Doctors and Nurses’ doesn’t provide a steady stream of laughs, it’s not a complete waste of time. The aforementioned actors perform well, with Meg Lam especially good in the Hattie Jacques role. And it’s always good to see Chan Hui-Man, classic heavy that he often is, playing things for laughs and going against type. A heavy dose of nostalgia helps the medicine go down a bit better too.
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