# Doctor in Distress (film)

Doctor in Distress is a 1963 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, James Robertson Justice, and Samantha Eggar. It is the fifth of the seven films in the Doctor series. After a one-film absence, it was the final return to the role of Simon Sparrow by Dirk Bogarde, and also the return (although in a different role) of Donald Houston. The film uses some of the characters in Richard Gordon's Doctor novels, but is not based on any of them.

## Plot

Simon Sparrow, now a senior doctor at Hampden Cross Hospital, falls in love with Delia, a model and aspiring actress. They eventually move in together, but then she goes to Italy to audition for a film.
Meanwhile, Sir Lancelot Spratt injures his back in a fall. Placed under the care of physiotherapist Iris Marchant, he is initially hostile, but soon succumbs to her charms. He turns to his friend Simon for advice. Simon sends him to a nature cure clinic in a vain attempt to help him lose weight. Spratt has Iris followed, and, when his private investigator turns up at Hampden Cross as a patient, follows her himself (terrorising a nervous train passenger in the process). He proposes to her, but is eventually rejected in favour of another of her patients, retired army Major Tommy French.
Delia returns to England, having somehow acquired an expensive Italian car (a Maserati Sebring) and expensive clothes, though she did not win a part in the film. It is implied that she and Simon get together again.

## Cast

* Dirk Bogarde as Dr. Simon Sparrow
* James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt
* Samantha Eggar as Delia Mallory
* Barbara Murray as Iris Marchant
* Mylène Demongeot as Sonia and Helga
* Donald Houston as Major Tommy French
* Jessie Evans as Mrs. Parry
* Ann Lynn as Mrs. Whittaker
* Leo McKern as Harry
* Dennis Price as Dr. Blacker
* David Weston as Dr. Stewart
* Fenella Fielding as Train Passenger
* Jill Adams as Genevieve
* Paul Whitsun-Jones as Grimes
* Michael Flanders as Bradby
* Amanda Barrie as Rona
* Reginald Beckwith as Meyer
* Bill Kerr as Australian Sailor
* Michael Goldie as Physical Training Instructor
* Ronnie Stevens as Hotel Manager
* Peter Butterworth as Ambulance Driver
* Derek Fowlds as Gillibrand
* Timothy Bateson as Mr. Holly
* Joe Robinson as Sonia's Boyfriend
* Ronnie Barker as Man at Railway Station Ticket Counter
* John Bluthal as Railway Porter
* Marianne Stone as Cafe Waitress
* Harry Landis as man in cafe
* Ronald Lacey as man in cafe
* Denise Coffey as Food seller at Railway Station
* Jeanette Landis as Rosie
* Margaret Boyd as Lady Willoughby
* Frank Finlay as Corsetiere
* Rodney Cardiff as Student Doctor
* Richard Briers as Medical Student (uncredited)
* Christopher Beeny as Medical Student (uncredited)
* Johnny Briggs as Medical Student (uncredited)
* Felix Felton as Farm Patient (uncredited)

## Reception

The film was one of the ten most popular movies at the British box office in 1963.
According to Kine Weekly the four most popular films at the British box office in 1963 were From Russia With Love, Summer Holiday, Tom Jones and The Great Escape, followed by, in alphabetical order, Doctor in Distress, The Fast Lady, Girls! Girls! Girls!, Heaven's Above, Jason and the Argonauts, In Search of the Castaways, It Happened at the World's Fair, The Longest Day, On the Beat, Sodom and Gomorrah, The V. I. Ps, and The Wrong Arm of the Law.