Dentist in the Chair (1960)

Based on a book by Matthew Finch and set in a dental training college, this unremarkable little comedy will set your teeth on edge.

David Cookson (Bob Monkhouse) is not a student who devotes himself wholeheartedly to the study of dentistry. He keeps coming a cropper with the Dean (Eric Barker) and their relationship becomes more uneasy when David takes a liking to new student Peggy (Peggy Cummins), who turns out to be the Dean’s niece.

David and fellow student Brian (Ronnie Stevens) become the victims of Sam Field (Kenneth Connor), a small-time thief who gatecrashes the college posing as a salesman to sell dental equipment he has stolen (he stole it by mistake, but that’s another story).

Sam presents the loot to David as bankrupt stock, and the penniless David and Brian decide to auction it amongst their colleagues, splitting the takings with Sam.  They do a brisk business but before they have time to count their profit, they realise that Sam is a thief and that they have become accessories to his crime.

With Peggy’s help, David and Brian feverishly try to buy back the stolen equipment, but they don’t find the going easy.

Their lives are further harassed as Sam masquerades as a student at the college to conceal his identity from the police investigating the theft. The consequences are disastrous.

It’s a far cry from the Doctor films on which it’s obviously modelled, but it’s a sight better than its awful sequel, Dentist on the Job (1961).

David Cookson
Bob Monkhouse
Peggy Travers
Peggy Cummins
Sam Field
Kenneth Connor
The Dean
Eric Barker
Brian Dexter
Ronnie Stevens
Michaels
Vincent Ball
Ethel
Eleanor Summerfield
Mr Watling
Reginald Beckwith
Inspector Richardson
Stuart Saunders
Dentist
Ian Wallace
Miss Brent
Peggy Simpson
Lucy
Jean St Clair

Director
Don Chaffey