Doctor at Sea

Doctor at Sea is a 1955 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas, produced by Betty E. Box, and based on Richard Gordon's 1953 novel of the same name. This was the second of seven films in the Doctor series, following the hugely popular Doctor in the House from the previous year. Once again, Richard Gordon participated in the screenwriting, together with Nicholas Phipps and Jack Davies, and once again Dirk Bogarde played the lead character Dr Simon Sparrow. The cast also includes James Robertson Justice and Joan Sims from the first film, but this time playing different characters. This was Brigitte Bardot's first English-speaking film. Plot To escape his employers' daughter, who has amorous designs on him, Dr. Simon Sparrow (Bogarde) signs on as medical officer on a cargo ship, the SS Lotus. The ship is commanded by the hot-tempered and authoritarian Captain Wentworth Hogg. Sparrow overcomes initial seasickness and settles into life on board. After arriving in a Brazilian port (a local woman demands two hundred cruzeiros from Sparrow), he meets Hélène Colbert (Bardot), a young French woman who is a nightclub singer. Captain Hogg is ordered to take on two female passengers, Muriel Mallet (De Banzie), the daughter of the chairman of the shipping company, and her friend Hélène for the return trip. The unmarried Hogg is pursued by Muriel, who, having her father's ear, promises him almost certain promotion to the rank of commodore within the company if he were to marry her.