Twice Round the Daffodils *** (1962, Juliet Mills, Donald Sinden, Donald Houston, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Ronald Lewis, Andrew Ray, Joan Sims, Jill Ireland) – Classic Movie Review 8118

Juliet Mills stars as a nice nurse called Catty, who tends randy, troublesome patients, in director Gerald Thomas’s minor, very British 1962 farce Twice Round the Daffodils, set in a men’s tuberculosis clinic, where, as you would expect, there are not too many laughs to be found.

But, nevertheless, there are still plenty of crude jokes, high spirits and wacky fun to be found in Twice Round the Daffodils, with a clutch of highly amusing performances, especially from Carry On regulars Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims as Henry and Harriet Halfpenny. Williams is of course typecast as supercilious bachelor Henry, and Sims plays his devoted, letter-writing sister.

The cheerful comic caper centres on four new arrivals at the sanatorium, where they have to adjust to hospital life. The sanatorium’s patients include Welsh coal miner John (Donald Houston), woman-chasing RAF officer Ian (Donald Sinden), long-stay patient Bob (Ronald Lewis), bachelor Henry (Kenneth Williams), West Country farmer George (Lance Percival), and timid trainee chef Chris (Andrew Ray).

The screenplay is by Carry On regular writer Norman Hudis, based on a play Ring for Catty by the actor Patrick Cargill and Jack Beale. You can see why they changed the title for the movie. The 1959 Carry On Nurse was based on the same play. Ring for Catty is a baffling title for a play. Juliet Mills plays Catty, by the way.

To explain the film’s baffling title, the aim of the patients is to walk twice round the daffodils, which shows they are cured.

The cast and production team make it very of similar to a Carry On film without it actually being one.

Also notable in the cast are Donald Sinden, Donald Houston, Ronald Lewis, Andrew Ray, Lance Percival, Jill Ireland, Sheila Hancock, Nanette Newman, Amanda Reiss, Mary Powell, Barbara Roscoe and Renée Houston as Matron.

Mills played a nice nurse again in the following year’s Nurse on Wheels for the same company, and the two films formed a double bill on DVD.

Renée Houston (born Katherina Rita Murphy Gribbin; 24 July 1902 – 9 February 1980) is also in Nurse on Wheels, Carry On Cabby, Carry On Spying and Carry On at Your Convenience.

The film was shot at Pinewood Studios, with Heatherden Hall as the tuberculosis sanatorium.

The cast are Juliet Mills as Nurse Catty, Donald Sinden as Ian Richards, Donald Houston as John Rhodes, Kenneth Williams as Henry Halfpenny, Ronald Lewis as Bob White, Andrew Ray as Chris Walker, Amanda Reiss as Nurse Beamish, Renée Houston as Matron, Joan Sims as Harriet Halfpenny, Mary Powell as Mrs Rhodes, Jill Ireland as Janet, Lance Percival as George Logg, Sheila Hancock as Dora, Nanette Newman as Joyce, and Barbara Roscoe.

Ronald Lewis had a history of aggression, but when he committed suicide by taking a barbiturate overdose at a boarding house in Pimlico, Kenneth Williams wrote in his 12 January 1982 diary entry: “The paper says Ronald Lewis has taken an overdose! He was declared bankrupt last year! Obviously nobody offered him work and he was driven to despair. I remember Ronnie and that drinking session at the White Horse all those years ago he was a kind boy and people used him. He was 53.’

In 1965, while Ronald Lewis was appearing on stage as Hook in Peter Pan, his wife alleged he had assaulted her. He failed to turn up in court and a warrant was issued for his arrest. At the subsequent trial he admitted to driving while unfit through drink, assaulting a police officer, and being drunk and disorderly. He was fined £65 and banned from driving for a year, but he was not charged with assaulting his wife.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8118

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com