Leslie Philips graduates from veterinary college after ten years, when they run the same exam as seven years earlier. He buys a moribund practice where everyone wants him to put down unwanted pets.
Leslie Phillips struggles with this drama/comedy that has a few very predictable gags and some serious scenes that don't really fit together.As a new graduate, Phillips runs an ethical vet practice while a fellow student that cheated on his exams runs a wealthy but dodgy business, and uses Phillips in a scheme to export old horses to France for their meat.
IN THE DOGHOUSE is undoubtedly the ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL of its day, a likeable and workable comedy following the misadventures of Leslie Phillips as a small-time vet handling a high caseload, a boorish rival in the form of James Booth, and a complex love life. For once Phillips doesn't play his usual lothario character but instead somebody fussier and much nicer, and he really shines.
The film is typical of its era.Films about Doctors,midwives,nurses,and here vets.
Even though this limerick does not appear in this delightful farce, there is a sequence where the imagination does take over, given the viewer the opportunity to see the untold joke, and that is just one of the many hysterical moments in this delightfully droll British comedy. The story focuses on a bumbling veterinarian (Leslie Phillips), a shy sort whose bashfulness gets him unwanted attention because in his attempts to avoid attention, he becomes a major klutz.
Leslie Phillips plays a newly qualified vet with a heart of gold when it comes to animals. When he takes over an old practice he becomes rivals with his roguish fellow student (James Booth), foils a cruel horse meat racket with the help of an R.
In the Doghouse is based on the reminiscences of Alex Duncan, who did for vets what Richard Gordon did for doctors. He wrote four books, A vet's life, which the film is based on, then Vet in Congress, Vets in the Manger, and Vets in the Belfry.
Episodic mix of humor and pathos as bumbling Fox-Upton (Leslie Phillips) struggles to finally pass (on his fifth attempt) his exams to become a veterinarian and begin a practice. He buys a small London practice only to find that the cheating Skeffington (James Booth) opens a swank practice around the corner.
This movie had a great plot and was interesting the whole way through ! The acting by Rhea Perlman and Trevor Morgan was sensational .
