Carry on Follow That Camel (1967)

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Blistering performances.

Has its moments but generally not that funny, or interesting.A young English gentleman is falsely shamed at cricket match and, as a result, runs off to join the French Foreign Legion in North Africa. His sergeant is a lazy, scheming, pleasure-over-duty sort and this leads to some interesting escapades. Meanwhile, a local warlord is intent on attacking the Legionnaire's fort...Regarded as an honorary Carry On movie, this movie is mostly quite silly and uninteresting. The jokes are hardly plentiful or that good, though some do hit the mark. Doesn't really work as an adventure movie either - quite dull and unoriginal in that regard.About the only thing that keeps this going are the hijinks and schemes of Sergeant Nocker, played by Phil Silvers.

Follow That Camel is the fourteenth of Carry On Series, which sees the Carry On gang join the French Foreign Legion. With Sid James being unavailable for the part of Sergeant Knocker, it was up to Peter Rodgers & Gerald Thomas to find a perfect lead. At this time Rodgers & Thomas thought this was a perfect opportunity to try & break the Carry On's into the American market by casting an American in the lead. Originally the first choice to play the lead was Woody Allen, however it was said Allen wanted to much money. Eventually producers managed to convince Sgt Bilko star Phil Silvers to take the lead. The part of Knocker was tailored to the style of Bilko.The rest of the Carry On regulars are present, Jim Dale as Bo West, Peter Butterworth as Simpson, Kenneth Williams as Commandant Burger, Angela Douglas as Lady Jane, Charles Hawtrey as Captain Le Pice, Joan Sims as Zig-Zig, Anita Harris as Corktip & Bernard Bresslaw as Abdul.Finally the review, I have to say Follow That camel is not the greatest of Carry on's, in fact I'd go as far as calling it one of the forgotten Carry On's. When you mention to people the title to this one, people seem to say "Is that the one with Phil Silvers in?". And that's probably what I mean, because apart from Phil Silvers presents not a lot of things in this stick out. The film feels a lot like Up The Khyber which we see a couple of films down the line, in fact a lot of things in this feels like it gets recycled in that, right from the plot to the actually scenery which you would probably recognize. The only thing you don't have in Up The Khyber is a Sgt Knocker character around.One thing to mention about this is Kenneth Williams for once is playing a slightly less Campy role than usual. In fact he's playing a straight strict Commandant. At times when you watch this, you get this feeling your not watching Carry On, its like watching Columbus but with gang present if you get my drift. The film is funny yes, there's is the odd good one liner, I did enjoy the desert bit which sees them on a long trek across the desert to Fort Zuassantneuf, oh and "Musthavealeak"What about Phil Silvers? Silvers performance is okay, I think his presents was good for a one off, I do feel if he had appeared in a another one it wouldn't haven't worked, as mentioned he was playing Bilko in this with a different name and looking at the other Carry On's I don't know where he would have fit in plus people may got sick of his Bilko character keep popping up in the carry on's. His character in this is just right really. Another thing to mention is during production Silvers health wasn't particularly great and his mind was going, cause of this Silvers permanently kept forgetting his lines and it forced producers to hold up his lines alongside the camera. Where does this film fail? I just feel there isn't a great deal to remember in this, yeah the regulars put in a good performance and can't fault that but as mentioned it doesn't feel like a Carry On.The film is watchable and far from the worst, yeah of course give it a look in. It's not one of the carry on's where you'd probably watch it again and again, you'd probably need a few years gap. If Sid had been here would it have been different? I dunno maybe if Sid was present it would have felt more like a Carry On, however put it this way if he was in this then Up The Khyber probably wouldn't have been so great.

A surprisingly funny instalment of the CARRY ON franchise, given this film's poor reputation amongst fans. A lot of that ill feeling stems from the presence of Phil Silvers (SGT. BILKO) in the cast, replacing Sid James; Silvers is hardly a perfect fit here, but I found that come the end he had acquitted himself well with the material.And the story is very enjoyable. This is a broad spoof of the Foreign Legion movie, with an upper class toff (Jim Dale, on fine form) and his manservant (Peter Butterworth, excelling in one of his larger roles) drafted into the Legion to do battle against Bernard Bresslaw (excellent) and his nefarious Arabs.The cast give some very good performances in this one, particularly Kenneth Williams playing a (bizarrely) German officer. Inevitably the gags come thick and fast, and there's a fair share of hits among them too, including some great sight gags. What I noticed in particular, and it may be the nature of the spoof, is that CARRY ON FOLLOW THAT CAMEL has much more in common with the 1950s-era CARRY ON flicks than the crude 1970s ones, and that's perhaps a reason I enjoyed it so much.

Anita Harris stars in this Phil Silvers burlesque, as a belly dancer named "Corktip" who does a complete belly dance cameo and spends significant portions of the rest of the movie in an orange, hiphugging, midriff-baring harem outfit. A must see for fans of the belly dance/harem girl fantasy!