Carry on Follow That Camel (1967)

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.

Sergeant Bilko makes for a disconcerting presence in a Carry On spoof of Beau Geste, but the experiment is more successful than not thanks to a solid Talbot Rothwell script, with Silvers playing well off the stiff upper lip types. Dale and Butterworth are in fine form as the naive aristo and his loyal valet, while Gilmore puts in a moustache twirling turn as the caddish rival, and as the object of their affections Douglas is absolutely luminous - and laugh out loud funny as she undergoes her rites of passage while retaining impeccable English manners.Less successful are the broader ethnic stereotypes from Williams, Hawtry, Simms and Bluthal, though Bresslaw enjoys himself as the villainous sheik, while Harris is more sultry than might be thought possible as a treacherous belly dancer.Not a classic, but by no means the dregs of the series (see Convenience, Loving, Behind, Henry, England, and - shudder - Emmanuelle and Columbus.)

The title card may not include the words 'Carry On' but it isn't surprising that they are added to TV listings and the DVD title as this film features many of the Carry On regulars. Jim Dale plays Bertram Oliphant 'Bo' West; a man who decides to join the French Foreign Legion after he is dismissed from his cricket club in disgrace after being wrongly accused of lying. Soon after he leaves his beloved Lady Jane Ponsonby, played by Angela Douglas, learns what how he was wronged and sets off to find him. Once in the Legion West and his manservant Simpson find that life is much harder than they expected… that is until they realise the cruel Sergeant Nocker, Phil Silvers, lied to the commandant; claiming to have been battling Arabs in the desert when he had in fact been with a local woman. With this information the soon get treated much better. The local Sheikh is keen to defeat the French and captures Nocker, West and Simpson along with Lady Jane when she arrives; Nocker escapes but by know the commandant has learnt of his lies so doesn't believe him for some time… when he realised what has happened he sets off with the rest of the garrison to mount a rescue.This film had all the mild innuendo and double entendres one would expect from a Carry On film; none too rude but still sufficiently funny. The regulars give the solid performances one would expect and Phil Silvers is a lot of fun as Sgt. Nocker; a character not dissimilar to Silvers' more famous role: Sgt. Bilko. In this day and age it probably wouldn't be acceptable for a white actor to 'black up' to play an Arab but it was standard practice then and Bernard Bresslaw did a decent job as Sheikh Abdul Abulbul. The story was good enough with a decent plot that gave the team plenty of opportunities to be funny. This might not be one of the classic Carry On films but it is far from being one of the worst so is well worth watching if you have enjoyed other films in the series.

FOLLOW THAT CAMEL Aspect ratio: 1.66:1Sound format: MonoWhen his reputation is compromised during a routine game of cricket, an English nobleman (Jim Dale) joins the French Foreign Legion and gets mixed up with a lecherous sergeant (Phil Silvers) and an Arab uprising.The first of two entries not to use "Carry On" in its title due to political fall-out from a change of distributor, this lumpy concoction features Silvers in a role originally intended for Sid James (producers had even considered Woody Allen, hoping an American star would help them crack the elusive US market), and while Silvers holds his own amongst an impressive ensemble cast, he seems out of place in a movie steeped in British traditions and sensibilities. Like everyone else, however, he's constantly upstaged by Kenneth Williams as the nostril-flaring German commandant at the Saharan garrison where Dale is stationed with his faithful valet (Peter Butterworth), though by this stage in the "Carry On" series, Williams' dominance of proceedings had become pretty much par for the course. Talbot Rothwell's script is long on plot and short on gags, though a couple of fruity nuggets hit the target (when heroine Angela Douglas proposes venturing onto the streets of a Middle Eastern village after dark, dismissing the possibility of being kidnapped and ravished among the sand dunes by a rampant tribesman, Williams reminds her of an old Arab proverb: "There's many a good fiddle played on an old dune!"). The screenplay also pokes fun at upper-class British twittery (Dale is quite superb as the clueless aristo, completely at odds with his surroundings), which minimises any offence caused by some broad Arab stereotypes, and Bernard Bresslaw hams it up as a villainous bedouin whose only allegiance is to the mythical 'Mustafa Leek'! For some strange reason, the magnificent Joan Sims is wasted as the owner of a small cafe where much of the film's action unfolds.Filmed in the wilds of Camber Sands, Sussex (!), the movie's low budget production values are bolstered by an ultra-professional production team (cinematographer Alan Hume would later work on a number of British-lensed blockbusters, including the Bond movies), but while Gerald Thomas' direction is as efficient as ever, the film is amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny (one gets the impression Rothwell's heart wasn't in it). For the first and only time in "Carry On" history, Silvers gets top billing over all the other actors (producer Peter Rogers always claimed the "Carry On" title was bigger than any of its stars), which must have galled some of the regular players. In fact, the principals were all wary of Silvers' presence, and Williams was particularly vocal in his opposition to the US stars' use of written prompts, causing tension on the set. To his credit, once Silvers became aware of this problem, he abandoned the prompts and memorised his dialogue, earning him the respect of his co-stars, including Williams. Though fun in its own way, the movie pales in comparison with the following "Carry On" entry, DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD (1967), an uproarious parody of the French Revolution.NB. Though often billed as 'Carry On Follow That Camel' and 'Carry On Don't Lose Your Head', neither film has ever been screened under those titles.