Carry On…Follow That Camel (AKA Follow That Camel, Carry On In The Legion)

Dir: Gerald Thomas

1967 

****

I know that the hard-core Carry On fans were never that fond of Follow That Camel but I always loved it and consider it one of their best. It is the fourteenth in the series and the second (following its predecessor Don’t Lose Your Head) to be produced by Rank Films. Like Don’t Lose Your Head, Follow That Camel was released without the famous ‘Carry On’ prefix. This was supposedly done for legal reasons due to Rank having just changed distributors but some have suggested it was more of an intentional move away from the earlier films. Don’t Lose Your Head was not a great film and I’m in the minority that think Follow That Camel is but it isn’t without its problems. The ‘Carry On’ prefix was brought back for the rest of the series, supposedly becoming legal for them to use again. It was clear that Rank wanted to try and tap into the American market, Sid James was meant to star in the lead role but due to television commitments he had to decline. Many have speculated he was replaced due to suffering a heart attack but his attack came after the filming on Follow That Camel had started. While an early draft of the script was written with Woody Allen in mind, the final film was written for the great Phil Silvers. I can see why fans of the series weren’t happy for a non-Brit who had never been part of the cast taking centre stage but personally I love it. He is brilliant and perfect in the roll. To be fair, he is playing Sgt Bilko, but I adore Sgt Bilko, so had no problem with it. It was wrong of the team to forget their core following but series regulars Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Peter Butterworth and Bernard Bresslaw were all on top form, even though they weren’t always happy. A good Carry On film is one where the cast are clearly having fun, here I didn’t get that as much, and for good reason. The salary the cast members got for each film was always deemed poor, considering the amount of money the franchise made. Phil Silvers was paid a handsome amount for his time and name, more than any regular player was paid before or after. This went down badly. Jim Dale fell out with both Peter Butterworth and Kenneth Williams, the location scenes took much longer than usual and the desert scenes were delayed due to snow (the Sahara desert scenes were filmed in Camber Sands, Essex during winter). However, the theme – which parodies Beau Geste and Foreign Legion films in general, lent itself brilliantly to the Carry On gang and sense of humour. It didn’t break America but at least it taught the Carry On team behind the camera a thing or two, and the series carried on at it used from there on in and enjoyed a particularly good run for the next couple of years. It also features one of my favourite but disturbing endings of the Carry On films.