Carry On Follow That Camel *** (1967, Phil Silvers, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Angela Douglas, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Peter Butterworth) – Classic Movie Review 1,131

In  the 14th Carry On film, released in 1967, Jim Dale makes quite a personable hero in the relatively straight part of English coward Bertram Oliphant ‘Bo’ West (ie parodying Beau Geste), who joins the French Foreign Legion to be knocked into shape by Sergeant Nocker.

Both are redeemed by saving English titled woman Lady Jane Ponsonby (Angela Douglas) and the legion’s fortress when the Arabs mount an assault.

TV’s Sergeant Bilko, Phil Silvers, replaces Sid James (who was too busy making the ITV sitcom George and the Dragon) in the star role of Sergeant Nocker of the French Foreign Legion in director Gerald Thomas’s high-spirited 1967 spoof of P C Wren’s much-filmed 1924 book Beau Geste and other French Foreign Legion films.

Though James is much missed, Silvers is very good value in his one and only Carry On appearance. And the regular team of Kenneth Williams (as Commandant Maximilian Burger: ‘there’s many a good fiddle played on an old dune’), Joan Sims (as Zig-Zag), Charles Hawtrey (as Captain Le Pice), Peter Butterworth (Simpson), Angela Douglas (in the third of her four Carry On appearances, as Lady Jane Ponsonby), John Bluthal (as Corporal Clotski) and Bernard Bresslaw (as Sheikh Abdul Abulbul) carry on regardless, raising their usual high quota of silly, smutty laughs.

Also in the cast are Peter Gilmore, Julian Orchard, William Mervyn, Vincent Ball, Julian Holloway as Ticket Collector, Larry Taylor, William Hurndall, David Glover and Gertan Klauber.

It was made and originally released as Follow That Camel. Rank took over distribution but not initially the Carry On title, which was added to this film some years later. It was called Carry On in the Legion  in America. It was one of only two Carry On films not to have Carry On in the original title, the other being Don’t Lose Your Head.

The character named Corktip, played by Anita Harris (in the first of her two Carry On appearances), is an obscure reference to Cigarette in the 1936 Ronald Colman and Claudette Colbert film Under Two Flags, a movie about the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara desert. The name refers to cigarettes such Craven A that had a cork tip.

Phil Silvers was paid a great deal more than the rest of the cast, provoking great animosity among the regular Carry On team, who always felt under-paid. Sid James suffered a heart attack while the others were in the second week of their filming schedule.

Exteriors were shot at Camber Sands, near Rye, East Sussex, England, in the early months of 1967. Though the location was standing in for the Sahara Desert, shooting had to be stopped several times because the dunes were covered in snow! The beach was also used in the 1958 film Dunkirk starring John Mills.

Other filming took place at Birkdale beach near Southport, Lancashire; Swakeleys, Ickenham, Uxbridge, Middlesex, England, (cricket scenes); and Osterley Park house, England (Ponsonby’s residence).

It was shot in the studio at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England. Some of the town sets were reused in Carry On Up the Khyber in 1968.

Carry On Doctor followed in 1967.

Julian Holloway

British actor Julian Holloway (24 June 1944 – 16 February 2025) was the son of comedy actor Stanley Holloway and actress Violet Lane. He married Zena Walker in 1971 but divorced soon after. In 1976, he had a brief relationship with Tessa Dahl, daughter of Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl. He was the father of author and former model Sophie Dahl.

Holloway became a Carry On regular, appearing in eight films between 1967 and 1976, as well as one of the Christmas TV specials.

The cast

The cast are Phil Silvers as Sergeant Ernie Nocker, Jim Dale as Bertram Oliphant ‘Bo’ West, Peter Butterworth as Simpson, Kenneth Williams as Commandant Maximilian Burger, Charles Hawtrey as Captain Le Pice, Joan Sims as Zig-Zig, Angela Douglas as Lady Jane Ponsonby, Bernard Bresslaw as Sheikh Abdul Abulbul, Anita Harris as Corktip, John Bluthal as Corporal Clotski, Peter Gilmore as Captain Bagshaw, William Mervyn as Sir Cyril Ponsonby, Julian Holloway as Ticket collector, David Glover as Hotel manager, Larry Taylor as Riff, William Hurndell as Riff, Julian Orchard as Doctor, Vincent Ball as Ship’s officer, Peter Jesson as Lawrence, Gertan Klauber as Spiv, Michael Nightingale as Nightingale, Richard Montez as Riff, Frank Singuineau as Riff, Simon Cain as Riff, Harold Kasket as Hotel gentleman, and Edmund Pegge as Bowler.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,131

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