The Camels Are Coming: A dusty, weird bit of British cinema

Is it worth your time?

If you have a thing for 1930s British comedies that suddenly decide to turn into gritty police procedurals in the middle of a desert, you’ll probably find something to love here. Everyone else? You might find the whole thing a bit dusty. It’s an odd, lopsided little film that feels like two different scripts got glued together by someone in a hurry.

Jack Hulbert is doing his absolute best to carry the weight of the film on his shoulders. He has that specific, frantic energy that makes you think he’s about to trip over his own feet. Sometimes, he actually does. 🐪

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Camels Are Coming (1934) through its definitive frames.

The whole premise of undercover work involving the Camel Corps is about as believable as a paper umbrella in a sandstorm. Still, there’s a charm to it. It’s not trying to be a deep, philosophical look at colonial police work, and thank goodness for that. It’s just trying to be a romp.

Odd bits and pieces

• The transition from 'heroic officer' to 'shifty smuggler' happens so fast you’ll get whiplash.
• The desert scenes feel strangely claustrophobic, which I didn't think was possible.
• Anna Lee is honestly the only one who looks like she knows what's going on.
• There’s a moment near the middle where the dialogue just stops being coherent for about ten seconds.

I couldn't help but compare the pacing here to something like The Desert Man. That movie knew exactly what kind of movie it was. The Camels Are Coming keeps looking in the mirror, trying to decide if it wants to be a laugh-out-loud comedy or a tense thriller. It never really picks a lane.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Camels Are Coming (1934) through its definitive frames.

The smugglers are remarkably bad at their jobs. If you are going to run a massive drug operation in the middle of nowhere, maybe don't make it so obvious? The villains feel like they wandered off the set of The Masked Heart and got lost on the way to a better movie.

I found myself staring at the background extras more than the main plot. One guy in the corner of the market scene is just eating an orange for the entire duration of a tense conversation. It’s hypnotic. 🍊

The ending comes out of nowhere, too. It’s like the budget ran out or the director suddenly realized they had a lunch reservation. The whole thing just… stops. No big resolution, no grand final speech. Just, well, that's that then.

If you want to see a movie that doesn't quite know how to exist, this is the one for you. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly not boring. It has a weird, twitchy soul.