Camels are Coming, The

Date: 1934
Director: Tim Whelan and Robert Stevenson
Production Company: Gainsborough Pictures

Stars: Jack Hulbert, Anna Lee, Hartley Power
Location(s): Cairo, Giza and Luxor (Egypt), Kent

Region(s): ,

Storyline:

Enlisting the help of a female pilot, an officer in Egypt’s Camel Corps in Egypt goes undercover to investigate a gang of drug smugglers.

Additional Information:

Screen captures by Phil Wilkinson

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At Lympne, the New Egyptian Air Force prepares to leave England. Lympne Aerodrome in Kent, operating as a civil airfield at the time of filming before being requisitioned for military use between 1939 and 1946. The airfield closed in 1984

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Under the command of Squadron Leader Jack Campbell, the first unit of the New Egyptian Air Force reaches Cairo. From left to right stand the Pyramid of Menkaure, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza to the west of Cairo. The location can also be seen in 'Out of the Clouds', 'My Way Home', 'After the Fox' and 'Here Comes the Sun'.

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A great welcome greets the planes as they land before the Squadron Leader climbs out of his aircraft to be received by General Fairley.

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After Anita Rodgers shoots holes in his fuel tank whilst he's on patrol, Jack Campbell (Jack Hulbert) uses a camel to tow his plane to an archaeological site where Nicholas (Hartley Power) has just received a consignment of drugs from Sheikh Ali, Son of the Wind.

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Discovering where Anita's is staying on dropped telegram, Jack makes his way to her Cairo hotel. Shepheard's Hotel in the El Ezbekiya district of Cairo, once the leading hotel in the Egyptian capital until its destruction during the fire of 1952.

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A vertical wipe changes the view to one facing the opulent Shepheard's Hotel. Shari Kamil to the north-west of Ezbekiya Gardens in Cairo.

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Jack steps from the carriage as he arrives outside the hotel. The steps to the Shepheard's Hotel leading up from Shari Kamil. With acknowledgement to the Gilded Serpent website which has aided in finding these Cairo locations.

A construction site at the moment. (PW)

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Anita Rodgers (Anna Lee) follows Jack when she spots him in the hotel's garden.

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As arranged, Doctor Zhiga (Harold Huth) meets with Anita at ten o'clock the following morning. In the right background, the Dimitrino & Co. sign is on a building diagonally across the road from the Shepheard's Hotel at the corner of Shari Kamil, now El Gomhoreya, and Shari El Miligi, now Ali Al Kasar Street. Closing down in 1959 after trading for 73 years, Dimitrino & Co. were cigar and cigarette manufacturers based in Cairo.

The background buildings survive. (PW)

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Posing as a guide, Jack gets into the car of two Tourists (Norma Whalley and Peggy Simpson) to pursue Doctor Zhiga and Anita.

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With the Tourists complaining that Jack isn't the guide they booked, the car leaves the city.

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Anita and the Doctor arrive at the pyramids outside Cairo. Giza, with the Pyramid of Khafre to the right.

Not much change, as expected. (PW)

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Jack is questioned by the two women when he gives the wrong age of the Great Sphinx.

Excavations since filming have altered the foreground. (PW)

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Explaining that their guide books are old, Jack continues to lead the Tourists through the ruins. The temple complex at Karnak, along the Nile in the north of Luxor.

Location confirmed. (PW)

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Jack sees Doctor Zhiga and Anita as they meet with their Contact. Karnak, as mentioned on IMDb.

An amount of reconstruction has been carried out. (PW)

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When Anita and the Doctor escape after carrying out their transaction, Jack urges the Tourists back into their car. The Temple of Hatshepsut on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor, with the Northern Colonnade to the right.

Abdul Ady, our guide, explains that reconstruction of the second tier of the temple took place in the 1980s.

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Creating a cloud of dust behind them, the car carrying Anita and Doctor Zhiga speeds past the Colossi of Memnon. The enormous statues stand west of the River Nile from modern day Luxor.

With thanks to Abdul Ady, our guide to Luxor's West Bank.

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The chase reaches the city. In the background stands the Mosque of Muhammad Ali in the El Khalifa district of Cairo.

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As the crooks car turns off the main road, Jack's car suffers a puncture.

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After confronting Nicholas, Jack and his caravan of dummies on camelback flee to a remote ruin where Sheikh Ali and his men attack.

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When a message sent by carrier pigeon is received by the General, the Air Force is sent to rescue Jack.