Hawmps!

(1976, U.S.) color 113 minutes
Mulberry Square Productions
Screenplay: William Bickley, Joe Camp, Michael Warren
Music: Euel Box
Cinematography: Don Reddy
Produced by: Joe Camp
Directed by: Joe Camp

With: James Hampton (Howard Clemmons), Christopher Connelly (Uriah Tibbs), Slim Pickins (Naman Tucker), Denver Pyle (Col. Seymour Hawkins), Gino Conforti (Hi Jolly), Mimi Maynard (Jennifer Hawkins)

Plot outline: In the old West, the U.S. Cavalry launches a daring experiment; using Arabian camels, instead of horses, for desert combat! A bumbling lieutenant is assigned the thankless task of training expert cavalry (horse) riders to tame the bizarre foreign beasts.

***

HAWMPS! is, like its subject matter, a strange animal. It is beautiful yet gangly, lovable yet off-putting, obscure yet familiar, goofy yet sublime.

First and foremost, HAWMPS! is an animal picture, coming as it is from the folks who gave us the ubiquitous BENJI. The antics of the cute/ugly camels are many and quite humorous. But HAWMPS! is also an historical drama (based loosely on a true-life incident, supposedly), and as such, has an accuracy and sweep, as well as production values, that would impress most hard-core Western buffs.

What makes HAWMPS! so peculiar, and perhaps legendary, is that is also tries to be a broad comic parody of the Civil War-era, looking very much like a feature-length rendition of TV's beloved F-TROOP. This overlay of shameless slapstick farce is either Joe Camp's great genius stroke, or suicide gesture, depending on your viewpoint.

HAWMPS! is undoubtedly Joe Camp's masterpiece (although twenty years after its disastrous first release, it has yet to find its audience). Yet one watches this oddest of kiddie flicks and wonders just what Camp has wrought. There are, amidst the cute animal antics and harmless slapstick shenanigans, bizarre adult themes and dark segments which would be right at home in any "grown-up" western.

A demented outlaw, Jack Cutter (Jack Elam at his slimiest), drools at length about how he's going to dismember good-hearted army-man Clemmons (cute clown John Hampton) until there's nothing left! A horny young Army brat (Mimi Maynard) literally drags Clemmons into a clearly sexual liaison. The local saloon depicts drinking, whoring and fighting as raunchy as in any adult Western of the era.

Casting varies widely. James Hampton is ample as the lovable buffoon and sexual innocent Clemmons. Lots of movie and TV veterans show their face, to good effect, such as Slim Pickins and Denver Pyle. But Gino Conforti is excruciating as Hijo, an Oxford trained faux-Bedouin camel trainer. Token sex object Maynard is pretty hard to take as well.

Foregoing the relative simplicity of BENJI for a virtually epic sweep in HAWMPS!, one sees that Joe Camp was not above risking his career on a high-concept picture. Too bad his dog-loving audience didn't follow. Humps and all, HAWMPS! is one of those films you really feels deserves a second chance at success.

Video/DVD availability: VHS (Vestron Video, oop; Mulberry Square Video, oop)