This week I finally got around to watching another series of classics that, for assorted reasons, I’ve never gotten too. In this case, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope’s The Road To series. For years, I’ve mostly seen films that were either inspired by or parodied by this series. My personal favorite being DreamWorks’ Road to El Dorado. As a fan of both Crosby, Hope, and of course, Dorothy Lamour, I can’t deny that I hadn’t been curious. (Most of the time my reasoning was… OK, my excuse!) Was that I didn’t know which one to start from. When I finally had some good suggestions to work with. But when I finally made my choices, I discovered that Scarecrow Video had a collection of the first four which included my picks thus making it a moot point.
Keep in mind these films don’t have any new continuity. Because of this, I’m not gonna bother saying Crosby and Hope play since they may play different characters, for the most part, these characters are all the same people.
Our first film, Victor Schertzinger’s Road to Singapore has our pair as merchant Marines. Crosby is the son of the shipping company, who wants him to settle down in the office and get married. To avoid this the two hightail it to Singapore. However, they only get as far as the island of Kaigoon before they run out of money. They rescue a dancer (Dorothy Lamour) from her abusive dance partner. They end up having a pleasant living situation and both of them falling in love with the dancer.
But this tropical paradise can’t last forever because Bing‘s in-laws are tracking him down not to mention Dorothy‘s former partner.
In the next film, The Road to Zanzibar (directed again by Schertzinger) Bing and Bob are a pair of circus carnies who after failing at a string of stunts go wrong. Before they can return to the states, Crosby spends all of their money on the deed to a lost diamond mine. Soon later they find themselves in an expedition to claim it accompanied by Lamour.
In the next film, The Road to Morocco Hope and Crosby are shipwrecked after Hope smokes in the powder room. After enough time on a raft to contemplate cannibalism, they find themselves on the coast of a fantasy version of Morrocco. Still broke, Crosby sells Hope into slavery. He feels guilty about soon enough, but when he goes to rescue Hope he finds him engaged to and pampered by a beautiful princess (Lamour) It turns out she had arranged it so that Hope would be killed as a prophecy predicted so she can safely marry her prince. She gradually falls for Crosby but they still have to escape from the prince.
Finally the last on my list Hal Walker’s Road to Utopia, the boys head north to the Klondike, having obtained a map for a goldmine from a pair of criminals who attack them. They arrive in Alaska disguised as the criminals. However, the Criminals are close behind them as is the daughter of the man they killed to get the map from.
All in all, I found to be these movies sadly formulaic. They had some good routines, songs and Crosby and Hope have great chemistry. I just wish there was a better movie for them to use it in.
For the most part, I think the best of the four was The Road to Morocco… provided you don’t think too much about what a Bactrian Camel is doing in northern Africa.
