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Amazon.com
Road to Singapore
Here's the first trip in what would become one of Paramount
Pictures' most profitable film series of the '40s. When this comedy
was released in 1940, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope had separately
achieved stardom, though Crosby was an established power and Hope
still a hot comedian new to movies. In fact, Hope is billed third in
Road to Singapore, below Der Bingle and Dorothy Lamour. The
script establishes what would be a constant in the Road
series: a ramshackle plot, a handful of songs, and plenty of
irreverent banter between the two boys. Crosby plays Josh Mallon,
scion of a wealthy family, who prefers the vagabond life to his
stuffy family; his pal Ace Lannigan (Hope) is only too happy to
escape. They end up sharing a waterfront shack in Singapore and
vying for the affections of a sarong-clad local (Lamour), amidst
stabs at conning the natives with a dubious elixir variously known
as "Spot-O" (stain remover) and "Scram-O" (cockroach killer).
Singapore isn't as loose as some of the wacky subsequent entries
in the series, but it already shows Crosby and Hope grooving to each
other's perfectly timed burlesque rhythms in scenes that clearly
depart from the script. They specialized in muttered asides,
show-biz in-jokes, and gratuitous insults--and this one's got a song
and dance number with an ocarina. No wonder it became a franchise.
--Robert Horton
Road to Zanzibar
The second Road movie from Paramount Pictures finds
barnstorming con artists Chuck Reardon (Bing Crosby) and Hubert
"Fearless" Frazier (Bob Hope) at liberty after their act goes
haywire. (In these movies, Crosby generally lures the suckers into
the tent, while Hope is always stuck getting shot out of the
cannon.) A phony map to a diamond mine brings our boys into the
middle of Africa, which means there's a good chance they'll end up
sitting in a cauldron while natives perform a cannibal dance around
them. These stereotypes would be offensive if the movie wasn't
actively parodying the kind of jungle movie popular in 1941 (just as
Road to Morocco would satirize the Arabian nights picture).
Dorothy Lamour is along for the ride, of course, and her scene in a
tight clinch with Hope established a tradition of steamy comic
exchanges through the series (as she croons a love song to him, he
checks to see if his wallet is still in his pocket). This is the
first Road movie to actively wink at the audience; in one
scene, Lamour mocks the way movies always have characters break out
into song in the middle of nowhere with a full orchestra
backing--which is exactly what happens next. The chatter between
Crosby and Hope already feels improvised, and it should be noted
that the secret of their chemistry is not a sentimental friendship
but a cheerfully hostile rivalry between the two characters, a
cheeky approach that must've delighted audiences used to the Andy
Hardy niceness of most Hollywood movies of that era. Oh, and they do
their patty-cake routine, too. --Robert Horton
Road to Morocco
Road to Morocco, number three in the series of breezy
comedies teaming Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, may be the funniest of
the bunch. Bing and Bob find themselves Morocco-bound ("like
Webster's dictionary"), caught in an elaborately faked-up world of
harems, palm trees, and other Arabian Nights bric-a-brac. Naturally,
Dorothy Lamour is also there, as she was the customary target of
male rivalry in the Road scenarios. There is something so loose and
ingratiating about the patter between Hope and Crosby that it
doesn't ultimately matter if half the jokes don't land; these guys
had their own comfortable rhythm, fueled by cheerful one-upmanship.
Their sense of spontaneity broke the fourth wall between movie and
audience in a way only the Marx Brothers had really accomplished
before, and audiences--feeling in on the joke--ate it up. Songs
(including "Moonlight Becomes You"), topical references, and ancient
vaudeville routines fill out the program. --Robert Horton
Road to Utopia
I feel sorry for people who can't appreciate Hope and Crosby Road
pictures. This is the fourth in the series, and has the boys
masquerading as the killers Sperry and McGurk, from whom they've
stolen the map to a gold mine, but which really belongs to Dorothy
Lamour, but which... and you know it really doesn't matter anyway.
The point is they've got this thin plot on which to hang a series of
hit-and-miss jokes, coming fast enough to make it just all right and
a certain amount of time to see who gets Dorothy Lamour, while
maintaining their fierce and friendly and wisecracking rivalry.
They're in the Klondike this time around, which doesn't stop the
film from working in a glimpse of Dorothy in her sarong. Along the
way, animals talk, including the humorist Robert Benchley, whose
thoroughly dispensable introduction and running commentary I
wouldn't dispense with for anything. This is arguably the goofiest
of the road pictures. My favorite joke is when Bob is bested in
fishing with Bing. Bob remarks, "My worm must have B.O." Bing comes
back with "Couldn't B.U." You may not care where you're going, just
as long as you're with them. Put it there, pal, put it there.
--Jim Gay
Amazon.com
The Ultimate Bob Hope Collection features over six hours of
highlights from over a half-century of television specials by a true
legend in American entertainment. In his staggering 50 years on NBC,
Bob Hope created such a formidable mass of comic clips, bloopers,
and salutes to troops, that a mere three-DVD set can barely contain
them. Still, the collection brings together, for the first time on
DVD, timeless sketches with such notable wags as Dean Martin,
Phyllis Diller, Johnny Carson, and Jack Benny, and celebrates
countless moments of hilarity with some of the biggest stars of the
century, including John Wayne, Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, and Frank
Sinatra. While this DVD set is, for the most part, a compilation of
previous collections that have aired on NBC over the years, it still
delivers the goods, and should prove a beloved addition to the
collection of any Hope fan. It's a delight to have one of the most
engaging comics of our time, and 50 years of him at that, at our
very fingertips. --Karl Wachter
Amazon.com
Bob Hope brings his own brand of laughing gas to the Wild West as a
would-be "painless" dentist lassoed into marrying Jane Russell.
She's a shapely outlaw turned undercover agent on the trail of some
varmints selling guns to a hostile Indian tribe, and he's her
unwitting cover. Hope cowers and cracks self-effacing jokes while
bodies fall around him ("Brave men run in my family," he quips, then
runs), but he's even funnier swaggering and sneering like a kid
playing cowboy in a flamboyant costume apparently stolen from the
Oklahoma! road show. The Paleface is one of his best
films, and the unflappable Russell is a great match. Theme song
"Buttons and Bows" (which Hope delivers with a clowning mock twang)
won an Oscar®, and the 1948 film spawned a sequel (Son
of Paleface, costarring Roy Rogers and Trigger) and a remake (The
Shakiest Gun in the West with Don Knotts). --Sean Axmaker
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