Starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, and Anthony Quinn
Directed by David Butler
Music by Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyrics by Johnny Burke
This week, we're going to hit the road with Bing and Bob in three of the most popular Road to... comedies. The first movie, Road to Singapore, had never intended to be part of a series, or even to feature Bing and Bob. They made so much of the slight story, and worked so well with leading lady Dorothy Lamour, they ended up making seven movies that featured them as performers conning their way across some exotic landscape, running into Lamour as a beautiful native or leader.
This is the third, and probably the most famous of them today. How well do Bing and Bob handle this spoof of desert adventures? Let's start not in the desert, or even on the road, but with a series of news anchors from around the world announcing that an American transport has been blown up, and all are accounted for...except for two stowaways...
The Story: Orville "Turkey" Jackson (Hope) and Jeff Peters (Crosby) find themselves stranded on the coast of Morocco without a cent to their name. Desperate to get money for food, Jeff sells Turkey into what he thinks will be slavery. After he dreams that Turkey's Aunt Lucy (Hope) scolds him for selling her nephew, he searches for him, only to find he's been bought by the Princess Shalamar (Lamour).
Not only is Turkey not a slave, but he's set to marry the Princess. Shalmar claims she was advised by her wise man (Vladmir Sokoloff) to wed him. She ends up falling for Jeff instead, while Turkey is more interested in the energetic lady-in-waiting Mirhimarh (Dona Drake), but Shalamar sticks to the wedding. This not only upsets the guys, but it also makes her original fiancee Mullay Kasim (Quinn) angry. Even when it turns out the wise man's "prophecy" isn't what they think it is, they still have to save the ladies and themselves from Kasim and his desert raiders.
The Song and Dance: This is probably the most typical of the Road movies, and one of the funniest. All of the most famous running gags can be found here, from Bing and Bob's "patty cake" to take bigger goons by surprise to the the wisecracks about Paramount movies and spoofs of exotic Arabic swashbucklers. We even get Hope in drag as Aunt Lucy. All that, and a camel that spits in Turkey's eye, then sums up pretty much the entire series later-on during the melee at Mullay Kasim's. Paramount runs with the lunacy, making everything as obviously stereotypical as possible, from Shalamar's lavish gowns to the obviously fake desert sands the boys cross.
Favorite Number: Jeff and Turkey get our first song as they cross the desert by camel. "We're Off On the Road to Morocco," they joke as they name-drop their home studio and everything they're likely to meet, including Dorothy Lamour. "Ho-Hum" is the song Jeff sings while searching for Turkey after he's sold to the princess. It doesn't attract Turkey, but it does bring out several appreciative ladies. "Constantly" introduces Shalamar as we see just how Turkey is hardly being tortured...if "torture" can be called 'the new favorite of a princess and her lady-in-waiting."
The standard here is the hit ballad "Moonlight Becomes You." Jeff first gives it a more traditional run-through under Shalamar's balcony, to her appreciation. Later on, Jeff and Turkey sing along with a mirage of Shalamar when they're lost in the desert. Half-way through the trio, we're reminded that this is a movie - and a semi-musical, at that - when they all start singing with each other's voices. The men's reactions to getting each other's voices are especially funny.
Trivia: The camel spitting at Hope wasn't in the script, and neither was Crosby's amused reaction. Butler decided it worked with the characters and wacky shenanigans and kept it in.
What I Don't Like: The stereotypes may have been funny in 1942, but some audiences may be mildly offended nowadays with how Morocco is depicted here. This also isn't the place for you if you don't want to watch two middle-aged men chase after women half their age. (Something I heard they often did in real-life as well.) Women besides Lamour don't often come off terribly well in the Road films. Drake is basically window-dressing.
The Big Finale: My favorite Road movie, and probably the best place to start if you're interested in the series or are a fan of the stars or goofy film satire.
Home Media: Easily found on every format, often for under $10.
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