Film: The Hope and Crosby "Road" Movies
Hope, Crosby, and Lamour made six movies together, and the best was probably The Road to Morocco. Uploaded by girl-world-decor.blogspot.com.
There were seven produced: The Road to Singapore (1940), The Road to Zanzibar (1941), The Road to Morocco (1942), The Road to Utopia (1946), The Road to Rio (1947), The Road to Bali (1952), and The Road to Hong Kong (1962). The weakest? Probably the last, made not by Paramount but by United Artists. The best? Probably The Road to Morocco.
The pairing of Hope (Great American Things, October 7, 2009) and Crosby (Great American Things, December 19, 2009), both successful at the start of the Forties, was inspired. The movies were scripted, of course, but a significant portion of the repartee between the two main characters was always improvised. And it was brilliant.
Uploaded by talesoftheidiot.com.
One other character graced the films, and earned a handsome living from them: Dorothy Lamour. She was pretty enough to be the love interest of both men, and could sing well enough to accompany Crosby. She only appeared in a minor role in the last film, having aged out of the “love interest” part.
The movies often parodied other popular films of the day. And they featured some recurring bits, most famously the “patty cake” routine, in which Hope and Crosby would play the kids game to distract bad guys before punching them. Hope would sometimes talk to the audience as well, most famously in The Road to Bali when he said, “He’s (Crosby) gonna sing folks. Now’s the time to go and get the popcorn.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL1Zf4FouAc]
Love these movies, but I love Hope and Crosby in everything they did, together and apart. And Dorothy Lamour was beautiful. I pretty much love old movies of any kind.