Road to ...

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the series of Family Guy episodes, see
Road to... (Family Guy)
.
Hope, Lamour and Crosby in Road to Bali (1952)
Hope, Crosby and Lamour in Road to Bali
Hope and Crosby sing and dance during "Chicago Style" in Road to Bali (1952)
With Jane Russell in Road to Bali

Road to ... is a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road" pictures or the "Road" series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music. The minimal plot often took a back seat to gags, which appeared improvised but were usually scripted.[1]

Films in the series

Each film is not simply a comedy, but a satire of some of the popular film genres of the day, including jungle, Arabian nights, Alaskan adventure and high seas.

In 1977, an eighth Road to... movie was planned, titled Road to the Fountain of Youth, but Crosby died that year of a heart attack.[2]

In 1947,

short subjects called The Road to Hollywood to evoke the series. The United States Navy also commissioned Hope and Crosby to produce the 1945 short film Road to Home.[3]

Running gags

Beginning with Road to Singapore the films also included in-joke references to other Hollywood actors and jabs at Paramount Pictures, the studio that released all the films except for The Road to Hong Kong. There are also frequent instances in which Bob Hope breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly, such as in Road to Bali, in which he says, "[Crosby]'s gonna sing, folks. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn."[4]

Hope and Crosby would usually play some form of

confidence men trying to make a lot of money, with Bing coming up with the ideas and Bob usually doing most of the dirty work.[5] Another common set-piece in the films is a monologue by Crosby "telling it like it is" to the Dorothy Lamour character, only to fall into traditional Crosby-singing-a-ballad; an example from The Road to Rio (1947) features the Crosby character analyzing the true love-encounters of a (fictional) film scene, followed by his singing "But Beautiful" (Jimmy Van Heusen / Johnny Burke).[6]

When confronted by the villain, Hope and Crosby would use a "patty cake" routine before throwing punches, though this would sometimes not work, as in Road to Morocco: "That gag sure gets around, huh?" "Yeah, right back to US!" The only film in the series in which the routine was not used was in Road to Utopia.

Both characters would usually promise to not allow women to interfere with their plans, and both would immediately see a woman and forget that promise. Crosby would almost always get the girl, with the exceptions being in Road to Utopia and Road to Rio (although hypnosis was involved in the latter case).

Hope's character usually would have a nickname with which he would be referred to throughout the film, as in Road to Morocco, when he was called "Turkey", and Road to Zanzibar, in which he was called "Fearless".

Crosby credited writer Barney Dean with standing off-camera and continuously coming up with jokes.[7]

Hope would also break the fourth wall continuously to over-act, often with an upbraiding from Crosby. Hope would then blame his overacting on his attempt to win an

Oscar. In reality, Hope never won any Oscar for his work, although he did receive honorary Oscars. Later, when Hope was a regular Oscar host, he incorporated his "Oscar bait
" whines into his monologues there.

Reception

Box office performance for the Road to... films
Film U.S. release date US/Canada
theatrical rental
Road to Singapore[8] March 14, 1940 $1,600,000*
Road to Zanzibar April 11, 1941 TBD
Road to Morocco[9] November 10, 1942 $3,800,000
Road to Utopia[9] February 27, 1946 $4,500,000
Road to Rio[9] December 25, 1947 $4,500,000
Road to Bali[9] December 25, 1952 $3,000,000
The Road to Hong Kong[10] May 23, 1962 $2,600,000
Total $20,000,000

*Worldwide

theatrical rental

Homages and other influence

References

  1. ISBN 9780316091565
  2. ^ "The 'Road...' Films of Hope, Crosby and Lamour". h2g2. 2004-10-09. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
  3. ^ Road to Home is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
  4. ISBN 1476626928
  5. ^ One example, from The Road to Rio (1947), involves getting $200 to ride a bicycle across a wire; indeed, the Crosby character makes the deal and the Hope character does the deed; or, rather, half of it: Hope appears to cross halfway, before accidentally setting the circus on fire, at which point Crosby bounces Hope into a waiting wagon with horses, to make their escape to the cruise boat which takes them to Rio de Janeiro.
  6. ISBN 9781134824366
  7. ^ Gilliland, John (July 8, 1971). "Pop Chronicles Interviews #133 – Bing Crosby". UNT Digital Library.
  8. ^ "Which Cinema Films Have Earned the Most Money Since 1914?". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 March 1944. p. 3 Supplement: The Argus Weekend magazine. Retrieved June 25, 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ a b c d Cohn, Lawrence (October 15, 1990). "All-Time Film Rental Champs". Variety. p. M182.
  10. ^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1962". Variety. January 9, 1963. p. 13.
  11. ^ "BING magazine". BING magazine.
  12. ^ "Elaine May in conversation with Mike Nichols". Film Comment. July–August 2006.

External links

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