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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]
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 the 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, Astor Pictures released a compilation film of several of Crosby's Educational Pictures 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]
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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 end up with her, 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.
| 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