THE HOPE/CROSBY "ROAD" MOVIES

I remember enjoying 'Road to Morocco,' but it's been ages since I watched. I do remember the good chemistry between the primary cast members. 

I'm pretty much with snsurone --my favorite is The Road to Utopia, which I find the best for a combination of clever story and laughs,, with The Road to Morocco, which may well be the best in sheer laugh content, very close behind it--but I was interested to see that petrolino and bess1971s wrote on another thread that The Road to Rio is their favorite.

"Why?" you ask. (Or maybe you don't ask, and couldn't care less, and are wryly wondering why Salzmank takes so long to write a simple sentence.) I remember reading a book on Bing Crosby years ago in which the author wrote that Rio was by far the best of the Road pictures, and I finally was able to find it and watch it after several years. (Who knew that a Road picture would be that hard to find?) I was woefully disappointed and thought it just plain unfunny for long stretches. Years later, I watched it again and found it very good indeed, just different in tone from every other Road picture--in fact, perhaps closest to Road to Singapore in its comedy. Interesting little picture, though there are still more laughs to be had (methinks) in Utopia and Morocco.

Utopia is also helped by the nonsensical "narration" of the always-great Robert Benchley (who died shortly before the film's release), about whom I learned for the first time from this movie.

Hot off the WikiLeak Press :

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."

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.

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".

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.

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Remember the quick cameo in The Greatest Show on Earth with Hope and Crosby watching the high wire act ?
Dorothy was the show girl with the really bad the gum chewing habit.