So this is where it all began...the patty cake's, the song of the sarong, one buddy risking the safety of the other to get out of a predicament or to get the girl. Of course, the alleged Singapore setting isn't at all believable; it looks like some tropical island filled with dozens of topless tanned men, as toned as the sarong clad girls are laced with flowers.
It's obvious to me that this wasn't planned as a series, but with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby as the top new screen comedy team of 1940 (along with Abbott and Costello), a series was inevitable, although other than gag guest appearances from Crosby in a few of Hope's films, they never appeared on the screen together in anything but these 6 "Road" films.
This has a rather ordinary plot set up with Crosby trying to get out of an engagement and out from underneath the thumb of his domineering ship magnate father (Charles Coburn). It's not easy though to hide from the world when you've got sidekick Hope constantly getting them in all sorts of trouble. They meet up with Dorothy Lamour, saving her from hot tempered Anthony Quinn.
The gags are there, but the tongue in cheekiness and self congratulatory inside jokes are not. By the time of the second film, the writers realized the magic they had, and the scripts were changed accordingly. A couple of nice musical numbers ads the romance, with the audience certain from the Starr whom Lamour will end up with.
It's obvious to me that this wasn't planned as a series, but with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby as the top new screen comedy team of 1940 (along with Abbott and Costello), a series was inevitable, although other than gag guest appearances from Crosby in a few of Hope's films, they never appeared on the screen together in anything but these 6 "Road" films.
This has a rather ordinary plot set up with Crosby trying to get out of an engagement and out from underneath the thumb of his domineering ship magnate father (Charles Coburn). It's not easy though to hide from the world when you've got sidekick Hope constantly getting them in all sorts of trouble. They meet up with Dorothy Lamour, saving her from hot tempered Anthony Quinn.
The gags are there, but the tongue in cheekiness and self congratulatory inside jokes are not. By the time of the second film, the writers realized the magic they had, and the scripts were changed accordingly. A couple of nice musical numbers ads the romance, with the audience certain from the Starr whom Lamour will end up with.