BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

utgard14 Trying to avoid shotgun weddings, two entertainers (Bob Hope, Bing Crosby) run away and take jobs as deep sea divers. This leads them to Bali and princess Dorothy Lamour. Inevitably both guys vie for Dorothy's affections while tangling with bad guys and a giant squid.Routine 'Road' picture with the notable difference of it being in color. Hope and Crosby are always fun, especially when they break the fourth wall. Lamour is lovely in color. This was her last film for ten years. Some of the gags are tired but there are still lots of yuks. Also some decent songs. Overall the likable personalities of the trio keep it afloat. Jane Russell, Martin & Lewis, and Humphrey Bogart (through African Queen footage) all have cameos. There is one rather odd sequence where Dorothy dreams of her childhood pet monkey and we see a real chimp wearing a very creepy Bob Hope mask.

SanteeFats I love and own all seven Road pictures. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby have an on screen relationship that is hilarious. Dorothy Lamar appears in the first six movies as the love interest of both the guys but Crosby ends up with her by the end of the movie. She also is in the Hong Kong one but since it is a few years later she basically does a cameo as an older torch singer in a club. In this particular show the two guys are running from many shotgun marriage parties that are trying to find them. They end up at a small island nation where Hope is sent down to find the treasure while Bing woos the princess. Michael Ansara plays the bad guy and of course gets his comeuppance. Since this is old time Hollywood all the natives are played by whites in make up.

mlraymond For some reason, this particular Road movie was on television more often than the others when I was a kid, and my sister and I used to crack up at the loony gags and sheer silliness of the picture. We were especially amused by the bit where the high priest asks the " God of the Sleeping Volcano" if he approves of the impending marriage between beautiful native princess Dorothy Lamour and the lecherous old king, and the volcano erupts with fire while a deep voice belches "NO!" The movie is practically nothing but a series of blackout sketches, ad-libs and in jokes, set against vividly colored backgrounds of islands, ancient temples, the sea, and jungles. The whole thing seems almost like a series of improvisations made up as they went along, after hours in a comedy club. There's just enough plot to move things along, some nice musical numbers, and a winking, nudging attitude toward the audience, best exemplified by a scene where romantic music starts playing and Hope turns to the audience and says, " He's gonna sing, folks, now would be a good time to go get the popcorn", and proceeds to put cotton in his ears as Crosby begins to serenade Lamour.Road to Bali may be dated and corny, but it was meant to be just silly fun even when it was new. Maybe not the best of the Road pictures, but plenty of fun, anyway.

writers_reign By this time - the sixth in an eventual series of seven - the formula was well established; wise-cracks, in-jokes, forget the 'fourth wall', throw in some 'cameos' (in this case Bogie, Jane Russell, Bob Crosby and Martin and Lewis), a 'plot' that sees Bing con Bob into taking some dangerous job (human canon ball, deep-sea diver, etc), a soupcon of song and dance and away we go. This time around the duo leave town one bullet in front of a shotgun wedding - actually two bullets and two shotgun weddings as both Bing and Bob have dallied with local girls in Australia. They were, by definition, of their time so that much of the humour may seem flat but what remains is the great 'timing' and rapport between Hope and Crosby and perhaps above all the songs, many of which became not only 'hits' of the day but went on to become 'standards' such as Moonlight Becomes You and But Beautiful. This is hardly surprising given that Johnny Burke wrote the lyrics for the first six and Jimmy Van Heusen the music for the last six (Burke worked with composer James V. Monaco - 'Too Romantic' on the first in the series, Singapore and Van Heusen worked with new partner Sammy Cahn on the seventh, Hong Kong). The score here is as fine as ever with such gems as Chicago Style, To See You Is To Love You, Hoots, Mon, and Moonflower. Maybe not the best of the seven but not the worst either and the only one in colour.