Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

weezeralfalfa First of the Road Series, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour that served as escapist fare during and after WWII to supposed exotic destinations. Although Singapore is the supposed destination for the boys, they never made it quite that far, ending up on the fictional island of Kaigoon, in eastern Indonesia, south of Flores. They sit down in a restaurant where Dorothy Lamour(Mima) and Anthony Quinn(as Caesar)are a dancing floor attraction. Dorothy is a western girl who has gone native. As part of their act, Caesar wraps a whip around Dorothy's waist. When Dorothy shows some interest in the boys with her eyes, Caesar acts jealous. The boys do their first signature pat-a-cake routine, before laying Caesar out. Caesar continues to be an occasional thorn in the side of the others. When Mima is walking outside, he grabs her and pulls her into the jungle. The boys hear her screams and , after another pat-a-cake routine, lay out Caesar in a big mud puddle. Later, Caesar realizes that Hope doesn't have a passport, hence calls immigration authorities to deport him. Hope is put in a police van, from which he escapes....Quinn would play a villain in several more of the Road Series.Of course, Bing and Hope continually fight over Mima. At a yearly community festival, the boys don't know that part of its function is to allow maidens to make their choice of husband. A lovely maiden chooses Hope to dance with, but he runs away when told the custom. Meanwhile, Bing has to chose between Mima and Gloria, his girlfriend back home, who has come to the island with his father to escort him back home.Actually, the film begins with Bing and Hope disembarking from the ship they have been working on, badmouthing wives and girlfriends, swearing they are through with women. Of course, they break this vow when they get to know Mima, although they complain that her neatness standards are higher than theirs: typical of women. Charles Colburn plays Bing's father, whom we meet in the first part and again toward the end, when he comes to take Bing home to help him run his shipping business and marry Gloria.Charles Colburn didn't start in Hollywood until about 60, yet he appeared in more than 70 films and had many TV appearances until his death, more than 20 years later. He usually played fathers and other authority figures. I remember him as the father of Mabel: Bell's girl friend, in "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell"Dorothy Lamour's early ambition was to become a band and radio singer, rather than an actress. This she accomplished. She usually got a song or 2 in the Road Series. She had also played exotic women in several of her early films, thus was ideal in a series supposedly going to various exotic locals. She sure didn't look exotic to me. Don't know why she was chosen to stand in for exotic-looking women.

mark.waltz 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.

tavm Two years after arriving at Paramount, Bob Hope would make the first of his teaming-with-Bing Crosby-movies with Dorothy Lamour as the leading lady. Bing had been the studio's No. 1 star for years so he's the first billed while Ms. Lamour had also been pretty popular for awhile so she's second leaving Hope third-having just becoming established as both a radio star and the studio's most popular comedian after the phenomenal success of The Cat and the Canary. Anyway, since this wasn't originally written with them in mind, there isn't as much comedy as you'd expect if you've seen the subsequent Road movies but there are still some very amusing lines and scenes especially when Hope's radio stooge, Jerry Colonna, shows up. I was also amused when Johnny Arthur-best known to me as having played both Spanky's and Darla's father in a few Our Gang comedies-had a scene with Colonna. Overall, Road to Singapore is no great shakes but a nice start for the Road series. Next up, Road to Zanzibar.

Scaramouche2004 Road to Singapore can in my opinion be likened to "Flying Down To Rio" as they both rather dull, insipid and forgettable films, remembered solely for the significant movie firsts they boast, the latter film being of course the first on screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Therefore it classifies as a movie milestone despite the fact that the film itself is pretty dire.The Road to Singapore is a milestone in movie history, and its not due to any cinematic brilliance, clever writing or Oscar winning performances. This film is classed as a milestone purely because it was the first on screen adventure for Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in their now legendary 22 year "Road To.." series.Josh Mallon (Crosby) is the reluctant heir to an over bearing shipping Magnet and reluctant fiancé to a society heiress. Josh is a free spirit who rather than face up to his destiny as future head of the firm, prefers to run away and sail the world aboard his fathers ships with his best mate Ace Lannigan (Hope).When a shipboard fight involving the family of his perspective bride forces Josh and Ace to run away again, they decide to shy away from the rat-race forever and live anonymously on the paradise island of Kaigoon (don't look it up on the map folks because it ain't there), meeting up, befriending and finally shacking up with Mima (Lamour) an exotic dancer in a local café.Whilst the entire world is looking for the heir to the Mallon Millions, Josh is finding true happiness and true love in the arms of the beautiful Mima, but how long can is anonymity last before he is found and will his ultimate destiny destroy his chance of ultimate happiness?Although still in essence a comedy with musical interludes, this is without doubt the most serious of the Road movies.Bing, Bob and Dotty, as they have become affectionately known through the decades must have had no idea that this movie would spurn six funnier and more successful sequels, otherwise I am sure they would have injected both a little more enthusiasm for the project and more of the familiar banter and off the wall humour the later films contained and became famous for.Road to Singapore shows us little of the great triple act Bing, Bob and Dotty were to eventually become and although their is obvious screen chemistry between Bing the Crooner and Bob the Comic, they had yet to develop the double crossing, self depreciating ad libbing characters that would see them become the greatest comedy double act of the 1940's and early 1950's.Rather than squabble, swindle, con and insult each other throughout the picture, which was the mainstay of all their future screen pairings, Bing and Bob actually seem very pally indeed, and apart from five minutes of their more customary double crossings, in order to impress and ensnare Mima, they seem genuinely fond of each other.Despite this sneak preview of what was to come, great comedy moments are few and far between as although Hopes one liners are as good as ever, unfortunately Bing is relegated to the role of straight man and romantic lead, a formula they thankfully abolished in all later movies, allowing Bing to be just funny and just as zany as his friend.Road to Singapore is far from a bad film, but it is a poor representation of one of the most successful and funniest film series in history.