ROAD TO BALI

US, 1952, 91 minutes, Colour.
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Murvyn Vye, Leon Askin, Michael Ansara.
Directed by Hal Walker.

Road to Bali is the first of the Road films in colour. They made a great impact in the 1940s, especially during the war: Road to Morocco, Road to Utopia, Road to Zanzibar.

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope appear as song and dance men who have to leave Melbourne in a hurry and find themselves on the way to Indonesia. Dorothy Lamour once again is an exotic tropical princess. The film is really a collection of Crosby and Hope gags – with some comedy of the coward by Bob Hope and some smooth leading man style by Bing Crosby. There are also some guest appearances from Bob Crosby as well as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and Jane Russell who had appeared with Bob Hope in the two Paleface films. At one moment, there is an enjoyable clip of Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen with Hope and Crosby encountering him.

There was only one more Road film after this, Road to Hong Kong in the early 1960s with Joan Collins replacing Dorothy Lamour.

1. The impact of the road series? This as the main example made in colour? Towards the end of a long series? The vitality, the appeal?

2. The impact of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour? Their individual contribution of style, personality, comedy, singing? The types they represented? Bing as the hero, Bob as the hero but loser, Dorothy with her glamour? Their interaction?

3. The style of the film, the contrived nature, the gags, the cracks, the reference to Paramount, guest stars like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Jane Russell, references to The African Queen, The appeal in the 50s? Now? The freshness of the spontaneous comedy of the time? How does it date?

4. The importance of the songs and their style, tunes? Comedy?

5. The personal style and the types represented as exemplified in this story, Bing and his talk, their jobs, wanting to be hero, get the girl? Bob Hope, his playing second fiddle, losing the girl? Dorothy as the jungle princess to be saved?

6. The type of plot and audience acceptance of it: strength, situation with the boys needing a job, (the Australian setting) the goodies, the villains, the heroine, the dangers?

7. The importance of the comic gimmicks and their success?

8. The comedy of cheerfulness and its value?