ROAD TO UTOPIA

US, 1940, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Hilary Brooke, Douglass Dumbrille, Jack La Rue, Robert Barrat, Robert Benchley.
Directed by Hal Walker.

This film was made in 1943-1944, part of the series of Road films with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour. However, it was shown to the troops in action before it had general release which was in 1946, two years after it was filmed.

The film is introduced by a comic writer and actor, Robert Benchley, who explains the credits and reappears in the top left-hand corner throughout the film, giving explanations, for example of flashbacks, and making comments on the action.

And the film opens with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour as older characters, married, with Bob Hope getting the girl instead of Bing Crosby. After 30 years Crosby turns and gives an explanation happened to him in Alaska so long before.

Road to Utopia as the usual ingredients of the Road films, the verbal sparring between Crosby and Hope, the deadpan remarks of Hope and slapstick comedy. There are usual song and dance routines, the film vaudeville performances and audiences, the songs include putting their, Put it there, Pal, and Personality, sung by Dorothy Lamour.

As usual, Crosby puts it over Hope, getting all his money, when Hope wants to return to New York and Crosby wants to go to Alaska. They find a map, pose as two thug-prospecters, and get entangled with a criminal in Alaska who wants the goldmine for himself. Dorothy Lamour appears as a singer looking for the map which belonged to her father. This means that there are chases all over Alaska, and all kinds of mix-ups.
Fans of the Road movies will enjoy this one.