THE ROAD TO MOROCCO

US, 1942, 82 minutes, Black-and-white.

Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Anthony Quinn, Dona Drake.

Directed by David Butler.

This is the third of the Road to… Movies starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. The films were very popular in the 1940s, most of them released during the war.

All popular at the time, in retrospect they seem rather silly. Although, a good word to describe them is “zany”. By this third film, there are all kinds of in references to Paramount Studios, to Dorothy Lamour surely turning up, audiences coming late into the film and missing Bing Crosby’s song… And, Bob Hope, always enjoyable, doing a lot of ad-libbing and eyebrow raising.

This time they are two friends stranded at sea when the ship blows up (Bob Hope smoking in the powder room). There is discussion about Bing Crosby eating Bob Hope to survive if they are at sea for a long time. However, they land in the desert, licked by two camels (and the spitting scene was actual rather than rehearsed), riding into a town, a lot of mixups, Bob Hope pretending to be mentally limited because locals were honoured (definitely not politically correct these sequences). Then, Bing, always smooth, trying to get the upper hand, sells at Bob  who finishes up in a palace luxurious style. And the Princess’s Dorothy Lamour.

So, a whole lot of contrivances for slapstick comedy, mistaken identities, the tough swashbuckling locals, led by Anthony Quinn, doublecrossing romance, and the final disruption of the wedding ceremony by the two with all kinds of silly tricks. Dona Drake appears as the maid sympathetic to Bob Hope.

And, at the end, they all stranded – but off the coast of New York, Bob  declaiming about being lost at sea, the Statue of Liberty being pointed out and his own comment that is missing was cut and he might have had an Oscar nomination!

Bing and Dorothy Lamour both sing Moonlight Becomes You. But, the famous song is We’re off on the Road to Morocco – and the famous line “like Websters Dictionary, we are Morocco-bound”. However, there were two further variations on Morocco-bound:

We may run into villains but we're not afraid to roam
Because we read the story and we end up safe at home (yeah)
Certainly do get around
Like Webster's Dictionary we're Morocco bound

We certainly do get around
Like a complete set of Shakespeare that you get
In the corner drugstore for a dollar ninety-eight
We're Morocco bound

Or, like a volume of Omar Khayyam that you buy in the
Department store at Christmas time for your cousin Julia
We're Morocco bound