Road to Bali (1953)

Songs: "The Merry Go Runaround" (Hope, Crosby, Lamour); "Chicago Style" (Hope, Crosby); "Hoot-Mon" (Hope, Crosby); "To See You" (Crosby, reprized Crosby); "Moonflowers" (Lamour); "Two Little Lambs" (Hope, Crosby). All songs except "Two Little Lambs" by James Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics). Music director: Joseph J. Lilley. Special orchestral arrangements: Van Cleave. Musical numbers staged by Charles O'Curran.Copyright 1 January 1953 by Bing Crosby Enterprises, Inc., and Hope Enterprises, Inc. Released worldwide through Paramount Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Astor: 29 January 1953. U.S. release: January 1953. U.K. release: 29 December 1952 (sic). Australian release: 18 December 1953 (sic). Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 28 November 1953 (ran eight weeks). 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Two vaudevillians are hired as deep sea divers by a South Seas island prince. NOTES: Third to Shane and Roman Holiday as Paramount's top-grossing domestic release of 1952-53. Second to Knock On Wood as Paramount's top-grossing Australian release of 1954. Sixth of the seven Road pictures. COMMENT: The first Road movie in color was a box-office hit in its day, despite lukewarm reviews. It holds up rather well despite a rather lackluster climax in which the scriptwriters run out of ideas. The notion seems to have been to spoof such films as Bird of Paradise and Lamour's own "Aloma of the South Seas", but the quips which had been flowing thick and fast unaccountably dry up about twenty minutes from the fade-out. Mind you, it's all rather lavishly and colorfully staged and the jests do resume with "The End" title which Hope vainly tries to delay as Crosby walks away with both Lamour and Russell. Otherwise the boys are in fine fettle and those who enjoy their mutual banter, plus a host of topical allusions, plus guest appearances by Jane Russell (stunningly costumed), briefly Jerry Lewis as "Lalah" partnered by Dean Martin, a spot by Bob Crosby (which alas falls flat due to pedestrian staging) and a clip of Humphrey Bogart from The African Queen, will have a grand time on this Road to Bali. The songs are mighty pleasant too. OTHER VIEWS: Top-class entertainment. Whilst the humor isn't quite as crazy as in some previous Road films and the direction is not as skillful (a few of the jests fall flat owing to far too casual staging), most customers will find the lush Technicolor production values more than take up any slack in the script. Crosby, Hope and Lamour make their usual frolicsome team. The villains led by deep- eyed, deep-voiced Murvyn Vye as Prince Ken Arok, are a rather jolly crew.

ROAD TO BALI (Paramount, 1952), directed by Hal Walker, reunites the famous trio of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in another wild and crazy adventure for their sixth "Road" outing. Having traveled through "Singapore" (1940), "Zanzibar" (1941), "Morocco" (1942), "Utopia" (1945) and finally "Rio" (1947), with a lot of other territories to explore such as Borneo, Venice or even outer space, the writers came up with "Bali" as their next stop. With newfound surroundings, added Technicolor and surprise guest stars along the way, the material supplied, though hardly original, was no doubt quite popular in its day.Opening with a commentary and visual over the map of Australia leading to the city in Melbourne, the story gets underway in a vaudeville house where American entertainers, George Cochran (Bing Crosby) and Harold Gridley (Bob Hope), longtime pals, are performing. Back stage are a couple of angry fathers with their daughters to whom these guys proposed, but each having no intention of marrying. Making their getaway, they soon end up on a train from which they jump out to avoid another angry father, ending up in a far away place surrounded by sheep. Arriving in another city as part of a cargo of sheep, the bearded George and Harold agree to accept jobs from Ken Ahok (Mervyn Vye) working as deep sea divers (with Harold doing the underwater job) to help locate buried treasure. Upon their arrival on an island paradise, the boys encounter Ahok's cousin, Lalah (Dorothy Lamour), a princess of Scottish descent. Because Ken Ahok happens to be responsible for the deaths of his previous divers, with intention of doing the same for these Americans, Lalah warns them that their mission means certain death. After Harold dives for and acquires the buried jewels, the trio break away from Ahok's murderous cutthroats and set sail out for Bali. While on the tropical island, further danger and numerous surprises awaits.A movie being more fantasy than its intended South Seas island spoof, the film's best moments are its opening 20 minutes. In spite of every effort made turning out a great 91 minute comedy in the tradition of ROAD TO MOROCCO or ROAD TO UTOPIA, this latest "Road" installment grows tiresome long before it's all over. Crosby the con man, Hope the stooge, and Lamour the sarong girl in the middle, revive their past "Road" adventures with much familiarity, continue acting like over-age kids with their one "paddy cake" routine along with an assortment of ad-libs. In-jokes are put to the maximum this time around, some at a total loss for viewers today. Best bits however, are Hope and Crosby surrounded by beautiful maiden girls. An agonizing groan is heard off screen: Crosby: "What was that?" Hope: "It's Errol Flynn. He can't stand it." Or a clip insertion of Humphrey Bogart hauling The African Queen. (I thought Bali is in Indonesia!) Then there's Bing Crosby's brother Bob doing his bit with a "shot in the picture," along with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, as well as Jane Russell in some amusing bits. There's also a running gag throughout the film where the boys play a flute to see what slowly grows out of the basket. Murvyn Vye makes a fine villain, but it would have been nice having Anthony Quinn ("Singapore" and "Morocco") back for old times sake. Musical interludes are a tradition in the series, with new score by Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen, including: "Chicago Style" (sung by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope); "Moonflowers" (sung by Dorothy Lamour); "Hoot-Mon" (sung by Hope and Crosby in kilts, performed by handmaidens and warriors); "To See You" (sung by Crosby); "The Merry-Go-Round Around" (sung by Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour and Bing Crosby); "Moonflowers" (reprize by Lamour); and "Wedding Chant" (natives). For Crosby's solo, Hope faces the camera addressing the theater audience that it's time for them to step out and get some popcorn.Having fallen to public domain, poor quality prints of ROAD TO BALI have turned up on home video and DVD over the years. Better prints available happen to come from cable channels American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies. Being a Paramount film, notice the TCM print with both Columbia and Paramount studio logos for its introduction.ROAD TO BALI almost became the final "Road" adventure. Ten years later, an attempt was made to revive the formula, being THE ROAD TO HONG KONG (United Artists, 1962), starring Crosby and Hope with Lamour strangely reduced to cameo appearance. Overall, any movie that can make a "monkey" out of Bob Hope, can't be all bad. (***)

For some strange reason, this film was allowed to slip into the public domain. This is odd because it is the only one of the Hope-Crosby road pictures to be in the public domain AND the only one filmed in color. Not surprisingly, however, because these are public domain prints the color is very washed out and the prints I have seen are a bit fuzzy. It must have looked great in 1952...my how times have changed.This film finds the boys playing pretty much the same characters they played in most of the other films in the series. Once again, they are broke, scheming for money and fighting over women. Also, just like most of their other films, the natives and native dances look like they stepped right out of a Hollywood sound stage...which they have. This makes for an odd film that bears as much resemblance to Bali as it does to Cleveland (well, actually less).Because Bing and Bob are broke, they accept jobs as divers to retrieve a sunken treasure. What they don't know is that the job is practically suicide--with a horrible giant squid waiting for them. It already has killed several other divers and the boys are next. But, in typical road movie style, the Princess (Dorothy Lamour) falls for the boys and doesn't want to see them risk their miserable lives.As for the quality of the film, it's a mixed bag. Because the plot and so much about the formula of the movie is the same old same old, it certainly isn't a must-see movie. However, it's pleasant entertainment and the film does have an even higher number of jokes that pokes fun of itself and cultural references than usual. This is how they get little cameos of Humphrey Bogart and Martin & Lewis in a film supposedly set in Bali and the South Seas. It also has gorillas (in Indonesia?!).For fans of the series, it is a nice return to the past but to someone wanting something different, you're gonna be disappointed.

This comedy is the sixth of the seven 'road to' series and is the only one to be filmed in color. When you have a good formula keep it working. Bob Hope plays Harold and Bing Crosby plays George, two out of work song-and-dance men, who have to leave Australia in a hurry to avoid a couple of marriage proposals. The two are hired as deep-sea divers by a South Seas prince(Murvyn Vye)in order to recover a buried treasure. Of course, there has to be a beautiful princess...Dorothy Lamour plays Princess Lala; and Harold and George go 'ga-ga' for the beauty as the three head to Bali to sell the recovered treasure chest full of jewels. Cannibals, alligators and a giant squid vie for screen time; as well as cameos by Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Bing's brother Bob. There are several songs with the best being "Moonflowers" by Lamour and "To See You Is To Love You" by Crosby. Others in the cast: Michael Ansara, Ralph Moody, Peter Coe and Carolyn Jones.