IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

On March 26th, Kino Lorber Studio Classics will release the first four films in the popular Bing Crosby and Bob Hope Road picture series individually on Blu-ray. As a classic comedy fanboy since grade school, the new releases provide a good excuse for me to revisit the series chronologically.  I previously reviewed Road to Singapore (1940), so now let’s join Bing, Bob, and Dorothy Lamour as they hit the road for a second time.

Road to Singapore was never meant to lead off a series.  It was meant to be a pleasant, inexpensive one-off that featured a trio of Paramount’s contract players — popular crooner Bing Crosby, exotic beauty Dorothy Lamour, and up-and-coming comedian Bob Hope.  The resulting combination produced a bigger box office success than anyone had anticipated, landing respectably at number 17 on the list of the year’s top earners.  While a nice surprise, there was still no plan for a followup, but fate intervened.  Paramount executives owned the rights to a jungle story by Sy Bartlett entitled “Find Colonel Fawcett,” but they felt it was too reminiscent of MGM’s Stanley and Livingstone (1939) to produce as a film without being accused of plagiarism.  Consequently, they turned the script over to the team of Frank Butler and Don Hartman, who had written Road to Singapore the year before, in order to revise the script into a comedic spoof of safari pictures.  Since the writing team from Road to Singapore was reassembled, why not bring back the same stars?  Consequently, Bing, Bob, Dottie were told to pack their bags for another trek down the Road.

This time, Crosby stars as small-time promoter, Chuck Reardon, who constantly persuades his buddy, Hubert “Fearless” Frazier (Hope), to put his body on the line for a number of carnival stunts and get-rich schemes, as they travel from continent to continent a few steps ahead of the law.  When Fearless has had enough, he convinces Chuck to buy tickets for an ocean liner back to the States.  Instead, Chuck buys a map to a diamond mine from an eccentric millionaire.  Thinking the map worthless, Fearless re-sells it to some suckers for $7,000, but the duo have to hop a ship for Africa when the suckers come after them.  On the dark continent, Chuck and Fearless run into a couple of female grifters, Donna Latour (LaMour) and Julia Quimby (Una Merkel), who decide to use the boys and their wad of cash to fund a safari to help Donna travel to meet up with her rich fiancé.  Of course, comic misadventures and songs ensue.

Road to Zanzibar takes us a step closer to the classic Road picture formula.  While the film isn’t as wacky and cartoonish as the later installments in the series, the relationship between the boys is cemented in this entry.  From here on out, Bing is the less-than-honest leader and Bob is his put-upon patsy.  Crosby even calls Hope “Junior” for the first time — a nickname that would stick, even though the leads were the same age, having both been born in May of 1903.  Road to Zanibar also contains a few minor fourth wall-breaking gags (such as when an antagonist knows the “patty cake” routine from having seen the previous film), although these are employed to a far lesser extent than would be seen in the series installments that followed.

It must be said that the plot of the second Road movie is a complete mess.  Story threads are introduced only to be discarded a few minutes later…

• Is the map to the diamond mine legitimate?  Who knows?  They sell it almost immediately.
• Will the suckers who bought the map catch up with the boys to make them pay?  No.  They only appear in the one scene.
• What will happen when Donna’s fiancé finds out about her feelings for Chuck?  Nothing.  He doesn’t even appear in the movie.

The musical numbers are also disappointing.  Crosby gets to croon one love song, “It’s Always You,” that has a pleasant melody, but the rest of the tunes are completely forgettable.  After watching Road to Zanzibar, I found myself humming the songs from Road to Singapore.  Happily, the songs will be much stronger in the next two series entries.

Still, the story and songs are just the thinnest spine upon which to hang a series of verbal and physical jokes, and it is in this department that the movie really sings.  I found myself laughing out load a lot more at Road to Zanibar than I did at the prior entry in the Road series.  Not only are the jokes stronger, the performance by Bob Hope is much more assured.  Whereas, he had been likeable and mildly amusing in Road to Singapore, he is more confident, almost cocky, in Road to Zanzibar — and cocky suits him well.  With the terrible television specials that Hope churned out in the 1970s and 80s, it is easy to forget what a talented comic actor he was in the 1940s.  There is good reason why Hope quickly became one of the most bankable stars on the Paramount payroll.  Crosby and Lamour are quite good in this second outing, and Una Merkel (a very talented comic actress, who had previously played W.C. Fields’ daughter in The Bank Dick) is a welcome addition to the troop.  However, Hope handily steals the show from his co-stars.

A warning — Being that the Road series is built upon the idea of Hope & Crosby as guileful Americans traveling to exotic locales, the depictions of the native peoples are occasionally problematic.  Road to Zanzibar is the worst offender of the seven films, in that the boys encounter fairly stereotypical African natives, who also turn out to be cannibals.  In truth, the cannibals get to be funny in a similar way to the natives in Joe Versus the Volcano, so the depiction is a little less cringe-worthy than you might expect.  However, there is no excuse for the exceedingly racist African caricatures that are displayed over the opening credits.  Yuck.

If you can get past the racist drawings during the title sequence and the incoherent plot throughout the rest of the running time, Road to Zanzibar is a fast, funny picture, with plenty to recommend it.  Audiences of the time made the film an even bigger hit than its predecessor, with the eighth highest box office of 1941.  From this point on, the Road pictures would no longer be an accidental series.  Bing, Bob, and Dottie would return in Road to Morocco, a film specifically written for them, and the series would hit even bigger heights.

USA/B&W-91m./Dir: Victor Scherzinger/Wr: Frank Butler and Don Hartman (based on a story by Don Hartman and Sy Bartlett)/Cast: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Una Merkel, Eric Blore, Douglass Drumbrille, Joan Marsh, Charles Gemora

For Fans of: If you love classic comedy teams (Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Martin & Lewis, etc.) but you haven’t seen the Road pictures, you should give Bing & Bob a try.

Video: Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray release of Road to Zanzibar is every bit as impressive as their release of Road to Singapore. Apart from a few minor scratches, the Black & White image is near perfect.  It is sharp, has great contrast, and the grain structure of the 35mm film is intact.  The original mono audio is clear, and the musical sequences sound terrific.  In addition, the special features from prior DVD releases have been ported over onto the Blu-ray.

Special Features:

• Bob Hope and the Road to Success: A 14-minute vintage featurette covering how the Road picture series originated.  This feature is included on Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray releases of all of the first four Road pictures.
• Command Performance 1944: Filmed segments from a 1944 live recording of the Command Performance radio show are included in this seven minute extra.  Bob Hope hosts the show, which includes appearances by Betty Hutton, Lana Turner, and Judy Garland.
• Theatrical Trailers for the first four Road pictures
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

Streaming: The Road to Zanzibar can be rented or purchased in digital streaming format on Amazon, but it isn’t currently streaming on any of the major subscription services, such as NetFlix or Hulu.

More to Explore: By the end of this month, all the Road pictures will be out on Blu-ray— Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar, Road to Morocco, Road to Utopia, Road to Rio, and Road to Bali from Kino Lorber Studio Classics and Road to Hong Kong from Olive Films. They are all worth a watch. However, the middle three are generally considered the best.

Trivia: Agua, the gorilla that wrestles with Fearless Frazier, was played by makeup man Charles Gemora, known as “the King of the Gorilla Men,” due to his many film appearances dressed in a gorilla suit.

For More Info: There have been many film references and individual biographies written about Bing, Bob, and Dottie, but for coverage of the Road series specifically, let me suggest the book Road to Box Office: The Seven Film Comedies of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, 1940-1962 by Randall G. Mielke.