The Amazing ROAD Series: Pop Culture for the Sake of Pop Culture
Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Bing Crosby
I’ve made no secret of the fact that my Mike Taylor/Tony Solantro novels are very much influenced by the movies. The classic films of the ’30s and ’40s, mostly. That said, no other films influenced the style of my book series more than the Road comedies starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and the girl forever associated with the sarong, Dorothy Lamour.
These things were an industry phenomena, not only because they raked in the bucks like no previous musical-comedy series, but for the very nature of what they were — ’40s pop culture for the sake of being ’40s pop culture, quite unashamedly not pretending to be anything else. A reviewer once likened Hope and Crosby to a modern-day Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in search of adventure, but with other things also on their minds, e.g., sex, loot, a hint of larceny.
It was established early on that Crosby was the schemer and Hope his trusting companion, who, though a coward at heart, had just enough bravery to attempt his comrade’s get-rich-quick schemes — which usually ended in disaster.
One thing that instantly set those movies apart was the presence of three established stars in their own right in one series. (This was long before franchises like that of the Ocean’s gang, whose actors, when unable to make the top-ten box-office list individually, cram the movie full of names and then crow about how well "their" film did.) Crosby, Hope, and Lamour’s solo starring pictures did very well on their own, thank you very much. In fact, one source claims the reason the studio held back so long after releasing the third in the series — almost three years — was that the stars were bringing in so much money in their own pictures the Paramount moneymen cringed at the waste of throwing ‘em all into one.
It was also true that by the very nature of being such huge stars, these three were able to get away with jokes and plotlines that lesser lights would have been taken to the woodshed for.
Hope in the desert wastelands to Crosby: "Let’s hop over the next hill and see what’s dune …"
Ugh. But on the screen, in the midst of the almost surreal atmosphere, the line plays remarkably well.
And of course there were the songs, usually by that great team of Johnny Burke and Jimmy van Heusen, turning out such standards as "Moonlight Becomes You," "Personality," and the fabulous "But Beautiful." Yeah, there was a lot of great music in those silly films.
There were seven Road adventures altogether, starting in 1940 with Road to Singapore and ending in 1962 with The Road to Hong Kong (with Joan Collins replacing Dorothy Lamour, who could be spotted in a cameo). All but the last entry were among the top box-office grossers of the year.
There was quite literally nothing else like them at the time, and aside from some inside Hollywood jokes that might take a little research to understand today the strangest thing about these examples of ’40s pop culture is that they are ageless — a paradox if ever there was one.
It all started innocently enough, with no thought of creating a series. The Road to Singapore script had been passed over by a number of Paramount stars, from Fred MacMurray to George Burns and Gracie Allen, before being handed to the contracted trio.
In late 1939, Crosby was just about at the end of his cinema string with a series of progressively lame formula pictures in which he played crooner Bing Crosby (something akin to what Elvis Presley would churn out in the ’60s). Relative newcomer Hope was languishing in B comedies, which, though profitable, were not where he pictured himself on the Hollywood ladder. Lamour looked great and could sing pleasantly, but the former Miss New Orleans of 1931 seemed destined to play exotic island girls until her looks faded along with one of her film’s Technicolor sunsets.
Directed by Victor Schertzinger, the finished Road to Singapore emerged as a rather tame South Seas comedy-adventure with music. However, the chemistry between the stars was instantaneous and contagious. So were the box-office results. Thus, almost overnight the trio found themselves at the top of the Hollywood heap — Crosby for a much-needed second time.
The public ate up the combination, leading one reviewer to comment in retrospect that when compared to the zany anarchy of the rest of the series, Road to Singapore must be regarded as one of the most successful failures in Hollywood history. It was here for the first time that Hope and Crosby did the "pat-a-cake" routine, wherein whenever in need of a quick, violent exit from the clutches of villains they would cheerfully begin playing like children off each other’s palms before suddenly unleashing a punch to the jaws of their captors.
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Tags: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Classic Movies, Comedies, Dorothy Lamour, Paramount, Road to Singapore, Victor Schertzinger
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What’s not to love about Bing, Bob, & Dotty? Excellent essay, thanks.
I am not alone! I’ve watched these movies time and time again…