The Amazing ROAD Series: Part I
Justifiably smelling a potential goldmine, the following year Paramount released Road to Zanzibar, with Schertzinger once again assigned as director. This time around, slight signs of the series' famous anarchy began to show.
A send-up of jungle safari pictures, Road to Zanzibar features Hope and Crosby straining to get off the chain. The "we know this is a movie and so do you or you wouldn't be sitting in the audience" attitude began to furtively raise its head. Ad-libbing while the cameras were rolling became frequent. (It has been said that many of these "ad-libs" were carefully scripted into the margins of Hope and Crosby's individual shooting scripts by their radio writers. The fun was that reportedly neither sprang their quip on the other until the scene was actually being shot.)
The pair's banter shot back and forth like a ping-pong ball at warp speed — so much so in fact, that during one scene with Dorothy Lamour she reportedly threw up her hands and shouted, "Will you two idiots let me get my line in?"
Though a frequently hysterical outing, nothing really other-worldly takes place in Zanzibar, with the possible exception of Crosby and Lamour's moonlight canoe ride on a jungle river. She comments on romantic scenes in movies where a couple are in a boat — just like they are — and suddenly a full orchestra comes up for the pair to sing a love song. Agreeing to its ridiculousness, Crosby proceeds to get a harp chord from dragging his hand in the water, tells a bird overhead what key to sing in, and before long the entire musical background is complete for the lovely "It's Always You."
Audiences adored laughing and winking knowingly at one another as "insiders." After all, hadn't they always rolled their eyes at full orchestras in the jungle, as well?
When the boys reprise the "pat-a-cake" bit to escape from cannibals, the natives find it so hysterical they all join in the game and end up slugging each other senseless as Hope and Crosby beat an unnoticed retreat. Again, Paramount execs rubbed their hands at the box-office jingle.
With the 1942 release of the third entry, Road to Morocco, the die was cast for the rest of the series. Hope and Crosby had finally broken the chain. Directed by silent-comedy performer David Butler, this Road installment was an Arabian Nights spoof, crammed with outrageous sight gags and dialogue. It is probably the outing best remembered by fans today.
The pair opens the picture riding a camel through the desert while singing the film's title song with lyrics like, "As for any villains/we haven't any fears/Paramount will protect us cause we're signed for five more years!" From that point on, Road to Morocco moves quickly, with Crosby, in need of some quick cash, selling Hope into what he believes is slavery. (In all fairness, he does intend to break him out later.) A horrified Hope glancing at the big burly man who has just bought him, snatches Crosby's lapels.
"You know what they do with slaves in this country? They beat 'em and make 'em pick cotton!"
"They don't pick cotton, here," Crosby assures him.
"Well," Hope replies. "They beat 'ya for whatever they're picking! I know, I saw Uncle Tom's Cabin twice!"
When it turns out Hope has actually been sold to the luscious Princess Shalmar (Lamour), Crosby comes to a rescue that Hope, of course, wants no part of. The battle of who'll out-con the other for the girl and the throne begins; one that was to become a trademark of the relationship.
When "pat-a-cake" is tried on desert sheik Anthony Quinn and his henchmen, this time it's Hope and Crosby that end up flat on their backs. Rubbing his sore jaw from the ground, Crosby says to his partner, "Yeah, Junior … that thing sure got around!" Hope: "Yeah, and back to us!"'
Road to Morocco is slick, glossy, and gorgeously photographed by veteran William C. Mellor. It remains the only Road film to date selected for registry by the National Film Preservation Board.
By then, audiences were coming in pre-conditioned to what they were about to see, although "participate in" might be a more apt phrase. There was no fourth wall for the actors to break — by talking to or about the audience — because that wall was never put up to begin with. For instance, when Hope, Crosby, and Lamour sing a reprise of "Moonlight Becomes You" in the middle of the desert, their voices interchange in each others' mouths with every chorus. A camel remarks, "This is the screwiest picture I've ever been in!" Well, after all, it's a Road picture.