Road to Bali (1953)

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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.

Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but c'mon gag writers of the 1950's, less is more. It is indeed a mixed bag of gags, and by the early 1950's, old movie comics were finding it hard to stay fresh. Bob Hope ends up in the can, literally, in this case a deep sea diver's outfit, possible squid food, set up by the evil cousin of island queen Dorothy Lamour, determined to depose her and claim the gems of sunken treasure for himself. Now a queen without an island after being betrayed, Lamour heads to Bali with hope and tag along Crosby who is determined to get rid of lover boy Hope and get l'amour from Lamour himself.The first five "Road" movies were amusing ( some more than others), but after a five year hiatus, the magic seems forced. Actors can only look at the camera so many times before it starts to get old, and inside jokes of Crosby having an Oscar but Hope not having one (after an outtake of Humphrey Bogart in "The African Queen" appears out of nowhere) is funny once, but unlike others in the series and similar parodies, they don't work on repeat viewings.The one thing that benefits this is the use of color, showing Lamour off in slim sarongs and odd hair pieces. Songs thus time out are rather mediocre, with nothing standing out. Shots of cute clapping monkeys and singing sheep get more plaudits than "The Merry Go Round and Round", although Hope gets a funny gag by having his face imposed on a baby chimpanzee's. The conclusion involves a musical number straight out of the type of musical numbers from the early 1930's and a twist involving an unorthodox marriage. But with it being rather juvenile, it's a disappointment although some amusing cameos do add laughs.

With this-the sixth in the Road movies-it's the first (and only) time an entry is presented in Technicolor. It's also the first one I saw as a child at my local library though I've either only saw the beginning or come in the middle the couple of times I did that so now I've seen the thing in its entirety. I didn't remember it being too funny then but now that I get many of the inside jokes, it's a bit more funny now though I have to admit it seemed a bit longer than necessary when the plot comes into play. Still, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour are always fun to watch and there are some funny cameos from various stars including a clip of Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen which leads to some Oscar references of which Bob always likes to joke about never getting (in truth, he got several special ones over the years). While Bob and Bing would make one more Road feature, Ms. Lamour ended up just making a glorified cameo in that one as this movie turned out to be her last as a leading lady. So on that note, Road to Bali was another worthy entry in the series. Next up, The Road to Hong Kong.

One of the actors making a cameo in Road to Bali is missing from the credit list--Humphrey Bogart! Bogie is seen pulling "The African Queen" through the marsh just as he did in the movie "The African Queen"! This film is full of site gags like the earlier Road pics, including Martin and Lewis in a dream and Bing's brother Bob shooting wild game! There have been various versions of this film released on video. TCM just showed a great copy in its original form with the Paramount logo. Earlier versions had cut the logo. This film must have fallen into public domain since it was produced by Bing (and Bob?) and only released by Paramount. The interesting thing about the new TCM version is that it has an early-'50s Columbia logo at the start! They must have gained access to it as the did Road to Rio years earlier.