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[edit] Background

Third, and arguably most popular and financially most successful, in the series of six Road to . . . films made by Paramount Pictures:

Road to Singapore (1940)
Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Road to Morocco (1942)
Road to Utopia (1946)
Road to Rio (1947)
Road to Bali (1952)

The seventh and final entry in the series The Road to Hong Kong (1962) was produced by Melnor Films and released through United Artists. It should be noted that in this film, Dorothy Lamour's role as female foil/love interest for Crosby and Hope was filled by Joan Collins. Ms. Lamour had only a bit part as herself in this film.

An eighth film, Road to the Fountain of Youth, re-uniting Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour was planned in the late 1970s, but the death of Crosby on October 14, 1977 put an end to that project.

[edit] Introduction

The time was 1942. The world was at war. And the United States psyche was still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor less than a year earlier. Though Hitler's Wehrmacht was at a standstill in the Soviet Union as another winter rolled in, belief in an ultimate Allied victory over the Axis was still another year away.

Daily life within American society was totally focused on the war effort. For most, the work week had increased from 40 hours to 48 hours, as industry mobilized to meet demand. At home, gas, meat, sugar, eggs, butter and other essential supplies were rationed. From newspapers to radio to the cinema, there were few places one could turn without wondering if the lights would go on again all over the world.

When Road to Morocco opened at the Paramount Theater on Broadway in New York's Times Square that November 10th, it must have seemed like a breath of fresh air to a war weary populace. Here was a Morocco from Tales of the Arabian Nights via Hollywood, a fairyland of beautiful women, cunning and clumsy villains, and two beloved con men, all untouched by the war that should have been, in fact, swirling around them. (It also no doubt helped the film that Colonial French Morocco had just surrendered to the Allies two day's before the film's premiere; the country having been under the Nazi jackboot since the fall of France in 1940.)

While no film from that period, except perhaps a costume piece, could have remained completely devoid of war-related propaganda, Road to Morocco fares far better than most (the longest reference to the war is the "buy war bonds and stamps" icon in the closing credits), which is also probably one of the reasons for its enduring popularity. Instead, it's 82 minutes of rip-roaring fun with Crosby, Hope and Lamour at the peak of their careers.

Several songs written specifically for the film by Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics) became popular standards in the 1940s: Constantly, Moonlight Becomes You and the film's title song (We're Off on the) Road to Morocco.

Directed by David Butler. Nominated for two Academy Awards (1943) for Best Sound/Recording: Lauren L. Ryder, and Best Writing/Original Screenplay: Frank Butler and Don Hartman. In 1996 National Film Preservation Board, USA awarded Road to Morocco to the National Film Registry; the only Road to . . . picture, so far, to receive that distinction.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main Cast

Bing Crosby . . . Jeff Peters
Bob Hope . . . Orville "Turkey" Jackson / Aunt Lucy
Dorothy Lamour . . . Princess Shalmar

[edit] Supporting Cast

Anthony Quinn . . . Mullay Kasim
Dona Drake . . . Mihirmah
Vladimir Sokoloff . . . Hyder Khan
Yvonne De Carlo . . . Handmaiden (uncredited)

[edit] The Movie

By this film, both the real-life friendship of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, and the series successful formula were firmly in place: take one lovely damsel in distress, mix with some lively tunes, stir in an exotic locale, add a couple of hams, baste with some ad-libs, and bake for about 90 minutes.

- - - - - - - -

After years in exile, Jeff Peters (Bing Crosby) and Orville "Turkey" Jackson (Bob Hope) have finally earned enough money to return to the states. A mishap aboard ship, finds the boys stranded with no food, no water and no money in the mysterious country of Morocco. . .

In order to raise some dosh for a fresh start, Peters sells his cousin Turkey into bondage, with the intent of buying him back . . . eventually. A warning dream from their Aunt Lucy convinces him to do it sooner rather than later. But rather than discovering Turkey in dire straits, Peters finds that his cousin is now in the lap of luxury and the arms of the lovely Princess Shalmar (Dorothy Lamour).

As Peters vies with his cousin for Shalmar's affections, Turkey learns the real reason behind her desire to marry him: a prophecy warns that the Princess's first husband will die soon after their wedding, but her second husband will have long life. So, in the interest of self-preservation -- and because the Princess's handmaiden Mirimah (Dona Drake) is in love with him anyway -- he graciously steps aside.

When the prophecy is revealed to be in error, Shalmar's original intended, Mullay Kasim (Anthony Quinn), arrives to claim his fiancée. With Shalmar's refusal to marry him, Kasim kidnaps his betrothed and Mirimah, taking them back to his desert camp.

The boys mount a rescue attempt to save the girls and the day.

[edit] Trivia

Some of the sets used for Road to Morocco made appearances in several earlier Paramount Pictures, including Rudolph Valentino's first starring role as The Sheik (1921), and Cecile B. DeMille's silent-screen epic The Ten Commandments (1923).

While both Crosby and Hope often denied that they ad-libbed their lines in the Road Pictures, they often had their radio show writers review the scripts of their films to insert a quip or add a comic punch to their dialogue. Because they kept these changes to themselves until the cameras were rolling, often their co-stars were giving a first-time reaction to the lines, and these first-takes were usually kept in.

[edit] Timeline

November 10, 1942: Opened in the United States in New York City, New York
June 17, 1998: First release on DVD in the United States
March 5, 2002: Re-released on DVD in the United States as part of the multi-DVD retrospective, Bob Hope: The Tribute Collection

[edit] Influences on Pop Culture

[edit] Film

So popular was Paramount's pairing of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, that other studios tried to copy the formula, with limited success.

Warner Bros. created their own pairing of a crooner and a comic with the Two Guys from . . . series. Starring Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson, Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946) and Two Guys from Texas (1948) tried to re-create the magic formula with limited appeal. While both films were fairly popular upon release, they are largely forgotten today.

MGM went a different route in green-lighting an A-picture budget for their first teaming of a popular crooner with a [at that time] moderately successful hoofer. Anchors Aweigh (1945) brought Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly together in the first of three musical extravaganzas. The other two were On the Town (1949) and Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). A fourth film, Guys and Dolls (1955), was planned to star the duo, but because of an accident, Kelly's role was filled by Marlon Brando.

But it was Paramount Pictures that would manage to find the worthy successors to Crosby and Hope when they signed the comic duo Martin & Lewis to a series of 16 films. In a bit of irony, or a nod to passing the baton to the next generation, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made an uncredited cameo in Road to Bali, while Crosby and Hope reciprocated with their own uncredited cameos in the Martin & Lewis film, Scared Stiff (1953).

[edit] Television

Family Guy has referenced the Road to . . . films in four episodes:

Road to Rhode Island (2000: ep 2.13)
Road to Europe (2002: ep 3.20)
Road to Rupert (2007: ep 5.9)
Road to Germany (2008: ep 7.3)

Duckman referenced the film in title and song in the episode Road to Dendron (1996: ep 3.16).

[edit] Fandom & Kerfluffles

Because of both the age of this film (65+ years as of this writing) and the [probable] non-existence of a fandom devoted to it (as opposed to fandoms devoted specifically to actor/singer Bing Crosby, and actors Yvonne De Carlo, Bob Hope and Anthony Quinn), the likelihood of any fannish kerfluffles is minimal.

It should be noted that when the term fandom is used in this case, it does not mean that the film is a forgotten relic on the dustbin of history. As a film genre, the Road Pictures still maintain a large fan base of people who view the films, purchase them on DVD, purchase books related to them, as well as enjoy and understand pop culture references to them. However, the majority of fans are passive consumers of these films, rather than active participants within a larger "fannish" culture. At this time, there appears to be no core group of fans devoting time to writing fan fiction, creating fan art, building websites or performing other fannish activities related to the films within this genre.