Road to Singapore

Avoiding arranged marriages, shipping heir Bing Crosby (as Joshua "Josh" Mallon) and carefree pal Bob Hope (as "Ace" Lannigan) run away to Singapore. They swear off work and women, and then find both in pretty native Dorothy Lamour (as Mima). Eventually, the men begin falling in love with Ms. Lamour, and she likes them both. They work out attractions while getting into local trouble. This was the first in an initially unplanned series of "Road to…" pictures starring Mr. Hope and Mr. Crosby, with Lamour adding the necessary sex appeal. Proving himself handy with a bull whip is handsome young Anthony Quinn (as Caesar). The pleasant soundtrack hit is Crosby's "I'm Too Romantic". An obvious screen chemistry multiplied the co-stars' individual appeal.

***** Road to Singapore (3/14/40) Victor Schertzinger ~ Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Anthony Quinn

I recently watched the first 4 Road to...movies and I found this one to be the least engaging. Don't get me wrong; Hope and Crosby are having a blast. The gags mostly land. The songs are humble. The film moves at a good pace. I can understand it launching the series. But the writing isn't as sharp or as meta as the series would come alone. Overall this was more of a lark than anything.

I was surprised by the fairly homosocial (if not homoerotic) subtext and it was funny squinting the story into a couple of old queens fleeing normalcy. I wish the film played up that angle a little more but you know it was 1940.

"Road to Singapore" was the beginning of the "Road" pictures that teamed Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour together in a series of films. In this one, Bing is the heir to millions but escapes the rich life and a fiancé and winds up in Singapore with Hope. There they meet Lamour, who is escaping her obsessive dance partner (Anthony Quinn). Both guys fall for her.

There are some hysterical scenes in this film, the best being the feast that the three attend toward the end of the movie. Hope and Crosby have obvious chemistry, and in later films, this would lead to more hijinks. Have to add that the young Bob Hope was pretty darn cute. Crosby sings beautifully, as does the exotic-looking Lamour. According to Lamour's autobiography, they apparently had a blast making these films. It shows.

Can you imagine The Road to Singapore with parts of Bing and Bob being played by Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie? That was the original casting that Paramount originally had for this first of the Road pictures.

You can tell that they did not have a series in mind because the billing was Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and then Bob Hope. When MacMurray and then Oakie became unavailable, someone had the bright idea of putting Crosby and Hope together. By this time a certain rivalry had developed on radio. Both had been guests on each other's shows, forever trying to top each other with unscheduled ad-libs in the script. So the casting changes were made.

There's none of the surreal humor in this that characterized the later Road pictures because the formula wasn't there yet. But when you see Crosby and Hope trying to land a fish and later on singing the Captain Custard song, the chemistry is unmistakable.

The rest of the score by Jimmy Monaco and Johnny Burke consists of one of Crosby's nicest ballads, Too Romantic and a novelty song for all three of the leads, Sweet Potato Piper. The director Victor Schertzinger who was also a composer of note and Johnny Burke did a South Sea Island ballad for Dottie, The Moon and the Willow Tree.

So what would have been a routine film turned out to be a shakedown cruise for a lot of movie fun.

Delightful nonsense that kicked off the whole Road series. The songs and their staging are especially charming and fit right into the nonsense— where else, for example, can you catch such non- perennials as 'Captain Custard' and 'Sweet Potato Piper'. Plus that jungle chant along with the bevy of half-clad native girls is about the sexiest thing on film. Of course, Bing and Bob keep the chuckles coming without half trying. Their chemistry is just superb.

Seems Bing's the son of a wealthy hard-driving businessman (Coburn) who wants Bing to eventually take over. Trouble is Bing and his buddy Bob just want to be regular guys (read typical 1930's concern for the 'common man'.) So, with Dorothy, they escape to Singapore. But Dad's hot on their trail. Meanwhile, the guys get to sample native life, while Dorothy's on the spot trying to choose between them. Quinn's role as an Apache dancer with a whip is colorful but incidental. My only gripe is with "comedian" Colonna. His ear-piercing screeches are anything but amusing. In fact, I don't know what they're supposed to be.

Anyway, the boys put a whole new slant on the kid's rhyme 'Patty Cake, Patty Cake'. So if you hear it, duck! All in all, Paramount came up with a great slice of amusing nonsense, with a trio that still delights.