Road to Morocco **** (1942, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour) – Classic Movie Review 6980

The vivaciously funny 1942 comedy film Road to Morocco finds Bing Crosby and Bob Hope off on their third ‘Road to …’ skylark, a wild spoof of all the Arabian movies ever made. Dorothy Lamour also stars. 

Director David Butler’s vivaciously funny 1942 comedy Road to Morocco finds Bing Crosby and Bob Hope off on their third ‘Road to …’ skylark, a wild and sometimes hilarious spoof of all the Arabian movies ever made.

The bubbly original screenplay by Frank Butler and Don Hartman was Oscar nominated, which, at least in part, probably reflected the film’s popularity, and director Butler keeps the tale on course. It was nominated for two Oscars: Best Writing, Original Screenplay and Best Sound, Recording (Loren L Ryder).

Bing and Bob clown incessantly as wacky guys Jeff and Turkey, and amusingly, and there is also Dorothy Lamour (as ever) as a Moroccan royal, Princess Shalmar, to whom Crosby croons his hit ‘Moonlight Becomes You’.

As well as all that there are appearances also from a talking camel (‘this is the screwiest picture I’ve ever been in’), Anthony Quinn (as Mullay Kasim), Dona Drake (as Mihirmah), Monte Blue (Kasim’s aide) and sultry 20-year-old Yvonne De Carlo (handmaiden).

Also in the cast are Vladimir Sokoloff, Mikhail Rasumny, George Givot, Andrew Tombes, Leon Belasco, Dan Seymour, Nestor Paiva, Cy Kendall and Harry Cording.

Dorothy Lamour (1914–1996).

Road to Morocco is directed by David Butler, runs 83 minutes, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Frank Butler and Don Hartman, is shot in black and white by William C Mellor, is produced by Paul Jones, and is scored by Victor Young.

It is followed by Road to Utopia (1946), made in 1943 but not released till 1946.

The seven-film ‘Road to …’ series is: Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1946), Road to Rio (1947), Road to Bali (1952) and The Road to Hong Kong (1962).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6980

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