Road to Bali

Rating:
Summary: Hope when he was good!
Review: It's a shame that we don't get to see much of Bob Hope's earlier movies on free TV or cable, because they're 99% of the reason the man is so venerated today! For some reason, after 1963, Hope couldn't make a genuinely funny movie to save his life. I guess he just wasn't hungry anymore. The first REAL dog was "I'll Take Sweden", a travesty he did with Frankie Avalon and Tuesday Weld. The wisecracking machine had wound down, and the jokes were lame, but here, in one of his legendary "Road" movies with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, he was in full fetter, tossing them off like M-80s along with Crosby, who still manages to surprise me with how adept HE is with one-liners in these movies.

The plot involves H & C playing two vaudevillians in Melbourne, Australia who have both proposed to the same girl, hence starting a chase that has them hoping a train to nowhere, where they find jobs as deep sea divers that take them to the south seas where they meet Lamour through her cousin that hires them. The usual rivalry for her affections ensues and then a whole farce involving treasure, forced marriage and animals develops. There are guest appearances by Humphrey Bogart and Martin and Lewis in this little gem, along with Jane Russell and it's all done to a comic turn. Hope is in great form here and the production itself pretty much follows his lead.

During this period, (the late forties and early fifties,) Paramount and Columbia were THE houses for comedies and farces, and this is among Paramount's best!

You can't go wrong getting this gem along with the other "Road" and pre-"Call Me Bwana" Bob Hope movies...

Now to find "Casanova's Big Night"! (g)