The Silver Screen Oasis

Road to Morocco (1942), directed by David Butler.

I've never found Hope and Crosby that funny and am not a particular fan of the series but once I start watching the appeal is undeniable. I can't help getting pulled into their unapologetic mid-20th century goofiness, especially those from the War years when people needed a laugh.

Self-referential and with vast amounts of comic mugging. The comedy of silliness doesn't always wear well but what was old becomes new again. It was a different world, standards of entertainment that would not be allowed today. Culturally insensitive? That is the culture.

Dorothy Lamour seems extra-gorgeous this time, and Anthony Quinn has his masculine menace down pat.

Like all golden age Hollywood fantasies set in exotic locales, the settings are a mish-mash of anything and everything north of the Sahara and east of Suez.

Each Jack gets his Jill. I was unfamiliar with Dona Drake, the second female lead. She was three-quarters black, presented herself as Mexican, played both "ethnic" and non-ethnic roles, and lead an all-girl orchestra:



The complete series:

• 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 Road to Hong Kong (1962)

Costumes by Edith Head, putting a lot of sparkle wattage into the women's clothes.

Photographed by William C. Mellor -- Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Compulsion (1959), Giant (1956), The Naked Spur (1953).

The score is by Victor Young, uncredited. Music and lyrics by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke.

This introduced "Moonlight Becomes You" which became a standard. Paramount must have the rights because it shows up in their films: we catch a bit from the nightclub chanteuse in the holodeck scene in Star Trek: First Contact (1996).

Available on Blu-ray from Kino. The commentary track is a fact-packed history of the series and everyone involved.

He says that Dorothy Lamour's start on the picture was delayed by two weeks because the government needed her to continue her phenomenally successful War Bond sales tour. She used her vacation time for this and paid her own expenses. During the whole war she sold $300 million worth and was known as the "Bond Bombshell".

I think this was the funniest of the Road series. The quips were fast and furious, many very topical. Bob talks about his dead Aunt Lucy who he thinks has come back as a ghost. Bing says "When someone is dead they stay dead" Bob "Not Aunt Lucy, she was a Republican!" Bob also gets into hilarious drag as Aunt Lucy.
There were some in jokes about the movie business, even about the movie they were currently making. Things get wild and surreal with talking camels, though the next Road movie in Utopia get even wackier.

wmcclain wrote: ↑April 29th, 2023, 6:03 am I was unfamiliar with Dona Drake, the second female lead. She was three-quarters black, presented herself as Mexican

Sounds like you're referencing dog breeds.



We just screened Road To Morrocco last week & I loved seeing it with a crowd. It went over pretty well but was a bit "silly" for some of our regular members.
My buddy asked me last night how I liked it & I said "I LOVED it, it's my genre".

He said it was "meh" for him but he's looking forward to our next screening The Desperados '43. I don't even want to attend- I can't stand Westerns or Randolph Scott!
So we both kind of chuckled over classic movies genres-there's something for everyone! Which is why it's so hard to put a classic movie program together.
I really like when I've exhausted a genre (like Dead End Kids shorts) and discover an unfamiliar genre of films I now like (like 80's horror)

(PS My avatar picture was how I attended a Marx Bros Cinephile Screening I cut everyone's paper dinner napkins with huge metal scissors)

Detective Jim McLeod wrote: ↑April 29th, 2023, 9:22 am I think this was the funniest of the Road series. The quips were fast and furious, many very topical. Bob talks about his dead Aunt Lucy who he thinks has come back as a ghost. Bing says "When someone is dead they stay dead" Bob "Not Aunt Lucy, she was a Republican!" Bob also gets into hilarious drag as Aunt Lucy.
There were some in jokes about the movie business, even about the movie they were currently making. Things get wild and surreal with talking camels, though the next Road movie in Utopia get even wackier.

Does anyone know the origins of the dead\not dead "she was a Republican" crack? The joke is years before Nixon came back from the "dead" in the late 60s so I wonder if the joke refers to any specific GOP pols from the 30s.

jamesjazzguitar wrote: ↑April 29th, 2023, 10:33 am [

Does anyone know the origins of the dead\not dead "she was a Republican" crack? The joke is years before Nixon came back from the "dead" in the late 60s so I wonder if the joke refers to any specific GOP pols from the 30s.

I am assuming it had to with Democrat Franklin Roosevelt winning a third term as President in 1940, there hadn't been a Republican President since Herbert Hoover in 1933.

EDIT- and just two years before this film, in Road To Singapore Bing and Bob are battling a huge fish they just caught, Bob says "Never gives up! Must be a Republican!"

They were a lot of fun. And they found clever ways at being naughty while evading the censors. Dorothy Lamour underplayed but was still funny.