Road to ...


Road to... is a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road pictures or the "Road series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music. The minimal plot often took a back seat to gags, seemingly improvised but overwhelmingly scripted.

Films in the series

Each film is not simply a comedy, but a satire of some of the popular film genres of the day, including jungle, Arabian nights, Alaskan adventure, and high seas.
In 1977, an eighth Road to... movie was planned, titled Road to the Fountain of Youth; however, Crosby died that year of a heart attack.
In 1947, Astor Pictures released a compilation film of several of Crosby's Educational Pictures short subjects called The Road to Hollywood to evoke the series. The United States Navy also commissioned Hope and Crosby to produce the 1945 short film Road to Home.
In Sweden, the first film was given the title Två glada sjömän går iland, which led to the subsequent films in the series all being given a title beginning with Två glada sjömän..., except for the last film, which was instead called Vägen till Hong Kong.
In the 1980s, Eric Idle wanted to make a "Road..." picture called The Road to Mars, but was so put off by the executive meddling done at Hollywood studios, that he decided to do it as a novel instead.

Running gags

Beginning with Road to Singapore the films also included in-joke references to other Hollywood actors and jabs at Paramount Pictures, the studio that released all the films except for The Road to Hong Kong. There are also frequent instances in which Bob Hope breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly, such as in Road to Bali, in which he says, "'s gonna sing, folks. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn."
Hope and Crosby would usually play some form of confidence men trying to make a lot of money, with Bing coming up with the ideas and Bob usually doing most of the dirty work. Another common set-piece in the films is a monologue by Crosby "telling it like it is" to the Dorothy Lamour character, only to fall into traditional Crosby-singing-a-ballad; an example from The Road to Rio features the Crosby character analyzing the true love-encounters of a film scene, followed by him singing "But Beautiful".
When confronted by the villain, Hope and Crosby would use a "patty cake" routine before throwing punches, though this would sometimes not work, as in Road to Morocco: "That gag sure gets around, huh?" "Yeah, right back to US!" The only film in the series in which the routine was not used was in Road to Utopia.
Both characters would usually promise to not allow women to interfere with their plans, and both would immediately see a woman and forget that promise. Crosby would almost always get the girl, with the exceptions being in Road to Utopia and Road to Rio.
Hope's character usually would have a nickname with which he would be referred to throughout the film, as in Road to Morocco, when he was called "Turkey", and Road to Zanzibar, in which he was called "Fearless".
Hope would also break the fourth wall continuously to over-act, often with an upbraiding from Crosby. Hope would then blame his overacting on his attempt to win an Oscar. In reality, Hope never won any Oscar for his work, although he did receive honorary Oscars. Later, when Hope was a regular Oscar host, he incorporated his "Oscar bait" whines into his monologues there.

Reception

Box office performance

Homages and other influence