You must watch at least one of the seven "Road" comedies that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope made together, and this one would be a good choice. It features a lot of music, most notably "Moonlight Becomes You," and it gives you some sense of the duo's appeal in these silly sexist capers. Dorothy Lamour had a lot to do with it, as the object of their desire, but I'll never forget going to see the last of seven Road picture, "The Road to Hong Kong," in 1962 and finding Lamour in a cameo role instead of the female lead. Apparently the boys considered her too old at forty-eight to be desirable; the lead went to Joan Collins, who was thirty years younger than the boys. It must have taken all of Lamour's acting ability to appear flattered by their sophomoric shenanigans. Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar, Road to Rio (1947) and Road to Bali (1952) all feature the old lechers slobbering over "exotic" young women with little notable music. Singapore, Zanzibar, and Bali offer no memorable songs, but Rio gives us Crosby doing a sweet version of "But Beautiful," a classic written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen, and Utopia gives Lamour the chance to perform the witty "Personality" by the same writing duo. --from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013
Review of Road to Morocco
