User Reviews

The Hope and Crosby Road pictures were very popular in the 1940s and "The Road to Morocco," the third in the series, shows them at about their best. Well, maybe "Zanzibar" was at the top, with "Utopia" not far behind. The climax in this one depends a little too much on minor gimmicks like dribbling glasses, exploding cigarettes, and whoopee cushions. A weakness easily overlooked.

The plot takes them to a fairy tale Morocco, more Arabian Nights and Hollywood than French colony. The men wear white suits and fez caps or turbans. The women wear diaphanous veils and tiaras. Dorothy Lamour turns up as a princess who, her fortune tellers say, must marry a man she cares nothing about because he is fated to die a violent death within the week, freeing Lamour to marry the powerful sheik Anthony Quinn. That man she cares nothing about and chooses to marry is Bob Hope. Crosby muscles in on Hope, not knowing what the sooth sayers sayeth.

It's all nonsensical and none of it is taken seriously by the actors, the writers, or the viewers. Even when Crosby is serenading Lamour with a pretty little ballad, "Moonlight Becomes You," he tries to pick a rose to bring her and pricks his finger instead. Some of the sight gags are pretty amusing -- Crosby and Hope imitating mechanical men, when a fly lands on Hope's nose. It's not the only joke involving Hope's notorious nose, and there's a reference to the size of Crosby's ears as well. I don't want to reveal too many of the amusing incidents, but I always laugh when a girl tries to wake up Hope. He shrugs her off, rolls over in bed, and mumbles, "Okay, Ma, I'll get a job tomorrow." And Crosby's line: "Junior, how can you do this to me? Why we went to school together. We were in the same class for years -- until I got promoted."

The script has no hesitation in breaking the fourth wall or slinging anachronisms, self references, or in-jokes around. When Hope asks how they got out of the tight spot we last saw them in, Crosby looks at the camera suspiciously, then leans over and whispers his reply into Hope's ear in order to keep it a secret from us. Some of the gags may be lost on younger, less sophisticated viewers. "Aunt Lucy" shows up as a ghost, giving advice and scolding the two men from time to time. Crosby makes some comment about Aunt Lucy's being dead but you can't keep her down. "Not Aunt Lucy," Hope agrees, "She's a Republican." (Kids: This movie was made midway through the unprecedented, and now illegal, third term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat.) I've always enjoyed the relationship between Hope and Crosby in these movies. Both are greedy, libidinous cowards, ready to double cross one another at the first glimpse of a dollar bill or a woman's ankle. (In this one, Crosby sells Hope into slavery to pay for a restaurant meal.) But neither is superior to the other in any way, unlike other popular comedy teams such as Abbott and Costello or Martin and Lewis. These guys are both equally stupid and despicable.

Lots of fun.

Whenever I'm discussing films with friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances etc and the 'Road' franchise is mentioned it is always Morocco that seems to be emblematic of the series. Chronologically it was the third out of seven but the first one acknowledged by the Front Office to BE part of a franchise. Singapore was intended as a one-off and Zanzibar was a last-minute reworking of a project designed for other talents but by 1942 the Paramount movers and shakers had conceded that Hope, Crosby and Lamour plus wacky situations and three or four songs equalled big Box Office. Having experimented with featuring Hope and Crosby as performers in 'Zanzibar' the studio discarded it this time around in favour of having them stow away on a liner that was subsequently sunk and being cast adrift on a makeshift raft. They did, however, retain the idea of Crosby consistently exploiting Hope so that this time around he actually sells him into slavery which serves to kickstart what little plot there is. As always patrons came to see the gags, both verbal and sight, the 'in' jokes, put-downs and ultimately the songs by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen which were always very good to excellent. Morocco contains arguably the most durable of them all in Moonlight Becomes You but also yields a ballad for Lamour, Constantly, the upbeat Crosby solo Ho Hum and the great title song performed as a duet. Ho hum? Yes and no but on balance more ho than hum.

Talk about being politically incorrect, this movie is bound to offend a lot of people today, with its portrayals of villainous Arabs, but try to realize this 1942 movie was a parody of every Arabian adventure cliché since the silent era. Any movie that has a pair of camels discussing the foolishness of humans, with the female camel speaking in a Katherine Hepburn accent, is obviously not taking itself too seriously.

Crosby comes off as more of a bad hat than usual, since he actually sells Bob Hope into slavery temporarily, but it isn't long before the boys are fighting over the affections of a lovely Princess, and things are back to normal.

I saw this film for the first time in the late Seventies at college, and a group of Arab exchange students from Kuwait were highly amused at the chase scene through the harem, with Anthony Quinn apparently speaking genuine Arabic to his henchmen, interspersed with English dialog. They took it in good humor, recognizing the unreal, deliberately absurd nature of the story, especially in a picture that was thirty odd years old at the time.

Personally, I think there are funnier movies in the Road series, but Road to Morocco is pretty amusing if you appreciate the unique Hope and Crosby style of casual ad lib humor; not to mention the stunning beauty and comedic gifts of Dorothy Lamour,

Even if you haven't seen the film but know the principals, you can figure out who's saying my summary line, who it's about, and who the speaker is saying it to. If you can't, you've never seen a Road show.

The picture isn't much more than a showcase for Crosby and Hope to fire off their one-liners and get in a few decidedly successful song numbers, but it's the type of film I always enjoy watching for sheer entertainment value. The gags are fast and furious, and there's one I had to do a quick double take on in the latter part of the picture. When Bing sprinkles some ground up tobacco leaves onto a display an Arab is selling, Hope quips - "Hey, whattya doin', makin' reefers?" Man, if I had this on DVD, I'd still be replaying that scene.

As for Lamour, this might be the best she's looked in a film I've seen her in to date. The exotic locale and Arab princess garb help, but she really did look gorgeous here. No wonder the boys always fought or sang over her. Moonlight Becomes Her indeed.

My vote for one line that should have been in the flick but wasn't - "I've never seen a picture with so many talking camels before"!

On the third stop in the Road series of pictures we find Bing Crosby and Bob Hope playing their usual sharpie and schnook. Crosby's schemes have a little more bite to them in this film, he sells Hope into slavery. Ah, but the catch is: Dorothy Lamour bought him to be her husband and is Bing put out about that. No worry there however, he sings a patented Crosby love ballad and Dottie the princess is his.

Musically, Road pictures seem to break down into the usual choice of songs for the film. That ballad Crosby sang to woo Princess Dottie is Moonlight Becomes You, probably the biggest song hit ever to come from a Road picture. There's a song for Dottie, in this case entitled Constantly, performed in the sultry Lamour manner. You have a philosophical number Ain't Got A Dime To My Name for Bing which is his own genre. And finally the title tune which is one for Hope and Crosby to perform with their usual ad-libbing and banter.

When Decca released an album of 78s for the Road to Morocco, Bing recorded all the numbers solo including the duet with Hope in the title tune. When they later did Road to Utopia, Crosby and Hope recorded Put It There Pal and then the flip side of that 78 included a duet version of Road to Morocco. Since it was a duet in the movie, the duet version of Road to Morocco became the only one after that. Bing's solo version of Road to Morocco disappeared into the Decca vaults, never to be heard again. It's one of his rarest items now, so if you have it, it's worth something providing it's in good condition.

One thing about writing reviews for Road pictures is that there is no plot worth mentioning, just a frame to hang a lot of gags on. No worry of spoilers here. In this journey we have hotfoots, whoopee cushions, talking camels, mirages, dribble glasses and Bob and Bing kissing each other. Is that enough nonsense?

One gag wasn't planned. At the beginning when Crosby and Hope are washed ashore on the Moroccan desert they find a camel. Without any warning the camel spits in Hope's eye. Director David Butler thought it so hilarious, he left it in the film.

In this third outing in the series, Hope and Crosby, now firmly established in the eyes of the world as a fully fledged comedy team, find themselves shipwrecked on a deserted shore, acquire a 'spitting' camel and ride it all the way to Morocco where on arrival Hope is sold into slavery by Crosby for the price of a meal. What a pal!

However Crosby realises he has sold himself a little short when he discovers Hope is actually been sold to the sultry and delicious Princess Shalmar played as always by Road To.. regular Dorothy Lamour and she intends to marry him.

Throw in a jealous, throat-slitting sheik played by Anthony Quinn, a few talking animals, a magic ring with three wishes, mirages, tribal wars and a bevvy of songs and it all adds up to the most outrageous Road adventure yet.

The humour in this movie was very anarchic for its day, with Hope for the first time breaking down the fourth wall and talking direct to the audience for a few of his one liners. In fact with the possible exception of Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson's 'Helzapoppin' the previous year, the comedy barriers had rarely been pushed out so far.

Also the songs are in a higher league with 'Moonlight Becomes You' providing Bing with one of the biggest hits of his career, and Dorothy Lamour brings us 'Constantly', a beautiful romantic ballad, the words of which must have seemed so poignant for those women with loved ones overseas fighting the war.

Check out this film, Not only is it arguably the best in the series but as a stand alone film in its own right, they seldom come better than this.