It's time for another star-studded adventure with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. This time they find themselves in the mysterious land of Morocco.
It all started aboard a raft after Bob Hope decided to smoke a cigarette in The Powder Room. Not to be confused with a bathroom where you powder your nose, but a room that literally carry gun powder. Why Bob was smoking in this room will never know. He could have easily smoked in any other room but I guess he lives with a frill of danger (If any of his other filmography is an indication in this is incredibly untrue).
They're having a tough old time. And Bing Crosby starting to resort to the idea of cannibalism trying to trick Bob Hope into betting on the year of a coin that only he knows.
However they're horrible Endeavor upon this ref is soon over as they hit land.
Bing and Bob begin to ponder where they are roaming around in the middle of a desert. Luckily there's a very nice placed sign written in what I can assume is Arabic and English stating ''Road to Morocco''.
And now we get right in to what the film's all about. It's time for that feel-good charm that comes about with Bing and Bob singing happy songs and getting involved with Dorothy Lamour as she plays yet again another character.
However the setup for the scenario is slightly different. Instead of Bing and Bob creating a get rich quick scheme to grab themselves some easy coins so they can continue on their Adventure. Bing Crosby just decides to sell Bob Hope as a slave. And I don't mean that in any sort of wishy-washy way. Bing flat-out sells Bob as a slave for about $150.
Later we see Bing Crosby sleeping in a bed he's having some sort of Oddball dream in where he sees his aunt this very unflattering looking lady who was played by Bob Hope (hence the unflattertness).
(s)he tells Bing that he has to go out and find Bob. Because what he did was morally wrong. Bing Crosby trys to explain that he's been looking for Bob But has been unable to find him because Morocco it turns out it's a pretty big place. (S)he then Breaks the Rules of Angel etiquette (because (s)he's an angel in the dream) and gives Bing more direct guidance.
Bing Crosby eventually discovers Bob's locations after receiving a note thrown out of a random window by somebody*.
Informing him to leave the country and never return. Bob Hope makes it very clear that he's in a bad situation is being tortured night and day and that if Bing doesn't want to suffer the same problem he should skedaddle at once.
Crosby decides to ignore the letters warning and pursue Bob Hope anyways. Only to discover the Bob Hope is now in the hands of Dorothy Lamour and is living the life of a high King. Crosby as you can imagine is a little bit bewildered. Usually it's him who gets Dorothy!
Crosby then introduces himself to Dorothy who's playing a princess and tries to persuade her that he's the better match. This leads into the typical argument between Bing and Bob as the two are after the same piece of the pie.
It's only later that we discover Dorothy is only marrying Bob because of some mistranslated prophecy in which her first husband is only going to live a week. And that her second husband will have a long everlasting life. Originally this seems to work out well for her because she wants to marry Anthony Quinn. He plays the character Mullay Kasim a local War Chieftain who kind of runs the local Moroccan area**.
She's all set on marrying Anthony Quinn but like most women she eventually discovers that Bing Crosby exist and like so many other women (and some men) she becomes enthralled with Bing Crosby and wants to marry him instead.
This results in the second typical problem that occurs within the Road Too movies. Bing and Bob have to run away from an external threat usually in some way associated with their soon-to-be love interests.
Now in the end they'll get away from Anthony Quinn and we'll have a happy ending. One might consider that something of a basic spoiler I say you can't spoil something that even the movie indicates is going to happen at the beginning of the film. When being and Bob are singing in their first song they tell the audience straight up "Paramount will protect us because we're sign for five more years."
Now in the end they'll get away from Anthony Quinn and we'll have a happy ending. One might consider that something of a basic spoiler. I say you can't spoil something that even the movie indicates is going to happen at the beginning of the film. When Bing and Bob are singing in their first song they tell the audience straight up "Paramount will protect us because we're sign for five more years."
There's a scene where Anthony Quinn and his crew of nomads are running into the town on Horseback and they run this one guy over. And it's not a stunt or anything. This one guy is literally runover by a horse
I'm kind of worried the guy was trampled by a horse and most likely got nothing out of it. I'd like to think I was wrong on that (and I hope I am). But it sure doesn't look that way when I watch the film.
It's kind of funny seeing Anthony Quinn playing this Moroccan desert nomad in the 1940s considering he would go on to make one of his most famous roles in the 1960s Lawrence of Arabia. It's as if we got a little glimpse into his soon-to-be fame.
Re-watching this film I can still say that's my favourite of the 'Road To' movies. Bing and Bob are having a little bit more fun with it, the set design is better made and the overall story is more entertaining. The two 'Road To' movies before this one had the occasional moment of filler. In which the characters kind of had to stumble around for a bit in order to fill out the film. It's actually quite funny. Usually when I watch older films I come over with the experience of quaint humour. Something that I can recognise as humourful but more by the standards of the day.
But the Morocco film is still pretty good. It's humour relies more on the one two punch of basic stand-up comedians harassing one another. Or on making fun of corky cultural differences as they do with the Moroccan people. Of course it's done in a stereotype but amusing all the same. But they make up for some of that by having Bing and Bob be so mind-numbingly stupid to other people's customs that they really don't know how to handle themselves. In one case where they try to bum free food from a market thinking that they can take advantage of a religious custom in which charity is given to the mentally handicapped because God has seen fit that one should help those with mental deficiencies***.
It's a feel-good film. With lots of fun and excitement and only the occasional bit of drama. A comedy with some romantic subplots and the slate veneer of Adventure. In a way it's almost a spoof of what would become the very popular 1950s and 60s Roman and Western Asian epics that would become so predominant for the next 20 years.
*So Bing Crosby has a letter frown at him which contains a locket that Bob owned and the written instructions telling being to leave. But I want to know, who flew the letter at him. It's showing later that Bob was sitting with Dorothy Lamour the whole time so it couldn't have been him. And when you think about it why would he throw the letter at all? Bing had no idea where he was, he could have just sat there and pretended as if he never noticed him to begin with. He wouldn't have been bothered by Bing Crosby. I mean I know the real reason, we need the film to advance and we have to have Bing and Bob meet up again. Also Bob would have died if Bing never found him. Still it's one of those plot holes you can poke. Fun as It is ultimately it really doesn't matter. We don't need an explanation for why Bing Crosby found Bob Hope and it would only waste time to do so. What matters is that the two meet up again to establish the remainder of the story.
** To put it in perspective Anthony Quinn's character plays a guy who kind of rules a local District. Although he's technically less powerful on paper than the local king or even the princess of Morocco he is still the definitive leader of his Local District. Kind of in the same way that Afghanistan was ruled by local Chieftains and the monarchy only really controlled the cities. Everybody paid respect and omage to the King (Shah) but then went about ruling their areas with their own authority.
That is until the Soviet invasion. And Morocco had similar problems with Colonial expansion from the French, Spanish and even the English from time to time. It got to the point where people living in North Africa or Western Asia really only looked to the Ottoman Empire is the only solid ''Muslim'' power in the world. With everybody else either being under the thumb of a European Monarch or having so little power as to be unimportant.
***I wanted to look into this a little more. The idea that the Islamic philosophy preaches charity towards those mental disability. Or in the case of this movie to just give those with mental problems food if they simply take it and not ask for any payment in return. and it seems there's a little bit of Truth in this. And that some philosophies and even parts of the Quran do states that one should give shelter and care to those who cannot provide for themselves. So it might be possible that a person with mental inability could just take a piece of food from a random food stall and not have to worry about the repercussions. However I guarantee I've done more research than anybody who actually wrote the script. They most likely just heard about an off rumour from a possible Source on Moroccan history and it's possible that it wasn't even related to the country of Morocco but some other ''Arab'' Nation.
Really I don't know why I'm putting myself through the effort of researching this particular subject when the movie only uses it as a setup for a very simple joke. But such is the life of somebody who has nothing better to do.
Comments
Post a Comment