Tue, Mar 24
8:00 pm to 10:00 pm

SlabCinema will be Tuesday night screenings at La Tuna this spring while we wait for Movies by Moonlight to start (June-August). Showtime is 8 p.m. Bring your own chairs or blankets.

March 24
Road to Bali (1952)
Bing Crosby and Bob Hope play a vaudeville duo who are run out of town to avoid a double wedding. They find employment as deep sea divers in the South Pacific. Cameo appearances by Martin and Lewis and Jane Russell.

Road to Bali

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Road to Bali

theatrical poster
Directed by Hal Walker
Produced by Daniel Dare
Written by Frank Butler
Hal Kanter
Starring Bing Crosby
Bob Hope
Dorothy Lamour
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) November 1, 1952 (US)
Running time 91 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Preceded by Road to Rio
Followed by The Road to Hong Kong
IMDb • Allmovie

Road to Bali is a 1952 comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. It was released by Paramount Pictures and is the sixth of the seven Road to… movies. It was the only such movie filmed in color and was the first to feature surprise cameo appearances from other well-known stars of the day.

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[edit] Plot

Having to leave Melbourne in a hurry to avoid various marriage proposals, two song-and-dance men sign-on to work as divers. This takes them to an idyllic island on the way to Bali where they vie with each other for the favours of Princess Lala. The hazardous dive produces a chest of priceless jewels which arouses the less romantic interest of some shady locals.

[edit] Production

Road to Bali was the first “Road to…” picture since 1947’s Road to Rio, and was known during production as The Road to Hollywood. It was the sixth film in the series, and the next to last to be made, as well as the last “Road” film to star Dorothy Lamour. The film was a co-production of Bing Crosby Enterprises, Hope Enterprises and Paramount.[1]

The giant squid that threatens Bob Hope in an underwater scene was previously seen attacking Ray Milland in the Paramount production Reap the Wild Wind directed by Cecil B. DeMille and the erupting volcano climax was taken directly from the Paramount production Aloma of the South Seas (1941) also starring Lamour.

[edit] Cast

Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour

[edit] Cameos

Among the celebrities who made token “gag” appearances in this film are bandleader Bob Crosby (Bing’s brother), Humphrey Bogart, by way of a clip from The African Queen, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, and Jane Russell, as her character from the 1952 film Son of Paleface. The cameo by Martin and Lewis were part of a ‘comedy trade’ where they made an appearance in this movie, while Hope and Crosby appeared in Martin and Lewis’s Scared Stiff the following year. Martin and Lewis also made films for Paramount at the time.

[edit] Songs

  • “Chicago Style” – performed by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope
  • “Moonflowers” – by Dorothy Lamour
  • “Hoot Mon” – Bing Crosby and Bob Hope
  • “To See You Is To Love You” – Bing Crosby[2]
  • “The Merry-Go-Run-Around” – Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour and Bing Crosby

Music for all songs is by Jimmy Van Heusen, with lyrics by Johnny Burke.

[edit] Release

Due to irregularities with its copyright, Road to Bali has lapsed into the public domain. Columbia Pictures Television once had the television rights to this film in the 1980s, along with other Bob Hope movies from the 1940s and 1950s. This is evident in a home video release from the mid-1990’s, where a CPT logo can be seen at the beginning and end of the film.

Because the film is in the public domain, there have been at least a dozen DVD releases from a variety of companies over the years.

[edit] In popular culture

Road to Bali was parodied in 1953 in Universal Pictures‘ animated short Alley to Bali, with Woody Woodpecker and Buzz Buzzard in the Hope and Crosby roles.

[edit] Miscellany

In keeping with the film’s Commonwealth setting, which takes Crosby and Hope from Melbourne, Australia, to the exotic island of Bali, many of the jokes contain references to Argyle socks, Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, Tasmanian-born Errol Flynn, and a dance routine featuring Scottish bagpipes.

As with the other Road movies, Bob Hope breaks the “fourth wall” several times to make side comments to the audience, for example, as the music for a song sung by Bing Crosby begins, “He’s gonna sing, folks. Now’s the time to go out and get the popcorn.”

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ TCM Notes
  2. ^ Crosby’s version of “To See You Is to Love You” is featured without credit in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1952).

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Road to Bali (film)

Road to… refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as “Road pictures.”

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