Musical Monday: Road to Bali (1952)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Road to Bali (1952) – Musical #157

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Hal Walker

Starring:
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Murvyn Vye, Peter Coe, Ralph Moody, Leon Askin, Patricia Dane (uncredited), Michael Jeffers (uncredited), Carolyn Jones (uncredited), Bhogwan Singh (uncredited), Chanan Singh Sohi (uncredited), 
Cameo: Humphrey Bogart (from archival footage), Bob Crosby, Jane Russell, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin

Plot:
Two vaudeville performers, George Cochran (Crosby) and Harold Gridley (Hope), are in Australia. They (yet again) have to duck out of town when the fathers of two women are looking for the performers after they proposed marriage to their daughters. To get out of town, they accept jobs from Ken Arok (Vye) to dive for treasure in Bali, Indonesia. Little do they know that their boss doesn’t plan on staying alive to accept their pay. Ken Arok is related to Princess Lala (Lamour), who knows of his nefarious ways and tries to keep Harold and George alive. Though she succeeds, the trio has to flee to stay out of reach of Ken Arok.

Trivia:
• Dorothy Lamour’s last film under contract to Paramount Pictures.
• Produced by Paramount Pictures, Bing Crosby Productions and Hope Enterprises
• In Jane Russell’s cameo, she is wearing a costume from SON OF PALEFACE, which Bob Hope co-starred with her in.
• The last “Road” film produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. ROAD TO HONG KONG was distributed by United Artists.
• The second to last “Road” film, and the final that starred Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. The final film, ROAD TO HONG KONG, co-stars Joan Collins, because Lamour was considered “too old,” Lamour said in an interview.
• Working title was “Road to Hollywood.”

Highlights:
• The cameos with Bob Crosby, Humphrey Bogart, Jane Russell.
• Technicolor cinematography
• Bob Hope’s joke about the Academy Awards, noting that Bing Crosby already has an Oscar.

Notable Songs:
• “Chicago Style” performed by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope
• “Moonflowers” performed by Dorothy Lamour
• “To See You is To Love You” performed by Bing Crosby

My review:
To quote the Boyz II Men song, “we’ve come to the end of the road.” Though there is one more “Road” film in the series – THE ROAD TO HONG KONG (1962) – we will review that film at another time.

Coming five years after ROAD TO RIO (1947), ROAD TO BALI (1952) is the last “Road” film that has the original series. While Dorothy Lamour makes a cameo in HONG KONG, Joan Collins is the film’s leading lady.

It’s a shame this is the finale of the original series of films. On one hand, it’s the first (and only) of the films in Technicolor so it’s visually stunning. On the other hand, the story is unhinged and is a real stinker. Even Dorothy Lamour called this one “lousy.”

In the film, vaudeville performers George Cochran (Bing Crosby) and Harold Gridley (Bob Hope) are in Australia. They (yet again) have to duck out of town when the fathers of two women are looking for the performers after they proposed marriage to their daughters. To get out of town, they accept jobs from Ken Arok (Murvyn Vye) to dive for treasure in Bali, Indonesia. Little do they know that their boss doesn’t plan on staying alive to accept their pay. Ken Arok is related to Princess Lala (Dorothy Lamour), who knows of his nefarious ways and tries to keep Harold and George alive. Though she succeeds, the trio has to flee to stay out of reach of Ken Arok. Or something like that.

Sheesh, while typing this I would think, “Now how/why did they end up in this next step in the plot?” This is so zany (in a bad way), and there are more twists and pivots in this story than there are in a maze. The film just has one ridiculous moment one after another:
– A giant octopus that Bob Hope has to fight and pulls someone off a ship.
– A gorilla that gets killed by a tiger, and it’s mate whose cry sounds like a human. The female gorilla also gets tied up in their antics.
– Girls rising out of pots when people play a magic flute. Though some of these scenes can be funny.
– Dorothy Lamour’s character having a dream sequence as she remembers back to her childhood. In the flashback, she remembers having a monkey friend who looks just like Bob Hope. Literally it’s a monkey wearing a Bob Hope mask.

“It was a co-production between Bing Crosby Productions and Hope Enterprises. I thought it was the worst one so far,” Lamour said in an interview with James Bawden. “… It was the only one made in Technicolor, and we all looked our age. In real life, I was a contented matron with kids and walking around in a sarong embarrassed me.”

Bob Hope’s biographer, Richard Zoglin, noted that the film lacked the “improvisational zip” that brightened the other films, and agrees the plot is “virtually non-existent.”

While this movie is truly a stinker, there are a handful of funny moments. For example, there’s an imposed scene with Humphrey Bogart in African Queen. When he disappears, his Oscar is there and Bob Hope snatches it, saying to Bing Crosby, “You already have one!” (for GOING MY WAY).

“They stuck a shot of Bogey from The African Queen in there. Now that was funny,” Lamour said.

The cameos with Bob Crosby and Jane Russell are also highlights. Bing Crosby’s brother, Bob, walks on set with a gun, shoots in the air and walks off. Bing Crosby says, “I promised my brother a shot in my next film.” I also like the part where Crosby is about to sing and Hope puts cotton in his ears, telling the audience to go get some popcorn.

Also early in the film, there’s a joke where Crosby and Hope are surrounded by sheep and they sing “The Whiffenpoof Song,” i.e. “We are poor little lambs, Who have lost our way” and the sheep fill in the “baa baa baa” part. It’s stupid, but sort of funny.

ROAD TO BALI is also depressing in a way. For one, it was the last time Lamour would be in the “Road” trio. And it was also her last film under contract at Paramount Pictures.

“After my last shot, I went out the side gate entrance,” Lamour said in an interview. “I couldn’t face driving through those famous gates one last time.”

It’s just also depressing that the trio had to end on this note, because ROAD TO BALI (1952) is simply not good! Thank goodness it’s pretty to look at.

Since the working title was “Road to Hollywood,” I feel like that could have been a more interesting and fun story if somehow these vaudevillians ended up on the Paramount lot, running into the likes of Cecil B. DeMille or William Holden. Instead we get … diving for buried treasure?

While I still need to review ROAD TO HONG KONG (1962) at a later date, I’m confident the first four “Road” movies are the best of the series. ROAD TO MOROCCO and ROAD TO UTOPIA are my favorites of the series.

I hope you have enjoyed this little “Road” trip. In July, we will be in the saddle as we take a look at western and singing cowboy musicals.

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