THE OBJECTIVE:
Watch 52 musicals, one every week, in 2015.
ROAD TO MOROCCO (1942)
I’ve been sick as hell for the past few days, so for this week’s musical, how’s about a bit of goofy disposable entertainment with only four songs that’s a sequel to Road to Singapore, a flick I’ve already reviewed? Road to Zanzibar it is! Wait, fuck it, Leonard Maltin said Road to Morocco is better, so Road to Morocco it is! Gimme your number, ‘cuz I am ready to phone this in!
THE STORY:
Bob Hope’s character (Bob Hope) lights a pipe on a boat. It explodes and everybody is rescued except him and Bing Crosby’s character (Bing Crosby).
Oh no!
They find land. They hop a camel to Morocco. They meet Dorothy Lamour’s character (Dorothy Lamour). They both fall in love with her. They run from bad guys.
Look out!
Eventually, they leave for wherever the hell they’ll end up in their next movie. Is it a brilliant, mind-blowing plot? Nope! Is it full of zany slapstick and corny jokes and a talking camel? Yup!
Augh!
I will say that the tone is a bit more loose than Singapore, especially when it comes to breaking the fourth wall. I don’t wanna kill every gag, but Hope and Crosby are not above straight-up mentioning how predictable and full of plot holes the script is, and that’s a hell of a lot of fun.
THE ACTING:
Bob Hope is a very funny man.
Ha!
Bing Crosby is a very funny man.
Ha!
Dorothy Lamour is a very pretty woman that also gets to be funny sometimes.
Swoon and ha!
And they’re alllllll great together. Yay! Next.
THE SONGS AND DANCES:
The name of the first song in Road to Morocco is “(We’re Off on the) Road to Morocco,” and it is just plain wonderful. Bob ‘n’ Bing ride a camel through the desert sands and speculate on what might happen on their adventure. It’s catchy, it’s silly, and every other line is a meta-joke about why you should just sit back and enjoy the damn picture.
Will do!
Then a ghost tells Bing to find Bob by wandering around town singing his favorite song, because this is a dumb movie. That song is “Ain’t Got a Dime to My Name,” a sweet, jazzy number about being poor without a care in the world.
For we all cherish the pleasures of having no money!
Bob and Dorothy share a song where they love each other. It’s called “Constantly” and it’s about how she wants to be with him not just for tonight, but constantly.
Aww!
Contradicting that song is Bing and Dorothy’s duet “Moonlight Becomes You,” in which lookin’ extra hot in the moonlight is discussed.
Aww again!
And then there’s no singing for a long damn time, but at one point Bob ‘n’ Bing get loopy in the desert and imagine that they and Dorothy Lamour are reprising “Moonlight Becomes You” while dubbed with each other’s voices. It is silly as shit.
Hope’s Crosby impression is spot-on.
I THINK THIS LINE’S MOSTLY FILLER:
The chorus of “Ain’t Got a Dime to My Name” is not, in fact, the words “ain’t got a dime to my name,” but rather this shpadoinkle nonsense on a loop…
“Ho hum, ho ho ho ho hum…”
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This movie is the cinematic equivalent of candy. Wait, shit, did I say that in my other review? Well, good for me. That’s apt. But really, it’s a fun flick, there you go, I’ll try next week when I’m not miserable, honest.
NEXT WEEK:
Footlight Parade (1933)
