2A02:8084:8021:B500:E723:3865:B6CA:84A5: /* Films in the series */

2025-02-15T00:47:31Z

Films in the series

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{{short description|Series of comedy movies}}
{{for|the series of ''Family Guy'' episodes|Road to ... (Family Guy){{!}}Road to ... (''Family Guy'')}}
{{Refimprove|date=October 2010}}
{{Italic title}}
[[File:Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour and Bing Crosby in Road to Bali.jpg|right|thumb|Hope, Lamour and Crosby in ''[[Road to Bali]]'' (1952)]]
[[File:Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour in Road to Bali.jpg|thumb|right|Hope, Crosby and Lamour in ''Road to Bali'']]
[[File:Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in Road to Bali.jpg|thumb|right|Hope and Crosby sing and dance during "Chicago Style" in ''[[Road to Bali]]'' (1952)]]
[[File:Dorothy Lamour, Bing Crosby, Jane Russell and Bob Hope in Road to Bali.jpg|right|thumb|With [[Jane Russell]] in ''Road to Bali'']]

'''''Road to ...''''' is a series of seven comedy films starring [[Bing Crosby]], [[Bob Hope]], and [[Dorothy Lamour]]. They are also often referred to as the '''"''Road''" pictures''' or the '''"''Road''" series'''. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music. The minimal plot often took a back seat to gags, which appeared improvised but were usually scripted.<ref>Gary Giddins, relying on Paramount scripts and other documentation, in ''Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams — The Early Years, 1903–1940'' (NY: Little, Brown, 2009), 39. {{ISBN|9780316091565}}</ref>

==Films in the series==
*''[[Road to Singapore]]'' (1940)
*''[[Road to Zanzibar]]'' (1941)
*''[[Road to Morocco]]'' (1942)
*''[[Road to Utopia]]'' (made in 1943, but not released until 1946)
*''[[Road to Rio]]'' (1947)
*''[[Road to Bali]]'' (1952)
*''[[The Road to Hong Kong]]'' (1962)
*''Road to the Fountain of Youth'' (cancelled)

Each film is not simply a comedy, but a satire of some of the popular film genres of the day, including jungle, Arabian nights, Alaskan adventure, and the high seas.

In 1977, an eighth ''Road to...'' movie was planned, titled ''Road to the [[Fountain of Youth]]'', but Crosby died that year of a heart attack.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://h2g2.com/A2622809 |title=The 'Road...' Films of Hope, Crosby and Lamour |publisher=[[h2g2]] |date=2004-10-09 |access-date=2009-10-25}}</ref>

In 1947, [[Astor Pictures]] released a compilation film of several of Crosby's [[Educational Pictures]] [[short subject]]s called ''[[The Road to Hollywood]]'' to evoke the series. The [[United States Navy]] also commissioned Hope and Crosby to produce the 1945 short film ''Road to Home''.<ref>{{Internet Archive film|RoadToHome|title=Road to Home}}</ref>

==Running gags==
{{Original research|date=November 2010}}
Beginning with ''[[Road to Singapore]]'' the films also included [[in-joke]] references to other Hollywood actors and jabs at [[Paramount Pictures]], the studio that released all the films except for ''[[The Road to Hong Kong]]''. There are also frequent instances in which Bob Hope breaks the [[fourth wall]] to address the audience directly, such as in ''[[Road to Bali]]'', in which he says, "[Crosby]'s gonna sing, folks. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn."<ref>Wes D. Gehring, "Hope & Crosby: ''Road to Bali'' (1953), in ''Movie Comedians of the 1950s: Defining a New Era of Big Screen Comedy'' (Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2016), 72–83; {{ISBN|1476626928}}</ref>

Hope and Crosby would usually play some form of [[Confidence trick|confidence men]] trying to make a lot of money, with Bing coming up with the ideas and Bob usually doing most of the dirty work.<ref>One example, from ''The Road to Rio'' (1947), involves getting $200 to ride a bicycle across a wire; indeed, the Crosby character makes the deal and the Hope character does the deed; or, rather, half of it: Hope appears to cross halfway, before accidentally setting the circus on fire, at which point Crosby bounces Hope into a waiting wagon with horses, to make their escape to the cruise boat which takes them to Rio de Janeiro.</ref> Another common set-piece in the films is a monologue by Crosby "telling it like it is" to the Dorothy Lamour character, only to fall into traditional Crosby-singing-a-ballad; an example from ''The Road to Rio'' (1947) features the Crosby character analyzing the true love-encounters of a (fictional) film scene, followed by his singing "[[But Beautiful (song)|But Beautiful]]" ([[Jimmy Van Heusen]] / [[Johnny Burke (lyricist)|Johnny Burke]]).<ref>Analyzed in detail by Steven Cohan, "Almost Like Being at Home: Showbiz Culture and Hollywood Road Trips in the 1940s and 1950s", in Cohan and Ina Rae Hark, eds., ''The Road Movie Book'' (London: Routledge, 1997), 113–42. (119–22) {{ISBN|9781134824366}}</ref>

When confronted by the villain, Hope and Crosby would use a "patty cake" routine before throwing punches, though this would sometimes not work, as in ''Road to Morocco'': "That gag sure gets around, huh?" "Yeah, right back to US!" The only film in the series in which the routine was not used was in ''Road to Utopia''.

Both characters would usually promise to not allow women to interfere with their plans, and both would immediately see a woman and forget that promise. Crosby would almost always end up with her, with the exceptions being in ''Road to Utopia'' and ''Road to Rio'' (although hypnosis was involved in the latter case).

Hope's character usually would have a nickname with which he would be referred to throughout the film, as in ''Road to Morocco'', when he was called "Turkey", and ''Road to Zanzibar'', in which he was called "Fearless".

Crosby credited writer Barney Dean with standing off-camera and continuously coming up with jokes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1692055/m1/|title=Pop Chronicles Interviews #133 – Bing Crosby|first=John|last=Gilliland|date=July 8, 1971|website=UNT Digital Library}}</ref>

Hope would also break the fourth wall continuously to over-act, often with an upbraiding from Crosby. Hope would then blame his overacting on his attempt to win an [[Academy Award|Oscar]]. In reality, Hope never won any Oscar for his work, although he did receive honorary Oscars. Later, when Hope was a regular Oscar host, he incorporated his "[[Oscar bait]]" whines into his monologues there.

==Reception==
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align: center"
|+Box office performance for the ''Road to...'' films
|-
!scope="col"| Film
!scope="col"| U.S. release date
!scope="col"| US/Canada [[theatrical rental]]
|-
!scope="row"| ''Road to Singapore''<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11816878 |title=Which Cinema Films Have Earned the Most Money Since 1914? |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |location=Melbourne |date=4 March 1944 |access-date=June 25, 2020|page=3 Supplement: The Argus Weekend magazine |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
| {{dts|1940|3|14}}
| $1,600,000{{ref |Worldwide|*}}
|-
!scope="row"| ''Road to Zanzibar''
| {{dts|1941|4|11}}
| TBD
|-
!scope="row"| ''Road to Morocco''<ref name=rentals/>
| {{dts|1942|11|10}}
| $3,800,000
|-
!scope="row"| ''Road to Utopia''<ref name=rentals/>
| {{dts|1946|2|27}}
| $4,500,000
|-
!scope="row"| ''Road to Rio''<ref name=rentals/>
| {{dts|1947|12|25}}
| $4,500,000
|-
!scope="row"| ''Road to Bali''<ref name=rentals>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=All-Time Film Rental Champs|date=October 15, 1990|page=M182|first=Lawrence|last=Cohn}}</ref>
| {{dts|1952|12|25}}
| $3,000,000
|-
!scope="row"| ''The Road to Hong Kong''<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=Big Rental Pictures of 1962|date=January 9, 1963|page=13}}</ref>
| {{dts|1962|5|23}}
| $2,600,000
|-
!scope="row" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|Total
! $20,000,000
|-
|}
{{note label|Worldwide|*||Worldwide [[theatrical rental]]}}

==Homages and other influence==
* The 1944 [[Famous Studios]] ''[[Popeye the Sailor (film series)|Popeye]]'' cartoon ''We're On Our Way to Rio'' is a parody of these films.
* The April 20, 1966 episode of ''[[Make Room for Daddy|The Danny Thomas Show]]'', titled "The Road to Lebanon," featured Bing Crosby scouting locations in Beirut for a new Road picture without Bob Hope.<ref>{{cite web|title=BING magazine|url=http://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/|website=BING magazine|ref=Day by Day section}}</ref>
* In the 1981 Mel Brooks film ''[[History of the World, Part I]]'', on escaping from the Romans, Brooks and co-star Gregory Hines parody the series' "We're off on the road to..." signature song by singing "We're off on the road to Judea, we certainly do get around..."
* The 1985 film ''[[Spies Like Us]]'', starring [[Dan Aykroyd]] and [[Chevy Chase]], is an homage to the films; Hope makes a cameo as himself in one scene. The phrase "Road to [[Dushanbe]]" is uttered several times throughout the movie. [[Dushanbe]] is near the ultimate destination of the protagonists.
* The 1987 film ''[[Ishtar (film)|Ishtar]]'' was envisioned by writer/director [[Elaine May]] as an homage to the "Road" series.<ref>{{cite web |title=Elaine May in conversation with Mike Nichols |url=http://www.filmcomment.com/article/elaine-may-in-conversation-with-mike-nichols/ |publisher=Film Comment |date=July–August 2006}}</ref>
* The 1990 [[They Might Be Giants]] song "Road Movie to Berlin" references the films in its title.
* The ''[[TaleSpin]]'' episode "Road to Macadamia" pays tribute to the series, including spoofs on the songs.
* Three episodes of the 1991–1995 animated series ''[[Taz-Mania]]'' spoofed the ''Road to..'' movies, starring Hugh Tasmanian Devil, Taz's father and a Crosby parody. Taz's uncle Drew would later be introduced, naturally parodying Hope. They featured in the episodes "Road to Taz-Mania," "Return of the Road to Taz-Mania Strikes Back" and "Yet Another Road to Taz-Mania."
* The ''[[Duckman]]'' episode "Road to Dendron" spoofs the series.
* The 2000 animated film ''[[The Road to El Dorado]]'' is an homage to the Road movies and contains many popular beats, including creating a distraction before fighting an opponent.
* In the 2001–2003 Disney animated series ''[[The Legend of Tarzan (TV series)|The Legend of Tarzan]]'', the characters Hugo and Hooft are loosely based on Hope and Crosby (though not in appearance).
* The animated TV series ''[[Family Guy]]'' has had eight "[[Road to ... (Family Guy)|Road to ...]]" episodes that [[parody|spoof]] the original Road pictures, starring [[Brian Griffin|Brian]] and [[Stewie Griffin]]: "[[Road to Rhode Island]]", "[[Road to Europe]]", "[[Road to Rupert]]", "[[Road to Germany]]", "[[Road to the Multiverse]]", "[[Road to the North Pole]]", "[[Roads to Vegas]]", and "[[Road to India (Family Guy)|Road to India]]". In addition, the series' 2009 episode "[[Spies Reminiscent of Us]]" is an homage to ''Spies Like Us'', even guest starring Aykroyd and Chase, which in turn was based on the "Road" films.
* The television series ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic]]'' episode "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (season 8)#Episodes|Road to Friendship]]" from September 1, 2018, was paying homage to these films with the episode title and a song by the same name.
* In the 1980s, [[Eric Idle]] wanted to make a film called ''[[The Road to Mars]]'', but became so frustrated by executive meddling at Hollywood studios that he wrote it as a [[The Road to Mars|novel]] instead.

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite web |url= https://archive.org/details/RoadToBali1952_201612 |title= The Road to Bali |date= Dec 6, 2016 |website= [[Internet Archive]] }}

{{RoadTo}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Road To...}}
[[Category:Film series introduced in 1940]]
[[Category:Comedy film series]]
[[Category:Road to ... (film series)]]

Road to ... - Revision history

2A02:8084:8021:B500:E723:3865:B6CA:84A5: /* Films in the series */