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Sorry, this movie sucks

Just perfect...

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

In this-the third Road movie starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour-the series reaches its peak what with one camel spitting in Hope's eye, a few more talking with animated mouths, and an all-out chase involving various noises and explosions! Lots of great lines and scenes involving Hope and Crosby and get this-not only does Crosby still end up with Ms. Lamour but Hope also ends up with another pretty woman played by Dona Drake! Great use of inside jokes as well as voices coming out of the wrong mouths when the three leads sing "Moonlight Becomes You"! In summary, Road to Morocco is perhaps the most fun of the Road movies yet! Oh, and Anthony Quinn makes his second of appearances in the series, his first being Road to Singapore. Next up, Road to Utopia.

Hollywood once depicted Arabs as a bunch of nomadic, tent-dwelling cut throats or greasily cunning conmen out to rip off tourists in bazaars. On TV in the 1970's, they became respected oil sheiks who walked out of negotiations with the western world with confident smiles born of their new-found power and wealth. Perhaps they had just watched "The Road to Morocco" and were musing upon how the wheel of fortune had turned in their favour. The depiction of the women of the Middle East has also made a U-turn. They were once exotic bellydancing nyphs, now a set of black mailboxes. Arab leaders like Mullay Kasim as played by Anthony Quinn looked a bit dangerous but were easily outwitted by Bing and Bob. Mullay confronts the pair with: "Do you dare oppose the will of Mullay Kasim?" to which Bing's character replies:"Oppose it! I'll have you writing one." Today's Arab leaders have at worst been transformed into evil fanatics to be feared and hated and at best to be shifty and potentially treacherous."The Road to Morocco" is fun and makes fun of all stereotypes and customs - east and west. Bing selling Bob into slavery could be seen as a comment on the rapaciousness of capitalism or just another bit of outrageous fun. The best thing about watching it is that like Bing and Bob, we are all just along for the ride. Their "Road" characters are comic existentialists of the highest order - they appear from nowhere, live in the moment and fade out in a finale that underscores the fact that it has all just been a film. I know that the world has serious problems but it doesn't do us any harm to remember that like Bob and Bing, we need to get as much as we can out of our adventure while we can. It's also good to be able to share it with a friend. Thanks go to my dad who went through The Great Depression and fought in WW2 and who introduced me to the "Road" movies.

ROAD TO MOROCCO (Paramount, 1942), directed by David Butler, the third installment of the seven journeys made by the famous trio of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, finds them in their wildest adventure of them all. Capitalizing on the current trend of "Arabian Nights" fantasies as Alexander Korda's THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (United Artists, 1940), featuring Sabu, and ARABIAN NIGHTS (Universal, 1942) that paved the way for a series of similar adventures teaming Maria Montez and Jon Hall, ROAD TO MOROCCO makes every attempt in spoofing every one of them, especially itself, and getting away with it in the process.The story gets right down to basics with the explosion of an ocean freighter which finds all passengers safely accounted for with the exception of two unidentified stowaways, Jeffrey Peters (Bing Crosby) and Orville "Turkey" Jackson (Bob Hope), seen floating together in the Mediterranean on a raft. They end up on shore where the carefree bachelors ride a camel that takes them to the city of Morocco. Unable to pay for their large meal they've eaten at a restaurant, Jeff meets up with a Arabian (Dan Seymour) who offers him six hundred "kolaks." Using that to pay off the meal, Orville wonders what Jeff did to acquire so much money. He soon discovers that he's been sold as he's suddenly being taken away by two strong armed men. Later that night, Jeff is awaken from his sleep by the ghost of Orville's Aunt Lucy (Bob Hope in drag) who orders him to get Orville back. Soon thereafter, Jeff searches about and locates his pal in the palace of Shalmar being "tortured" by a handful of beautiful maidens and in the arms of Princess Shalmar (Dorothy Lamour), royalty in an Arab kingdom. As Jeff attempts to break into Orville's territory by wooing the princess, he eventually learns as to why Orville was selected to become Shalmar's proposed husband. Complications ensue by the arrival Mullay Kasim (Anthony Quinn), a cruel desert chief out to claim Shalmar as his own, and having quite a time doing it.Other members of the harem consists of Dona Drake (Mirirmah); Vladimir Sokoloff (Hyder Khan, the astrologer who looks into the stars for Shalmar's future); George Givot (Ned Jolla); and Yvonne DeCarlo, uncredited as one of the handmaidens. Anthony Quinn, who co-starred in the initial film, ROAD TO SINGAPORE (1940), returns once more adding to some hilarity as the villainous sheik who falls victim to Crosby and Hope's antics. In tradition to the "Road" series with its selection of comedy routines, song interludes are worked well into the script, composed by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen, including: "The Road to Morocco" (sung by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope); "Ain't Got a Dime to My Name (Ho Hum)" (sung by Bing Crosby); "Constantly" (sung by Dorothy Lamour); "Moonlight Becomes You" (sung by Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour); and "Moonlight Becomes You" (reprised). Hope and Crosby clown around as they each sing the title song, throwing some in-jokes in the process, one of them being, "I lay you eight to five that we'll meet Dorothy Lamour," while Crosby and Lamour take part in what's to become the film's best song, "Moonlight Becomes You," later to be spoofed by the three principal players singing in each other's voices in the soundtrack. If that isn't silly enough, this bona-fide "Road" comedy also consists of talking camels ("This is the screwiest picture I've ever been in" says one, while the other talking like Katharine Hepburn); the traditional Hope and Crosby "paddy cake" routine; as well as Hope's attempt in an Academy Award nomination with his hysterical "No food, no water" outbursts. With a handful from outrageous to awfully silly and outdated routines thrown in this escapist comedy adventure, ROAD TO MOROCCO, which improves over its predecessor of ROAD TO ZANZIBAR (1941), earned two Academy Award nominations, for Best Screenplay and Best Sound Recording, but none for Bob as hoped. Aside from this being the best known and most revived in the series, ROAD TO MOROCCO proved so popular that it's been listed as one of the top 100 best comedies by the American Film Institute. Distributed to home video in the 1990s through MCA Home Entertainment, and later DVD, Cable television revivals were plentiful when ROAD TO MOROCCO was presented on American Movie Classics (1992-2000), and finally on Turner Classic Movies (2004-present). Next adventure, ROAD TO UTOPIA (1945), which is, in many ways, even better and funnier than ROAD TO MOROCCO. Watch it and see why. (*** camels)

Talk about being politically incorrect, this movie is bound to offend a lot of people today, with its portrayals of villainous Arabs, but try to realize this 1942 movie was a parody of every Arabian adventure cliché since the silent era. Any movie that has a pair of camels discussing the foolishness of humans, with the female camel speaking in a Katherine Hepburn accent, is obviously not taking itself too seriously.Crosby comes off as more of a bad hat than usual, since he actually sells Bob Hope into slavery temporarily, but it isn't long before the boys are fighting over the affections of a lovely Princess, and things are back to normal.I saw this film for the first time in the late Seventies at college, and a group of Arab exchange students from Kuwait were highly amused at the chase scene through the harem, with Anthony Quinn apparently speaking genuine Arabic to his henchmen, interspersed with English dialog. They took it in good humor, recognizing the unreal, deliberately absurd nature of the story, especially in a picture that was thirty odd years old at the time.Personally, I think there are funnier movies in the Road series, but Road to Morocco is pretty amusing if you appreciate the unique Hope and Crosby style of casual ad lib humor; not to mention the stunning beauty and comedic gifts of Dorothy Lamour,