Watch The Road to Hong Kong For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

After a break of ten years, this was to be the last entry into the long -running and extremely popular cycle of "Road" movies. Hope and Crosby were in their late fifties by the time this one came along and they were obviously due to retire from their familiar, high energy roles as roustabout con men / adventurers. But, even though they may have been slowing down just a touch, the generally snappy pace and witty banter of earlier outings remained intact.This quirky offering was made in England on a seemingly low budget. Shot in black and white, it must have been a visual disappointment for audiences after the color escapades of its immediate predecessor - 1952's "Road to Bali". As usual, there's a couple of good songs, the best of which, "Team Work", opens the picture.The supporting cast is excellent and the cameo appearances by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin just before the curtain falls was a nice touch.Despite it's somewhat bargain basement look, it still manages to provide a fun finale to the series

An amiable excursion! Admittedly, Bing has lost a bit of the old bounce, but Hope is as enthusiastically ingenuous as ever. The team's old Road companion, Dorothy Lamour, has an ten-minute scene at the climax and proves that she can still hold an audience even though she hasn't been on the big screen since the 1952 Road to Bali. This time, however, the main femme role is taken by Joan Collins who certainly looks very alluring. On the other hand, her ultra-cultured voice tends to get a bit monotonous. It's also unfortunate that the screenplay has her spending the last twenty minutes of the movie in an unattractive Chinese coolie outfit. As we might expect, the screenplay employs some good gags and amusing situations – though some of the scenes could stand a bit of trimming, particularly a long encounter between Hope and Dave King (who plays a Chinese restaurant proprietor). Norman Panama's direction tends to be loose rather than tight, flaccid rather than taut. And the same remarks could be applied to the script. Sure, the plot is a ludicrous enough peg on which to hang various "in" jokes, guest star spots and the musical numbers, plus a bit of gentle ribbing. Unfortunately, at times, some actors choose to play the game perfectly straight – particularly Collins, Morley and Gotell – instead of tongue-in-cheek. Fortunately, other credits are up to par and the movie has been realized on a fair- sized budget, including even a tiny bit of location filming in Hong Kong.

THE ROAD TO HONG KONG (United Artists, 1962), directed by Norman Panama, reunites the screen partnership of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope for the first time since their sixth road venture to Bali a decade earlier. Dorothy Lamour, the third member of the famous trio, receives special billing in the opening credits as "our special cup of tea." Given only seven of it's 91 minutes, the series breaks tradition by not being distributed by Paramount nor produced in Hollywood, but in England, and substituting Joan Collins over Lamour as Hope and Crosby's in-between companion. While most screen reunions fail to recapture the spirit of the old days, this latest (and final) installment to the "The Road" series, fortunately doesn't fall into that category, nor does it fit into the class of the previous efforts either. Yet having Crosby and Hope together again, singing, dancing, "paddy caking" their way (once) out of tough situations does make way into reviving those good old days after all. Black and white photography also gives THE ROAD TO HONG KONG that 1940s feel, the decade when the "Road" comedies were at its peak. However the moment Joan Collins steps into the picture in her beehive hairstyle are viewers quickly reminded this to be a product of the 1960s with 1950s material rather than the 1940s.In spite of its pros and cons, THE ROAD TO HONG KONG gets off to a good start before the credits start rolling as Crosby and Hope take center stage doing a song and dance with backdrop drawings to previous "Road" pictures: THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE...ZANZIBAR ... MOROCCO ... UTOPIA ... RIO and BALI, and competing over star billing. After an aerial view of Hong Kong and off-screen narration, the story gets underway as agents for the American Secret Intelligence Headquarters are provided an explanation by Diane (Joan Collins), former spy for the Third Echelon leader (Robert Morley) out to conquer the universe, as to how a couple of Americans ended up in a rocket ship into outer space. Told via flashback, ten days ago in Calcutta, Harry Turner (Bing Crosby) and Chester Babcock (Bob Hope) are introduced as a couple of ex-vaudevillians wanted throughout the world for fraud in their attempt to demonstrate their "Interplanetary Fly-It Yourself Space Kit" to the crowd. With Harry the confidence man and Chester his duped pal, the latter gets talked into a dangerous stunt that causes him to lose his memory. Hoping to cure his amnesia, the boys come to a Neurologist (Peter Sellers) who advises Harry to take Chester over to a "Lost Horizon" location of Tibet where he's to acquire a specific amnesia curing drug from the Grand Lama (Felix Aylmer). With Chester now having a photographic memory, Harry comes up with a new gimmick for a memory act. Diane, who had earlier mistaken Chester as her contact to get the top formula for Russian rocket fuel (who unwittingly memorized its formula for space navigation), soon leads the men into a series of wild escapades on the streets of Hong Kong to outer space through the use of "team work" and "special effects."In between the antics comes the traditional time out for songs by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen which includes: "Team Work" and "The Road to Hong Kong" (sung by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope); "Let's Not Be Sensible" (sung by Crosby); "Personality" and "Warmer Than a Whisper" (sung by Dorothy Lamour); and "Team Work" (reprised by Crosby, Hope and Joan Collins).Surprise guest stars also add to the humor of the story, notably that of David Niven, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Jerry Colonna, the wide-eyed character with the mustache, makes his third cameo in the "Road" series, this time as a man asking for a match, while Peter Sellers, years before winning fame as Inspector Clouseau in the hilarious "Pink Panther" spy series of the 1960s and 70s, offers the film's funniest moments as the Indian doctor who examines the memory loss Chester (Hope). This sequence alone makes THE ROAD TO HONG KONG a worthy offering next to Dorothy Lamour's reunion with the boys as she attempts to hide them from the killers not so much from the killers but from "the critics." Lamour plays herself this time around, looking quite youthful for her age, especially during her brief moment in long hair and sarong. With Hope telling Lamour about "all those 'Road' pictures they made together," it's a wonder why Hope and Crosby didn't use their own names as opposed to screen characters Harry and Chester this time around.Coming in a bit late to capitalize on the 1950s science fiction phase, THE ROAD TO HONG KONG did arrive in time to meet with the current trend of spies and espionage that had proved popular in the 1960s, a genre popularized by the "James Bond" spy adventures starring Sean Connery. Fans of the series may actually enjoy THE ROAD TO HONG KONG, even with some in-jokes that might be at a loss to some. For this being the end of the road, it almost wasn't. Shortly after the death of Bing Crosby in October 1977, Bob Hope hosted a tribute to his former partner in one of his many hourly TV specials on NBC. There was a mention about how he, Crosby and Lamour were to do another "Road" picture, THE ROAD TO THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. One wonders what would have become of that one, especially during the changing times of the 1970s? THE ROAD TO HONG KONG, formerly available on video cassette and later DVD, can be currently found occasionally on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere 1995). (***)

This is actually the first Cosby/Hope "Road" picture I ever saw. I knew it was the last (after a 10 year break) and (for some reason) was in b&w--probably because Cosby and Hope looked better that way. I also heard it was pretty bad. While it's not great, I sort of enjoyed it.The plot was REALLY silly and involves the boys in espionage with Joan Collins along for the ride and a (surprisingly) very bad job by Robert Morley as the lead villain. Dorothy Lamour decided to not costar in this one but she does pop up (playing herself) in an amusing cameo and sings one song (Cosby sings too). There's also a really silly and pointless bit when Cosby and Hope are sent to outer space. And the ending is desperate.Still, it was well-made and Cosby and Hope were a wonderful team--their easy banter is great to watch and they made the worst lines seem funny. Also it's fun to see Collins (who's quite good) so young and full of sex appeal. So, it's enjoyable way to kill 90 minutes. I'm seen better but I've seen worse too.