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Sorry, this movie sucks

A different way of telling a story

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

George and Harold, down at heel song and dance men, forced to flee Australia, get involved in South Sea shenanigans in pursuit of the beautiful Princess Lala.Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, in the 7th (of 8) and only colour Road adventure, deliver the mix of tomfoolery, wisecracks, song and dance routines which audiences had come to expect. If I mention that the goings on include singing sheep, a giant squid, treasure, a romantic gorilla and a volcano, then you may get some idea of the colourful nonsense you can expect.It's showing its age, but it's still good fun.

The song-and-dance men George Cochran and Harold Gridley have to leave Melbourne, Australia in a hurry to avoid various marriage proposals.They take a job as divers and soon they find themselves from an idyllic island on the way to Bali.They meet the beautiful Princess Lala.Now, these two may be the best of buddies, but when they see a woman they both like, they forget their friendship.That's what happens now.The boys start fighting over the hand of Princess Lala.But the locals don't have such good thoughts on their minds...Road to Bali (1952) was the 6th of the seven Road to...movies.It's directed by Hal Walker, and its writers include Frank Butler and Hal Kanter.Bob Hope and Bing Crosby made a fantastic pair.And when you add Dorothy Lamour to that list, what could be better? Murvyn Vye is Ken Arok.Leon Askin plays King Ramayana.There are also some "gag" appearances and great cameos in this movie.Bing's brother, bandleader Bob Crosby appears there.You see Humphrey Bogart dragging the boat from The African Queen.Crosby also finds his Oscar from that movie but Hope grabs that saying "Give me that.You've got one."Another great comedy team, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin are there in a brief dream sequence.Dean is Man in Lala's dream while Jerry is the Woman.At the very end we see Jane Russell as her character from Son of Paleface.And then you see people like Carolyn Jones (Eunice) and Sylvia Lewis (Temple Dancer).The scene with the gorilla is funny.They all get hit by the natives with poisonous darts that make them all laugh.When the men are captured by the natives, Hope even misses the overly friendly gorilla.There are also some entertaining musical numbers.My favorite one must be with Hope, Crosby and Lamour swinging on the lianas and singing "The Merry-Go-Run-Around."You also hear the Tarzan yell made by Hope.This movie was among some other old comedies when I bought it a little while back.It's enjoyable to watch these old masters doing what they did best, and that is make us laugh.

Before watching Road to Bali, Road to Singapore was the only other Hope/Crosby Road movie I'd seen. I enjoyed Road to Singapore and I've been meaning to give some more of these movies a go. In comparison, however, Road to Bali is terrible. It's just not funny. The jokes and sight gags never seem to hit their mark. For example, the bit about the loved starved gorilla was painful to watch. I was especially annoyed with all the self-referential, "look, we're in a movie" attempts at humor. When used judiciously, breaking the mythical fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience can be funny. Unfortunately, Bob Hope does it so often in Road to Bali that I wanted to scream. Also, I've real other comments where people favorably mention the various cameos. They felt forced and didn't work for me either.With all that being said, that doesn't mean I'm not going to give some of the other Road movies a shot. Next time, however, I think I'll stick with one of the earlier ones.

I thought Mr. Crosby had a great voice. He should have had more singing time in the film. Mr. Hope seemed a bit hapless - perhaps he and Crosby were not ready for the film. They seemed very unrehearsed, especially during the "song and dance" bit.The movie is very dated. My grandmother says this "comedy" wasn't even funny, to her, back then. I believe these "native/road" movies sent a coded message that there would be a lot of "skin" time shown... well, this doesn't work, today. The players don't show all that much skin; perhaps, at that time, it was enough? The "clever" jokes (Sadie Thompson was the hooker in "Rain") seem not to move the characters along. Many of the scenes look disjointed, and cheap. The ending is a mild pick-up. Despite the obvious "come ons", the film is sexless. *** Road to Bali (11/19/52) Hal Walker ~ Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Murvyn Vye