Road to Singapore

Plot synopsis:
Josh Mallon (Bing Crosby) and Ace Lannigan (Bob Hope) are best friends and work aboard the same ship. As their ship returns to the US after a long voyage, they see all the other sailors being mistreated by their wives and girlfriends, and the two friends pledge never to get involved with women again. Unfortunately, this vow is tested almost immediately. First, Ace is confronted by the family of a former lover, Cherry, who insist he marry her. Then Josh, who is the son of rich shipping magnate (Charles Coburn), has to fend off his fiancee, Gloria (Judith Barrett), and his father's wishes that he settle down and take over the family business. Things get worse when Josh and Ace get caught up fishing and turn up late for a party to celebrate Josh's engagement. Gloria's hostile drunken brother starts a fistfight and a news reporter takes photographs that cause a scandal. Josh and Ace flee to Hawaii and then head for Singapore.
However, the pair only get as far as the island of Kaigoon before their money runs out. They rescue Mima (Dorothy Lamour), an exotic local (but not native) from her abusive dance-partner, Caesar (Anthony Quinn), and she moves into their hut. Soon Mima is running the two men's lives, much to their chagrin. The trio try to make money in several different ways, including trying to sell a spot remover that is so bad it dissolves clothes.
When Josh's father finally locates his wayward son, he and Gloria fly out to bring Josh back to face his responsibilities. The resentful Caesar leads them to where Ace, Josh and Mima are enjoying a local feast. By this point, both Josh and Ace have fallen in love with Mima. She is heartbroken to learn that Gloria is Josh's fiancee.
Ace proposes to Mima, but before she can accept, Josh returns. The two friends almost come to blows over Mima, but then decide that she should choose between them. Mima picks Ace. Josh boards an ocean liner with Gloria and his father.
Meanwhile, Caesar informs the local police that Ace is on the island illegally. Ace is arrested when he cannot produce a passport, but manages to escape. He and Mima flee aboard a ship, but Ace comes to realize that Mima really loves Josh.
When Josh's ship docks at a tropical port, a passenger complains about a terrible spot remover that disintegrated his suit jacket. Josh realizes that Ace and Mima must be on the island. When he finds them, Ace tells his best friend that Mima really loves him.

Tags: romantic

Review:
That was the original casting that Paramount originally had for this first of the Road pictures.You can tell that they did not have a series in mind because the billing was Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and then Bob Hope.
But when you see Crosby and Hope trying to land a fish and later on singing the Captain Custard song, the chemistry is unmistakable.The rest of the score by Jimmy Monaco and Johnny Burke consists of one of Crosby's nicest ballads, Too Romantic and a novelty song for all three of the leads, Sweet Potato Piper.
While these do give the film a more general entertainment value I prefer the out and out comedy of Hope and Crosby and the songs took away from that.This is not to say it isn't funny, but just that the duo seem to be finding their feet still.
Crosby plays the playboy very well and Hope is more controlled than usual  he is actually operating within the bounds of the film and not doing any knowing gags.
Lamour is more understated than later films but it is strange to see a woman so clearly white portraying a woman supposed to be of ethnic origin  but I guess that's the period.Overall this is an enjoyable film but not the Road series at it's best.
With no sequels originally intended, its popularity truly relies most not on the slight screenplay by Don Hartman and Frank Butler nor the few comedy routines, but the fine chemistry brought out by its leading players, Crosby, Hope and Dorothy Lamour.
The story revolves around Josh Mallon (Bing Crosby, in a role suited for a much younger actor), a free-spirited young man whose serious-minded father (Charles Coburn) wants him to carry in the family business of his multi-million dollar establishment, Mallon Steamship Company, as well as to settle down and marry an heiress, Gloria Wycott (Judith Barrett).
More problems arise when Papa Mallon and Gloria track down Josh to take him back with them to the states, much to the dismay of his friends.As Bob Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, mentioned in his profile on the the making of the film in its January 28, 2010 presentation, SINGAPORE was initially scripted for George Burns and Gracie Allen, and revised for Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie before the screenplay finally went to Crosby and Hope.
Worked into the script were songs by Johnny Burke and Victor Schertzinger, including: "Captain Custard" (sung and performed by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope); "The Moon and the Willow Tree" (sung by Dorothy Lamour); "Sweet Potato Piper" (sung by Crosby, Lamour and Hope); "Too Romantic" (sung by Crosby and Lamour); "Kaigoon" (by James Monaco and Johnny Burke, sung by natives); and "Too Romantic" (sung by Crosby).
"Too Romantic" is the love song theme, slow in tempo, suited for the style of Crosby and Lamour, while the lively "Captain Custard" number demonstrates how grown men can still get by acting like mischievous little boys clowning around, and making eyes and chasing pretty ladies in the process.
Other members in the cast include Pierre Watkin (Morgan Wycott); Gaylord Pendleton (Gordon Wycott); Johnny Arthur (Timothy WIllow); and Benny Inocencio (The Native Boy), As fate would have it, this simple and innocent story proved far more success as anticipated, paving the way for a series of "Road" comedies by re-teaming Crosby, Hope and Lamour in different character portrayals, different locales but similar situations involving two guys and a gal.
SINGAPORE has rare distinctions where it provides some background to its two characters: Crosby as a millionaire's son whose happiest being away from responsibility; an Lamour the native girl who teams up with a dancer (Quinn) following the death of her parent.
The major ingredient SINGAPORE has that would be used in most subsequent films is Hope and Crosby's "paddy cake" routine, and of course Lamour enacting as their straight woman.
Regardless of being the lesser item in the series, ROAD TO SINGAPORE, which will never have the distinction of becoming part of American Film Institutes "100 Greatest Comedies" as ROAD TO MOROCCO (1942) did, but is one relatively known as the movie that started it all with Crosby, Hope and Lamour and their journey to adventure into comedy, music and romance.
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour may never have been the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald of the 1930s and 1940s Hollywood musicals, but anything they ever recorded during this period was better than any of the painful operetta stuff of the latter screen duo.
Dorothy Lamour, although an exquisitely beautiful actress, does not resemble an islander native, although it isn't exactly her fault.In the same manner, some people may find this film offensive, or any of the ROAD films because they are not a true representation for any culture.
While there's not quite as much zaniness as the rest of the films in the series, there is a solid story, and a surprisingly good bit of acting by Bob Hope in the film's more serious scenes.
Avoiding arranged marriages, shipping heir Bing Crosby (as Joshua "Josh" Mallon) and carefree pal Bob Hope (as "Ace" Lannigan) run away to Singapore.
This was the first in an initially unplanned series of "Road to" pictures starring Mr. Hope and Mr. Crosby, with Lamour adding the necessary sex appeal.
An obvious screen chemistry multiplied the co-stars' individual appeal.***** Road to Singapore (3/14/40) Victor Schertzinger ~ Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Anthony Quinn.
The first of the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby "Road" series, and not the best.What's wrong with it?
I wish she'd been allowed to do a little comedy, but then the boys don't get to do much of it either, at that, so I suppose that's a bit of a moot point.I'm a big fan of musicals from the 1930s, but the obligatory songs in The Road to Singapore are pretty flaccid and uninspired.
The first but certainly not the best or funniest "Road" movie starring Crosby, Hope and Lamour, but just about worth a look, if only to see the component features of a successful formula slotting into place.The situations are there, the locations too, but the laughs strangely aren't.
ROAD TO SINGAPORE owes more to the charisma of its three stars--BING CROSBY, BOB HOPE and DOROTHY LAMOUR, for its success than it does to the silly script that has the boys meeting singer Lamour in a nightclub and taking her away from the clutches of villainous ANTHONY QUINN.The boys soon have Lamour keeping house for them and of course she falls in love with one of them--guess who?
That's about it for the plot, with a few pleasant song interludes thrown in for the sake of singers Crosby and Lamour.For fans of this series, Dorothy Lamour never looked more fetching and shows a good flair for comedy while playing straight for comic Hope and casual Bing.
In this first movie of the "Road series" two fun-loving bachelors named "Joshua Mallon V" (Bing Crosby) and "Ace Lannigan" (Bob Hope) find themselves on the verge of being married.
But the main attraction, in my mind, was the good chemistry between Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.
Road to Singapore was a nice start of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby-Dorothy Lamour Road series.
Two years after arriving at Paramount, Bob Hope would make the first of his teaming-with-Bing Crosby-movies with Dorothy Lamour as the leading lady.
Anyway, since this wasn't originally written with them in mind, there isn't as much comedy as you'd expect if you've seen the subsequent Road movies but there are still some very amusing lines and scenes especially when Hope's radio stooge, Jerry Colonna, shows up.
Bob Hope & Bing Crosby team up here for what was the start of a musical comedy franchise that would yield seven movies in total.
Road To Singapore is far from the best of the series and far from being the worst, but it holds up very well and harks back to a time when harmless innuendo, breezy pacing and a willingness to let the actors ad lib situations made for good wholesome comedy.
Good songs dot themselves throughout the piece too, with the stand out being "Too Romantic" performed by Crosby & Lamour.A lovely little piece that serves as a foundation for a much loved series.
"Road to Singapore" was the beginning of the "Road" pictures that teamed Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour together in a series of films.
Hope and Crosby have obvious chemistry, and in later films, this would lead to more hijinks.
Hope, Crosby, and Lamour on the First of Many Roads.
First "Road" movie for Hope & Crosby sees the duo hiding out in Singapore trying to live a simple life, away from women and responsibilities.
While in Singapore they meet pretty Dorothy Lamour and run afoul of her whip-wielding dance partner Anthony Quinn.It's a good start for the series but not the best.
Hope, Crosby, and Lamour were all immensely likable personalities and it's hard to watch any of their films without smiling..
Dorothy Lamour is still noticeably young and fresh-faced, while Bob is permitted to be more of a ladies' man than he later would.It's all pretty forgettable, but one views it indulgently, knowing that the talking fish and other enjoyable breaches of the fourth wall were not far away thanks to this film..
In 1939 no one was thinking franchise, in fact no one was thinking beyond a one-off entry pairing Hope and Crosby - who often cross-talked their way to their respective Sound Stages on the Paramount lot, and throwing Dorothy Lamour into the mix as love interest.
Anthony Quinn and Jerry Colonna, who would both feature in later 'roads' (Morocco and Rio respectively) were on hand and the banter between Hope and Crosby was in place but the 'realistic' aspect - Crosby is the despair of his family by preferring work to play, not a million miles away from William Holden's David Larrabee in Billy Wilder's Sabrina Fair, also a Paramount release - tends to impair the free-flowing zanyness of the rest of the franchise.
The plot is always the same: Bob Hope and Bing Crosby play two guys who, by the end of the first scene, need to get out of town in a hurry.
This is the first "Road Picture" starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and it's a bit unlike the others because of the number of songs and the more serious nature of the story.
All the Hope-Crosby films had musical numbers, but ROAD TO SINGAPORE had just too many--especially the big production numbers that studios absolutely loved during this era.
This along with less comedy make this an enjoyable film but not among the better films in the series.The film begins with Bing Crosby having an absolutely awful life.
What also seems a bit out of place is Dorothy Lamour, though she later explains that her parents were not from Singapore, so at least the producers recognized that making her Southeast Asian would not work.While Crosby and Hope are avowed bachelors who like the simple life, naturally they both soon are taken with wonderful Dorothy and her sexy ways.
Try ROAD TO ZANZIBAR or ROAD TO MOROCCO and you'll find a similar film but with a bit wackier sensibilities and more laughs.By the way, compared to later films of the series, Bob Hope's character is a lot tougher here.
This film is classed as a milestone purely because it was the first on screen adventure for Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in their now legendary 22 year "Road To.." series.Josh Mallon (Crosby) is the reluctant heir to an over bearing shipping Magnet and reluctant fiancé to a society heiress.
Josh is a free spirit who rather than face up to his destiny as future head of the firm, prefers to run away and sail the world aboard his fathers ships with his best mate Ace Lannigan (Hope).When a shipboard fight involving the family of his perspective bride forces Josh and Ace to run away again, they decide to shy away from the rat-race forever and live anonymously on the paradise island of Kaigoon (don't look it up on the map folks because it ain't there), meeting up, befriending and finally shacking up with Mima (Lamour) an exotic dancer in a local café.Whilst the entire world is looking for the heir to the Mallon Millions, Josh is finding true happiness and true love in the arms of the beautiful Mima, but how long can is anonymity last before he is found and will his ultimate destiny destroy his chance of ultimate happiness?Although still in essence a comedy with musical interludes, this is without doubt the most serious of the Road movies.Bing, Bob and Dotty, as they have become affectionately known through the decades must have had no idea that this movie would spurn six funnier and more successful sequels, otherwise I am sure they would have injected both a little more enthusiasm for the project and more of the familiar banter and off the wall humour the later films contained and became famous for.Road to Singapore shows us little of the great triple act Bing, Bob and Dotty were to eventually become and although their is obvious screen chemistry between Bing the Crooner and Bob the Comic, they had yet to develop the double crossing, self depreciating ad libbing characters that would see them become the greatest comedy double act of the 1940's and early 1950's.Rather than squabble, swindle, con and insult each other throughout the picture, which was the mainstay of all their future screen pairings, Bing and Bob actually seem very pally indeed, and apart from five minutes of their more customary double crossings, in order to impress and ensnare Mima, they seem genuinely fond of each other.Despite this sneak preview of what was to come, great comedy moments are few and far between as although Hopes one liners are as good as ever, unfortunately Bing is relegated to the role of straight man and romantic lead, a formula they thankfully abolished in all later movies, allowing Bing to be just funny and just as zany as his friend.Road to Singapore is far from a bad film, but it is a poor representation of one of the most successful and funniest film series in history..
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are terrific as amiable scoundrels "Ace" and Josh in this initial entry in the "Road to..." film series.
Although they make a pact to swear off women, they find themselves competing with each other for the love of a comely dancer named Mima (the enchanting Dorothy Lamour)."Road to Singapore" is good light entertainment, an easy-to-take mixture of lots of comedy, romance, a couple of songs, and that aforementioned exotic setting.
Who remembers the actual winners, "It's a Blue World" or "Waltzing in the Clouds"?Lamour of course provides the film's romantic focus, whilst Hope and Crosby (joined briefly by Colonna) supply the slapstick, the clever banter and the perfectly timed repartee.
True the humor is not quite as crazy as in some of the other entries, but is that a disadvantage?Beautifully photographed with excellent production values, The Road to Singapore adds up to exceptional entertainment.Although the critics were lukewarm, the public found this initial teaming of Crosby, Hope and Lamour impossible to resist.
The melodious Crosby, the quippy Hope, the alluring Lamour, and all set in rich and/or exotic locales, teeming with favorite support players like the lovably irascible Charles Coburn or the lovely if demanding Judith Barrett..
First of the Road Series, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour that served as escapist fare during and after WWII to supposed exotic destinations.
Hope is put in a police van, from which he escapes....Quinn would play a villain in several more of the Road Series.Of course, Bing and Hope continually fight over Mima.
Meanwhile, Bing has to chose between Mima and Gloria, his girlfriend back home, who has come to the island with his father to escort him back home.Actually, the film begins with Bing and Hope disembarking from the ship they have been working on, badmouthing wives and girlfriends, swearing they are through with women.
Of course, the alleged Singapore setting isn't at all believable; it looks like some tropical island filled with dozens of topless tanned men, as toned as the sarong clad girls are laced with flowers.It's obvious to me that this wasn't planned as a series, but with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby as the top new screen comedy team of 1940 (along with Abbott and Costello), a series was inevitable, although other than gag guest appearances from Crosby in a few of Hope's films, they never appeared on the screen together in anything but these 6 "Road" films.This has a rather ordinary plot set up with Crosby trying to get out of an engagement and out from underneath the thumb of his domineering ship magnate father (Charles Coburn).
It's called "The Road to Singapore" but I don't know why; Hope and Crosby wind up on the island of Kaigoon in the Southeast Asia Pacific.
Depending on what you want from Hope and Crosby, this may or may not be the best of the Road pictures.
The boys flee to Singapore, where they meet -- who else -- Dorothy Lamour.
Now, why exactly the exotic Lamour is working with an abusive Latin dance-partner in Southeast Asia, is anyone's guess, but Hope and Crosby save her from that dance partner -- a young Anthony Quinn.
Hope, Crosby and Lamour begin living together...and falling in love.
Charles Coburn is just right as the father.Oh, and why is Lamour singing about weeping willow trees in Southeast Asia?????This is a very good comedy, and a must for the DVD shelves of Hope or Crosby fans..
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are low level officers on a ship.