“THE PATTY-CAKE CHRONICLES, PART THREE”

By Raymond Benson

The Bing Crosby and Bob Hope “Road to…” series began in 1940 with Road to Singapore (click here for review), a landmark musical-comedy that teamed the dueling popular radio personalities for the silver screen.

Road to Morocco continues the successful formula begun in Singapore. Two playboys (Crosby and Hope, whose character names change with each movie, although their “characters” are always the same) find themselves traveling to some exotic locale in order to either escape a woman, gangsters, or pursue some con job, only to get mixed up in a farcical plot with an equally exotic woman (always Lamour). There are a few songs performed by both men or solo or with Lamour, comic hijinks (especially from Hope), and even some action and adventure. A running gag throughout the series was a bit that Crosby and Hope did—playing “Patty-Cake, Patty-Cake,” reciting the verse and slapping their hands in front of adversaries as a distraction—and then surprising the bad guys with sudden punches, thereby starting a fight and the means to escape.

This time, Crosby and Hope are Jeff and “Turkey” (yes, that’s his nickname), who unwittingly find themselves on a life raft after the sinking of a freighter in the Atlantic. The pair wash up on the shore of Morocco, which is presented in all its stereotypical Arabic glory. Princess Shalmar (Lamour) encounters Turkey on the street and arranges for him to be “bought” from Jeff, which Turkey’s partner and friend is only too happy to oblige. It turns out the princess wants Turkey to be her first husband instead of Mullay Kasim (Anthony Quinn), who is intent on marrying Shalmar. A soothsayer has predicted that Shalmar’s first husband will die tragically after a week of marriage, and that her second husband will bring her lifelong happiness. One of the handmaidens to the princess, Mihirmah (Dona Drake) is sweet on Turkey, too, so she conspires to save him from the dastardly fate. Meanwhile Jeff wants to woo the princess himself, however, and of course Shalmar becomes enchanted with him, especially after he croons a tune.

One thing that can be said about Road to Morocco is that it is loads funnier than Singapore and contains some truly hilarious set pieces. Both Crosby and Hope are winning, charismatic performers who take full advantage of their screen time. There are more nudge-nudge-wink-wink moments in which they break the fourth wall and speak to the audience and make a few comments referring to the fact that they are indeed actors in a film. A line in one of the early song lyrics even foreshadows that they will meet “Dorothy Lamour” later in the picture!

However, as filmmaker John Landis states in the “Trailers from Hell” episode on the film that is a supplement on the disk, Road to Morocco is “cheerfully sexist and cheerfully racist”—boy, is it ever, especially the latter. It also has an uncomfortably politically incorrect sequence—albeit a funny one—in which Hope imitates a person with a developmental disability and has a speech impediment in an attempt to gain sympathy from a shop owner, except that the shop owner has the same developmental disability and speech impediment!

But, hey, this was 1942, a world war was raging, and Hollywood churned out entertainment for the masses and the troops. Morocco was also timely in that the North African campaign was starting to pick up steam when the movie was released. Social mores changed, so one must view these films within that context.

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray looks quite good and comes with English subtitles for the hearing impaired. There is an audio commentary by film historian Jack Theakston. Three previously issued supplements accompany the film: a short documentary on Hope and the Road pictures, with appearances by Phyllis Diller, Randall G. Mielke (author of The Road to Success), and Richard Grudens (author of The Spirit of Bob Hope)—this same extra is also included on the Road to Singapore and Road to Zanzibar disks; a short featurette on Hope on “Command Performance,” a short that went out to the troops to accompany movie screenings (different from the one included on the Zanzibar disk); the aforementioned “Trailers from Hell” episode; and a musical excerpt from the film presented as a “sing-along” with lyrics to follow. The theatrical trailer to this and other Kino Lorber titles round out the package.

Road to Morocco is good fun when viewed through the “film history” lens... and it will give you many moments of laughter.

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