“A SCHOOL FOR TELEVISION REPAIRMEN”

By Raymond Benson

The seventh and last entry in the Road to… motion picture series is often cited as the weakest of the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope musical romps, but it’s actually perhaps somewhere more in the middle. This reviewer found many of the comic bits and one-liners to be quite funny, and despite their aging personas (especially Crosby), the duo are in good form.

The series began in 1940 with Road to Singapore and continued through the forties. They were huge successes for Paramount Pictures. The single title made in the fifties (and the only one shot in color), Road to Bali (1952), seemed to be the swan song. It wasn’t until the early sixties that Crosby and Hope decided to do another, this time for United Artists and shot in the UK. Interestingly, fans of the James Bond film series will spot familiar faces and names either on camera or in the credits behind the scenes (Walter Gotell, Syd Cain, Bob Simmons, Maurice Binder, Wally Veevers).

More significant is that The Road to Hong Kong, directed by Norman Panama, features a spy adventure plot that is not unlike the early 007 pictures, and its release preceded the premiere of Dr. No by a little less than seven months! There is a SPECTRE-like villainous organization (the “Third Echelon”) and a caper involving nuclear weapons and space travel (shades of Dr. No and You Only Live Twice). The villains even operate from an underwater laboratory and control room that resembles that of Dr. No's. (When Bob Hope’s character sees all the men and women in lab coats sitting at terminals and monitors, he quips, “Oh, look, a school for television repairmen!”)

As usual, Crosby and Hope are conmen, Harry Turner and Chester Babcock, who unwittingly become involved in a MacGuffin plot to steal plans for Russian rocket fuel so that the Third Echelon and their leader (Robert Morley) can launch nuclear missiles at earth from the moon. Echelon agent Diane (Joan Collins) at first works with the villains, but of course the wacky pair of Harry and Chester win her over to their side.

Oddly, longtime costar Dorothy Lamour is relegated to helping the boys in a small sequence and musical number near the end of the film. It’s a shocking example of how Hollywood viewed aging female stars. A much younger Collins was cast as the lead this time, with Lamour pushed into what amounts to a glorified cameo. Never mind that both Crosby and Hope are much older than Collins and are Lamour’s contemporaries!

It's almost impossible in this day and age not to view the film through the lens of cultural misappropriation. Despite the movie mostly taking place in British Hong Kong, there are very few Asian actors to be seen (and they are mostly extras). Too many white men and women are costumed and made up to be “Asian” (and even Harry participates thusly as part of a disguise). This kind of thing occurred in every Road to… picture, from Singapore to Morocco to Bali. But, as classic film aficionados know, one must approach older films within the context of when they were made and released. In 1962, this sort of thing was commonplace.

An old-school audience will certainly enjoy The Road to Hong Kong. The singing and dancing, the slapstick hijinks, the snappy and silly dialogue, and the references to the previous Roads are enough to delight. Another fun aspect are the many cameos from the likes of Peter Sellers, David Niven, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Colonna, and others.

Kino Lorber Studio Classics presents a sharp-looking Blu-ray restoration in glorious black and white (this one surely would have benefited from color). An insightful audio commentary by film historian/filmmaker Michael Schlesinger and archivist/historian Stan Taffel accompanies the feature. Rounding out the disk are theatrical trailers from this movie, other Road titles, and other Kino releases.

The Road to Hong Kong is for fans of the series, of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, and for vintage Hollywood and British films of the early 1960s. Fun stuff.

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