Camino a Singapur

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. Brilliant songs are featured once again, including `Too Romantic' and `The Willow and the Moon'.

ROAD TO SINGAPORE essentially is a romantic comedy with mass complications of playboys with serial patty-pan punching techniques, cheating people with soapsuds cleaner and both falling for Dottie. The slapstick gags featured are not as hilarious as the definitive film of the series, ROAD TO MOROCCO, but due to the enormous success of SINGAPORE, the trio's comedy skills allowed for a continuing series in which the progressing films became zanier.

Generally good direction, an agreeably funny script and a supporting cast headed by Charles Coburn only amounts to part of the fun.

However, once again Paramount, and in a more generalised context, Hollywood itself, displays its lack of understanding for foreign culture. Singapore, or the island in question, which isn't actually Singapore, looks like an extremely undeveloped Malaysia. The natives don't actually convince one of being native, nor do any of the ceremonial activities trick for one second.

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. But most movies made during this period simply didn't have much regard to exact details of foreign lands. And in such a brilliant comedy, it doesn't really matter.

Rating: 10/10

I love the "Road" series (I've seen all except "Zanzibar"), and I'm glad that someone saw the potential to become a great series that "Road to Singapore" had. I might not have seen this potential from the first film; the jokes were weaker and sparser than some of their later work. But many of the jokes were funny, and they even worked some drama in there, something missing from their later films; you can decide for yourself if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It's worth checking out, but see "Morocco" and "Utopia" first (and maybe "Zanzibar").

Delightful nonsense that kicked off the whole Road series. The songs and their staging are especially charming and fit right into the nonsense— where else, for example, can you catch such non- perennials as 'Captain Custard' and 'Sweet Potato Piper'. Plus that jungle chant along with the bevy of half-clad native girls is about the sexiest thing on film. Of course, Bing and Bob keep the chuckles coming without half trying. Their chemistry is just superb.

Seems Bing's the son of a wealthy hard-driving businessman (Coburn) who wants Bing to eventually take over. Trouble is Bing and his buddy Bob just want to be regular guys (read typical 1930's concern for the 'common man'.) So, with Dorothy, they escape to Singapore. But Dad's hot on their trail. Meanwhile, the guys get to sample native life, while Dorothy's on the spot trying to choose between them. Quinn's role as an Apache dancer with a whip is colorful but incidental. My only gripe is with "comedian" Colonna. His ear-piercing screeches are anything but amusing. In fact, I don't know what they're supposed to be.

Anyway, the boys put a whole new slant on the kid's rhyme 'Patty Cake, Patty Cake'. So if you hear it, duck! All in all, Paramount came up with a great slice of amusing nonsense, with a trio that still delights.

Can you imagine The Road to Singapore with parts of Bing and Bob being played by Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie? 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. When MacMurray and then Oakie became unavailable, someone had the bright idea of putting Crosby and Hope together. By this time a certain rivalry had developed on radio. Both had been guests on each other's shows, forever trying to top each other with unscheduled ad-libs in the script. So the casting changes were made.

There's none of the surreal humor in this that characterized the later Road pictures because the formula wasn't there yet. 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. The director Victor Schertzinger who was also a composer of note and Johnny Burke did a South Sea Island ballad for Dottie, The Moon and the Willow Tree.

So what would have been a routine film turned out to be a shakedown cruise for a lot of movie fun.

"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. In this one, Bing is the heir to millions but escapes the rich life and a fiancé and winds up in Singapore with Hope. There they meet Lamour, who is escaping her obsessive dance partner (Anthony Quinn). Both guys fall for her.

There are some hysterical scenes in this film, the best being the feast that the three attend toward the end of the movie. Hope and Crosby have obvious chemistry, and in later films, this would lead to more hijinks. Have to add that the young Bob Hope was pretty darn cute. Crosby sings beautifully, as does the exotic-looking Lamour. According to Lamour's autobiography, they apparently had a blast making these films. It shows.