En route vers Singapour

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.

The first "Road" picture remains, in my opinion, about the best. 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. Plus the soundtrack has a lot of entertaining music to offer, especially "You're Too Romantic." Lots of fun from beginning to end!

"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.

Fleeing misadventures with girls once again, two playboys escape from women (in particular an arranged marriage for Josh Mallon by his shipping magnate father). However when they arrive in Singapore they meet Mima. A first the two use her for free labour, then they want their freedom from a woman but then they realise that they both want some time with her and compete for her affections.

The first of the successful Road movies is the foundation on which the others were build, basically meaning that this is straight to formula without the shine and added touches that we got with the middle movies (before they just got silly towards the end). The plot is stronger as a result but it does feel a little ordinary in comparison to some of their later hi-jinx. However the film is weakened by far too many musical numbers, I don't mind about 2 or even 3 but here it was pushing up to about 5+ in a 80 minute run time. 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. The jokes are good and the banter is sharp without being too knowing. 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. This is a bit of a surprise for me as I'm used to hope being bigger than the film and interacting with the audience, but I still enjoyed it, he even worked better in the serious parts. 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. Instead this is the birth of the series and the formula is in place with a solid plot and songs, personally I preferred the middle movies where they let rip with the comedy a bit more but not to the point of silliness.

I recently watched the first 4 Road to...movies and I found this one to be the least engaging. Don't get me wrong; Hope and Crosby are having a blast. The gags mostly land. The songs are humble. The film moves at a good pace. I can understand it launching the series. But the writing isn't as sharp or as meta as the series would come alone. Overall this was more of a lark than anything.

I was surprised by the fairly homosocial (if not homoerotic) subtext and it was funny squinting the story into a couple of old queens fleeing normalcy. I wish the film played up that angle a little more but you know it was 1940.