Road to Rio (DVD, 2000, Bob Hope Film Collection)

Road to Rio (1947) ranks among my favorite two "Road" pictures, my other top choice being Morocco. In this fifth and longest (100 minutes) film in the series, Bing Crosby is Scat Sweeney and Bob Hope is Hot Lips Barton - I love those character names. The boys are musicians who stow away on a ship headed to Rio de Janeiro. One of Bob Hope's all-time best physical gags comes when Bing smuggles him onto the ship in a sack and then tries to find him hung up in the meat locker.

Onboard the ship, Bing and Bob save the life of Lucia (Dorothy Lamour), whose wicked aunt, Catherine Vail (Gale Sondergaard), secretly manipulates her through hypnosis, leading to the great "I hate you; I loathe you; I despise you" gag. When Aunt Catherine makes Dottie expose the two stowaways, Bob and Bing must pay their way by performing with the ship's orchestra. In their only onscreen performance together, Bing and the Andrews Sisters sing "You Don't Have To Know The Language." The other songs in the film include "Apalachicola F-L-A," "But Beautiful," and "Experience." All are excellent.

Once in Rio, Bing, Bob, and Dottie recruit the Weire Brothers, who play three Brazilian musicians, and pose as an American band in a night club. There are a great vaudevillian dialogue exchange - "You're in the groove, Jackson;" "You're telling me;" "This is murder" - and a funny hat-switching scene. Dottie's aunt interferes and hypnotizes Bob and Bing, convincing them that their family feud requires them to duel to the death. The grave the Weire Brothers dig to accomodate Hope's nose is hilarious.

While Hope and Crosby are thus detained, Aunt Catherine and Dottie leave and prepare for Dottie's imminent coerced marriage, which will be very lucrative for Aunt Catherine. As the man who conveniently jumps out from behind the tree tells Bob and Bing, the only way to stop the wedding is to get the - look right, look left - papers, which contain the mysterious information that can thwart Aunt Catherine. Bob, Bing, and the Weire Brothers take a very funny clown-car airplane to the town where the wedding is to be held and engage in a hilarious series of events while seeking the - look right, look left - papers. The patty-cake routine returns with a new twist, and meanwhile, Hope's radio sidekick Jerry Colonna is leading the cavalry to lend assistance. It all leads to an explosive ending filled with hilarity.

Road to Rio is so funny that everyone can enjoy it. You don't have to have seen the other "Road" pictures to appreciate it, but you'll probably like it even better if you have seen them.