Road to Morocco (DVD, 2002)

Road to Morocco (1942) is my favorite of the seven Hope-Crosby "Road" movies. The theme song, with a catchy tune by Jimmy Van Heusen and very witty lyrics by Johnny Burke became famous, and there are great songs throughout, including "Ain't Got a Dime to My Name," "Constantly," and "Moonlight Becomes You."

The "Road" movies are often praised for Bing's and Bob's deft ad-libs, but Road to Morocco contains the most "improvisational" moment in the entire series: at the beginning, after Hope and Crosby find the camel, Bob is in the middle of delivering his lines when the camel spits on him! This attack was completely unplanned, and it only happened once. Luckily, Bing came up with a great retort, and the "spit-take" made its way into the movie.

Other hilarious moments in the film are Bing selling Bob into slavery (where instead of torture he finds Dorothy Lamour), and Bob appearing in thought clouds as dead Aunt Lucy. Every joke in the movie is funny. While Road to Zanzibar began to parody itself and and its genre, Road to Morocco really tears down the fourth wall, winking at the audience and creating more laughs at each turn. The patty-cake-punch gag is back, this time with a funny twist.

Bob Hope, always the Academy Award host and never the winner, tries to earn an Oscar nomination at the end of the film, but in reality Road to Morocco did garner two nods, for Best Sound Recording (Loren Ryder) and Best Original Screenplay (Frank Butler and Don Hartman).

Very funny by itself, Road to Morocco is even better when you've already seen Singapore and Zanzibar. Everybody will enjoy this film.


One caution: I've found that some copies of the Bob Hope Tribute Collection DVD of Road to Morocco are defective for a significant portion of the movie.