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Road to Rio
USA 1947
produced by Daniel Dare for Hope Enterprises, Bing Crosby Productions, Paramount
directed by Norman Z. McLeod
starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Gale Sondergaard, Frank Faylen, Joseph Vitale, George Meeker, Frank Puglia, Nestor Paiva, Robert Barrat, Stanley Andrews, Harry Woods, the Wiere Brothers (= Harry Wiere, Sylvester Wiere), the Andrews Sisters (= Laverne Andrews, Maxene Andrews, Patty Andrews), Jerry Colonna, the Stone-Barton Puppeteers, Arthur Q.Bryan, Gino Corrado, Tor Johnson, Marquita Rivera, George Sorel, Ray Teal
written by Edmund Beloin, Jack Rose, music by Robert Emmett Dolan
Road to ..-series, Hope & Crosby
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are on the run again after having accidently
burnt down a circus, and this time they decide to leave the USA as
stowaways on a boat to Rio. Sure enough, Dorothy Lamour crosses their way,
this time playing a young heiress whose aunt Catherine (Gale Sondergaard)
takes her to Rio to marry her to an associate of hers, Sherman (George
Meeker), to get her hands on her fortune. Dorothy Lamour is of course less
than pleased about that and also falls in love with Bing Crosby, but her
aunt keeps her in line vis hypnosis, and even has her report Hope and
Crosby to the ship's captain (Stanley Andrews) as stowaways. Later though,
when she has come to her senses again, Lamour gets them jobs in the ship's
band. Ultimately, Lamour, Hope and Crosby figure out auntie is planning
something sinister, so upon arrival in Rio, they smuggle her off the ship
in a standing bass case. In need for money in Rio though, they form a band
and make Lamour their singer (after all, "if she looks like Lamour,
she can sing like Lamour"), leaving her in a very exposed spot in a
night club - and after their first performance even, she is already being
kidnapped and dragged to a small village where her marriage to Sherman is
to take place the very next day. Hope and Crosby almost catch up with
Lamour, then are hypnotized by Catherine though and almost kill each other
in a duel - but only almost. In the end, Hope and Crosby can get their
hands on the papers (the content of which is never disclosed) that prevent
the wedding just before Lamour has gotten to the altar and said "I
do" in a hypnotic trance, and she is brought out of the trance while
Catherine, Sherman and their cronies are arrested. And in the very end,
Hope and not Crosby gets Lamour - through hypnosis. Later horror icon
Tor Johnson plays a circus strongman. If you have seen Hope
& Crosby-movies before this one, this on one hand is of course
more of the same - on the other hand though, it is one of their best
films. Sure, it's a light and slightly silly comedy, but it's also very
well-cast, well-directed, and full of great oneliners. And in many ways,
no matter what you thing of them individually, you just can't beat the
team of Hope, Crosby and Lamour concerning the chemistry between them.
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