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.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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