Review of Road to Hong Kong, The

Introduction

The Road To… series of musical comedies was one of the most popular double-act series in cinema. While Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were never formally a double act, there was a time when one was seldom thought of without the other. Starting in 1940 with Road To Singapore, the series ran through the 1940s and into the early `fifties in six instalments all made for Paramount. With the exception of the sixth, Road To Bali, all were made in plain monochrome.

The Road To… pictures had a formula: Bob Hope spent most of his time working the fourth wall, throwing in-jokes and asides to the audience while avuncular Bing Crosby held the storyline together with a few well-aimed songs. The stories inevitably involved the two stars bickering and tricking each other into schemes that involved romancing regular romantic interest Dorothy Lamour (whose trademark was wearing a sarong), and the pursuit of riches. Crosby usually ended up with both and Hope would wind up married to a monkey. That kind of thing.

The films were full of vaudeville schtick, not least the infamous "patty-cake" gag which the boys invoked when trying to get away from menacing bad guys. They would turn to each other and do a hands-and-knees slapping routine to the "Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker`s man" rhyme. On the last beat of "Bake a cake as fast as you can", they would both slug the bad guy(s) as hard as they could and run. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn`t.

In 1962, ten years after Bali, Hope and Crosby reunited for Road To Hong Kong. This instalment was made for United Artists and filmed entirely at Shepperton Studios in England. Again, shot in black and white for economy. Regular romantic interest Dorothy Lamour was demoted to special guest star and the female lead was taken by a very young and inexperienced-looking Joan Collins. In the filming, Lamour`s role was expanded from a small cameo to ensure her participation in the movie (as the finance for the movie depended on it).

The plot is the usual convoluted series of misunderstandings and mistakes that involves Hope and Crosby in a plot reminiscent of Carry On Spying, involving secret organisations, plans and formulae and a trip into space subbing for two chimps. It`s pretty hokey material, saved by the galaxy of familiar British character actors working in support - not least Peter Sellers. Robert Morley, Bond-regular Walter Gotell, Dr Who`s Master Roger Delgado (sans beard) and Felix Aylmer pop up in the proceedings as well as cameos from David Niven, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

Video

A crisp (except for the stock-shots) monochrome transfer in non anamorphic (letterboxed 4:3) 1.66:1. This makes for quite narrow black bands top and bottom, and can be eliminated if your widescreen tv can select a 14:9 image. The film was entirely made at Shepperton Studios, so you can have fun spotting the stock shots and mattes used to convince you the film went on location when it didn`t.

Audio

Only a very mono soundtrack, reproduced faithfully in Dolby Digital 2.0.

Features

Multilingual subtitles, but nothing else.

Conclusion

The last of the Road To… movies, the original "buddy" movies. While not the best of the run (made after a ten-year break and on the cheap at a British studio), it`s an enjoyable romp nonetheless and completes the seven movie canon on DVD. Qualitywise it`s a competent transfer, and streets ahead of the public domain releases of the only colour entry in the series Road To Bali. If you buy it for one thing, buy it for the scandalous (at the time) snake bite gag. "That`s when you find out who are your real friends".