ROAD TO RIO

US, 1947, 103 minutes, Black and white.
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Gail Sondegaard, The Andrews Sisters, The Wiere Brothers.
Directed by Norman Z.Mc Leod.

In the early 1940s, a very popular series of comedies began, the Road series, to Singapore, Morocco, Zanzibar. They were star vehicles were Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, teaming up with Dorothy Lamour. There were later roads to Utopia, then Rio and, in the 1950s, to Bali. The last road film was in 1962 with Road to Hong Kong, this time Joan Collins having the key role but with a guest appearance by Dorothy Lamour.

Bing Crosby had been a popular singer from the early 1930s and had appeared in quite a number of films. During the 1940s, he would appear in much more upmarket films like holiday in Holiday Inn and Blue Skies as well as winning an Oscar for Going My Way. Bob Hope had established himself as a screen presence, specialising in types who had more confidence in themselves than was merited and often played the character who was something of a failure, especially with the girl at the end. Crosby and Hope often make remarks about each other in many of their films in the succeeding years.

This is a story of two troupers, song-and-dance men, who could also play instruments, with a map of America at the beginning and Crosby with his conquests of women in various locations with hope always warning Crosby against women. Eventually they encounter a rich young woman who is looked after by an evil aunt, Gail Sondegaard. In escaping from a performance fiasco, they find themselves on a ship bound for Brazil, concerned about the young woman, Dorothy Lamour, but also getting the opportunity to perform on the ship – a rather benign captain treating stowaways.

While there are some very enjoyable song and dance routines, comic touches with Hope, romantic with Crosby, comic with the Wiere Brothers as a group of Latin American players, there is a standout performance on the ship with the Andrews sisters who happened to be on board, You Don’t have to Know the Language.

Once in Rio, they are concerned about the girl, smuggling her off the ship. However, the evil aunt and her henchmen are onto the two of them and the aunt uses her ability to hypnotise everyone to try to get Crosby and Hope to kill each other in a duel. This also explains the contradictory behaviour by Dorothy Lamour. Finally, there is some business about documents in a safe which the duo is able to retrieve and prevent a contrived marriage with a hypnotised Dorothy. The finale includes a song in dance routine with Hope disguised as a rather large lady and the two thugs knocking each other out, hypnotised, playing patter cake.

Dorothy Lamour gets the opportunity also to sing. All in all, the material is humorously routine, especially for the three stars, but they show an exuberance which carries the audience along. Historically speaking, Road to Rio is typical of so many of the comedies from Paramount Studios in the 1940s.