Road to Bali

source: Road to Bali

The 'Road' movies are the kind of films that used to be programmed on British TV in the late '70s/early '80s on a (usually rainy) Sunday afternoon, when there was little else to do except play board games. I watched them when I was young and remember finding them relatively amusing at the time—well, more fun than a game of Mousetrap (all that setting up the plastic pieces for it not to work!). Having just watched Road To Bali, my first Road trip since I was a kid, I'm wondering what the hell I was thinking: the film is a horribly antiquated comedy with gags well past their sell-by-date and dull song and dance routines. The plot is all over the place, but mainly consists of our two happy-go-lucky heroes, George Cochran (Bing Crosby) and Harold Gridley (Bob Hope) arguing about who is going to marry beautiful Princess Lala (Dorothy Lamour), who they meet after applying for jobs as deep sea divers, their mission to retrieve a long sunken treasure guarded by a massive squid. The vaudevillian jokes (scripted and ad-libbed), many of which were topical at the time, come thick and fast, but unless you're an octogenarian (and still blessed with your hearing and your marbles), I doubt very much if you'll find very many of them funny because you simply won't 'get' them (I'm fast approaching fifty and many of the quips sailed way over my head). Fortunately, the presence of the gorgeous Dorothy Lamour helps matters a lot, and there are a couple of fun, silly moments featuring the giant squid and an amorous gorilla, but with such dreadful gags and unmemorable songs, the hour and a half really felt like a lot longer. ***According to other comments here on IMDb, 'Bali' is one of the weaker Road movies. If I ever decide to take another trip down memory lane with Bing and Bob, I sure hope they're right.***

The jokes just keep on coming in this 'Road movie'. There are so many gags here, you'll have to watch this film more than once to get them all. Although the story is very simple, the sets, the girls and especially the amazing Technicolor is a treat to watch. The Road To Bali is the medicine for a grey day!

it doesn't age well. No real plot--Bing Cosby and Bob Hope fall into "hilarious" misadventures with princess Dorothy Lamour. Now this IS colorful and fast moving...but it just isn't good. The jokes are bad and VERY dated ("Sadie Thompson slept here"????) and not even remotely funny. It's also chock full of incredible sexism (some of the lines had me cringing and EVERY woman was falling for Cosby and Hope--who were in their 50s) and pointless song and dances. Cosby + Hope's opening number shows us why vaudeville died and poor Lamour is introduced singing a terrible number with ridiculous moves (and half * dancing girls there for no reason whatsoever). Crosby DOES have one good romantic song and the three of them have a fairly humorous song but that's it. Everything else is lame and tired. Hope and Cosby were great in their time but it's long since passed. Cosby did have a beautiful voice and some great songs--Hope also had his songs and some very funny comedy but none are evident in this movie. Lamour is just there for the men to ogle. The only amusing parts here were a few asides to the audience but I really didn't laugh once. Tired, dull, sexist and unfunny. Sadly I have to give this a 1.

For some reason, this particular Road movie was on television more often than the others when I was a kid, and my sister and I used to crack up at the loony gags and sheer silliness of the picture. We were especially amused by the bit where the high priest asks the " God of the Sleeping Volcano" if he approves of the impending marriage between beautiful native princess Dorothy Lamour and the lecherous old king, and the volcano erupts with fire while a deep voice belches "NO!" The movie is practically nothing but a series of blackout sketches, ad-libs and in jokes, set against vividly colored backgrounds of islands, ancient temples, the sea, and jungles. The whole thing seems almost like a series of improvisations made up as they went along, after hours in a comedy club. There's just enough plot to move things along, some nice musical numbers, and a winking, nudging attitude toward the audience, best exemplified by a scene where romantic music starts playing and Hope turns to the audience and says, " He's gonna sing, folks, now would be a good time to go get the popcorn", and proceeds to put cotton in his ears as Crosby begins to serenade Lamour. Road to Bali may be dated and corny, but it was meant to be just silly fun even when it was new. Maybe not the best of the Road pictures, but plenty of fun, anyway.

The first part of the movie is kind of funny. Unfortunately, the movie becomes so ridiculous and idiotic in the last half that it is no longer funny but simply tedious. The songs aren't even very good in this Road Movie. At least Road to Utopia with Hope/Crosby/Lamour had great songs. A funny Bob Hope movie which I can truly recommend is The Lemon Drop Kid.

I like all of the Hope and Crosby road pictures even if they were kind of silly. I grew up with them; even saw Hope on stage at the Palace Theater in Cleveland, Ohio in the old vaudeville days (they also had a picture show). Anyhow, as simple as they were, they were funny in their own way, and I loved Crosby singing, and Dorothy Lamour's vocaling in amour! Saw The Road to Bali on the tube AMC for the umpteenth time, and still enjoyed it; as usual the music is great, and the boys really didn't know how to end it! 6/10

On a scale of one to a million this rates about a 999,999 on the silly scale. In colour and with beautiful production values ROAD TO BALI made in 1952 contains as many up to date movie and social references as an encyclopedia written by Ludwig Von Drake. In a huge theatre these ROAD films must have lifted the roof with laughter, and as a DVD diversion in 2006 any of them can be a generous and loony mood lifter. There is actually many laugh out loud moments still to be had even if you weren't born or aware of life in the early 50s. THE ROAD TO BALI (pronounced "Bally" by Americans; "Barley" by the rest of us) is basically flat-out hilarious with quips and ad libs galore. Even if you cringe at Bing Crosby as I do, there is enough genuinely funny lines and situations and terrible gags to overwhelm you...much like THE PRODUCERS released this year insists we find it relentlessly dementedly funny. To me Bob Hope has always been Daffy Duck (Groucho Marx was Bugs Bunny) and it is his vaudeville lunacy that carries Crosby inbetween squabbling over Lamour and pushing through all parts of the set. This film has some excellent special effects, very admirable for '52. A hilarious cameo from Jane Russell is the cherry on the icing. Some big dance scenes are an added bonus. Fun fun and demented fun. What a year 1952 was for hilarious films (look 'em up).

I'm 14, and I'm a huge fan of Bob Hope. I got this movie for Christmas and I loved it. It was so darn funny. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour all did a tremendous job. I was laughing my butt off throughout the movie. It was also great seeing Humphery Bogart, Dean Martin, and Jane Russell in cameos. Bob Hope is most funny when performing with Bing. They're a great comedy team. He has delivered lots of funny lines in this movie. It was funny how he made references to being in a movie or how Bing already had an Oscar. Bob Hope is one of the greatest comedians who ever lived and you all know it. Here's to Bob Hope!

From the very first Road picture Hope and Crosby were known for their ad-libbing. In fact when they guested on each other's shows the two of them would take the script and insert some of their own lines to try and catch the other off-guard. In this Road picture I will swear that the moment the boys and Dotty Lamour were washed ashore on the proverbial south sea island, the picture is one long ad-lib. I am sure the director said, here's the plot situation just make it up as you go. It's got that kind of spontaneity. Look for 'guest' appearances by Jane Russell, Humphrey Bogart, Martin and Lewis and Bob Crosby in this wacky romp. Says Dotty: "I love you Bob, I love you Bing, my heart's in a real wing ding." So do we all.