Last Monday morning, my pal Michael Schlesinger and I recorded a commentary track for the forthcoming release on Blu-ray of The Road to Bali. This was the sixth of the seven "Road" movies starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour.
It was made in 1952 (as was I) and it was the only film in the series to be shot in Technicolor. Because it's public domain now, it's available in dozens of different DVD versions, some only a few bucks in price, some taken from really awful prints. This new release is said to be a restored version but I haven't seen the final video yet. If you want to take a chance on ordering it, here's a link. It ships in early July.
And while it's not the best of the "Road" pictures, it does have all the elements that made those movies memorable — mainly, the snappy Hope/Crosby banter. You may not be surprised to learn that it was not shot on location, by the way. The role of Bali was played by the Paramount lot in Hollywood plus a lot of footage lifted from other movies, some of which might have been shot in or around Bali.
Also, the folks playing Balinese natives are an odd racial mix. One of them is Leon Askin, who was born in Vienna and is best remembered for playing General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes — a sitcom coincidentally (one assumes) owned by Bing Crosby's company.
Much of the humor is dated — we explain some references on the commentary track — but it does include a scene where Bob and Bing are wed in a same-sex marriage. Honest.
The picture runs 91 minutes and Mike and I recorded our track in…91 minutes. They ran it, we talked about it and then Mike and I went to get Chinese food for lunch. I had shrimp chow fun and it was a lot more authentic than anything in The Road to Bali. I was going to add "…and almost as funny" but actually the film is pretty funny in parts. If you only know Bob Hope from his late TV specials, you might well wonder why this man was hailed as a great comedian. You need to see some of his pre-1960 movies to understand.