On the Road With Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Collection (Road to Singapore/Road to Zanzibar/Road to Morocco/Road to Utopia)

Description

They are some of the best-loved film comedies ever created. Now, four of the most popular "Road" pictures, starring the unbeatable screen duo of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, are here together in this deluxe DVD collection. Join Bing and Bob as they travel the world and experience rollicking, fun-filled misadventures in the company of the alluring Dorothy Lamour in such screen gems as Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar, Road to Morocco and Road to Utopia. You'll laugh yourself silly with four of the titles that made Hope and Crosby one of the most successful comedy teams of the 1940s and which continue to charm and entertain audiences of all ages today.

Customer Reviews:

Four roads to fun.......2007-07-29

There are many great comedies nowadays, but there are very few great comedy teams. In the old days, you could have the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello: teams that were greater than the sum of their parts. (What was Abbott without Costello or Moe without Curly and Larry?) Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, on the other hand, each were successful on their own, yet they are also recognized as a team in a way that even modern combinations like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are not. And the series of films that made them a famous team were the Road Pictures, the first four (of seven) of which are on the DVD On the Road with Bob Hope.

Actually, the Hope/Crosby team was actually a trio, with Dorothy Lamour as the woman who always came between the two. In the first Road movie, Road to Singapore, she is an island girl taken in by the two of them after they get her away from her nasty employer. The two are sailors fleeing commitment in the U.S. by taking refuge on a tropical island. In the second movie, Road to Zanzibar, they are showmen in Africa who escort Lamour and Una Merkel through the jungle, unaware that the two women are actually con artists.

In Road to Morocco, the two find themselves in a desert nation. Crosby sells Hope into slavery, which turns out to be a lot better than it sounds, when it turns out he has to marry a princess played by Lamour. What Hope doesn't know is that her first husband is destined to die, clearing the way for a long second marriage; what Lamour doesn't know is that the prediction is based on faulty information. Though Hope always seems to lose Lamour to Crosby by the end of the movie, Road to Utopia shows Hope and Lamour old and long-married before flashing back to a time when they were in Alaska looking for a gold mine.

Plot is almost incidental in these movies, merely a means to move from one gag to another. Although I doubt they were the first to do so, they often seem to recognize that they are in movies. For example, in Road to Utopia, Hope calls a mountain his bread-and-butter: it suddenly gets a circle of stars and becomes the Paramount logo. Anything can happen - even animals talk - and it is all a lot of fun. Not every joke works, but Hope and Crosby's chemistry carry the films. For some silly, old-fashioned movie comedy, this foursome fits the bill nicely.

A RETURN TO NORMALCY.......2007-06-08

HAVING SEEN ALL OF THE ROAD MOVIES IN YEARS PAST, IT IS A GREAT PLEASURE ONCE AGAIN TO HEAR WONDERFUL VOICES, & COMEDIC ACTING AT SUCH A HIGH LEVEL. MUSIC & COMEDY DOES NOT HAVE TO BE VULGAR TO BE ENTERTAINING. WHERE HAVE YOU GONE BING CROSBY?

So Happy.......2007-04-27

I looked for the Road To movies a few years back with no luck. I checked back recently, and was pleased to find this collection of the first four- and, arguably, the best four- films in the series. The package is nice, and the movies are on one double-sided DVD, which is a nice change from the unnecessarily disc-heavy sets we see so often. The transfer of the movies isn't perfect, but they're old, and it's still fantastic in both sound and picture. All four movies are wonderful, though Road To Singapore is a bit slow in coming off the ground. Hope and Crosby are revered as one of the best comedy duos of all time, and this set proves why. I'm young, and I love these movies. They're great fun for all ages, and I highly recommend getting them. Especially for that price!

On the Road..........2007-03-10

Including four of the seven films in the series, "On the Road with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby" is a collection that I'm proud to own. The Bob Hope and Bing Crosby "Road" movies are a set of classic comedy musicals that are pointless but funny! This can only be appreciated by someone who understands the relationship between Hope and Crosby and the jokes that apply to the era. A great collection for the Hope, Crosby, or Lamour fan.

Enjoyable!.......2007-01-12

Couldn't wait to get this DVD and it was worth the wait. Got a charge out of seeing Bob and Bing together. Must order the other "Road" films.

Bob Hope Tribute Collection - The Road Show Series (The Road to Morocco / The Road to Singapore / The Road to Utopia / The Road to Zanzibar)

Average customer rating:

Fine Family Vewing
OUTSTANDING - Bing is as always memorable - 5 STARS
Good quality- priceless entertainment
Ah yes....Thank you, so much....
"Patty Cake..Patty Cake...Baker's Man........"

Bob Hope Tribute Collection - The Road Show Series (The Road to Morocco / The Road to Singapore / The Road to Utopia / The Road to Zanzibar)
Starring: Bing Crosby , Bob Hope , Dorothy Lamour , Hillary Brooke , and Douglass Dumbrille
Director: Hal Walker , David Butler , and Victor Schertzinger
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Classics | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00005UMFD
Release Date: 2002-03-05

Amazon.com

Road to Singapore
Here's the first trip in what would become one of Paramount Pictures' most profitable film series of the '40s. When this comedy was released in 1940, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope had separately achieved stardom, though Crosby was an established power and Hope still a hot comedian new to movies. In fact, Hope is billed third in Road to Singapore, below Der Bingle and Dorothy Lamour. The script establishes what would be a constant in the Road series: a ramshackle plot, a handful of songs, and plenty of irreverent banter between the two boys. Crosby plays Josh Mallon, scion of a wealthy family, who prefers the vagabond life to his stuffy family; his pal Ace Lannigan (Hope) is only too happy to escape. They end up sharing a waterfront shack in Singapore and vying for the affections of a sarong-clad local (Lamour), amidst stabs at conning the natives with a dubious elixir variously known as "Spot-O" (stain remover) and "Scram-O" (cockroach killer). Singapore isn't as loose as some of the wacky subsequent entries in the series, but it already shows Crosby and Hope grooving to each other's perfectly timed burlesque rhythms in scenes that clearly depart from the script. They specialized in muttered asides, show-biz in-jokes, and gratuitous insults--and this one's got a song and dance number with an ocarina. No wonder it became a franchise. --Robert Horton

Road to Zanzibar
The second Road movie from Paramount Pictures finds barnstorming con artists Chuck Reardon (Bing Crosby) and Hubert "Fearless" Frazier (Bob Hope) at liberty after their act goes haywire. (In these movies, Crosby generally lures the suckers into the tent, while Hope is always stuck getting shot out of the cannon.) A phony map to a diamond mine brings our boys into the middle of Africa, which means there's a good chance they'll end up sitting in a cauldron while natives perform a cannibal dance around them. These stereotypes would be offensive if the movie wasn't actively parodying the kind of jungle movie popular in 1941 (just as Road to Morocco would satirize the Arabian nights picture). Dorothy Lamour is along for the ride, of course, and her scene in a tight clinch with Hope established a tradition of steamy comic exchanges through the series (as she croons a love song to him, he checks to see if his wallet is still in his pocket). This is the first Road movie to actively wink at the audience; in one scene, Lamour mocks the way movies always have characters break out into song in the middle of nowhere with a full orchestra backing--which is exactly what happens next. The chatter between Crosby and Hope already feels improvised, and it should be noted that the secret of their chemistry is not a sentimental friendship but a cheerfully hostile rivalry between the two characters, a cheeky approach that must've delighted audiences used to the Andy Hardy niceness of most Hollywood movies of that era. Oh, and they do their patty-cake routine, too. --Robert Horton

Road to Morocco
Road to Morocco, number three in the series of breezy comedies teaming Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, may be the funniest of the bunch. Bing and Bob find themselves Morocco-bound ("like Webster's dictionary"), caught in an elaborately faked-up world of harems, palm trees, and other Arabian Nights bric-a-brac. Naturally, Dorothy Lamour is also there, as she was the customary target of male rivalry in the Road scenarios. There is something so loose and ingratiating about the patter between Hope and Crosby that it doesn't ultimately matter if half the jokes don't land; these guys had their own comfortable rhythm, fueled by cheerful one-upmanship. Their sense of spontaneity broke the fourth wall between movie and audience in a way only the Marx Brothers had really accomplished before, and audiences--feeling in on the joke--ate it up. Songs (including "Moonlight Becomes You"), topical references, and ancient vaudeville routines fill out the program. --Robert Horton

Road to Utopia
I feel sorry for people who can't appreciate Hope and Crosby Road pictures. This is the fourth in the series, and has the boys masquerading as the killers Sperry and McGurk, from whom they've stolen the map to a gold mine, but which really belongs to Dorothy Lamour, but which... and you know it really doesn't matter anyway. The point is they've got this thin plot on which to hang a series of hit-and-miss jokes, coming fast enough to make it just all right and a certain amount of time to see who gets Dorothy Lamour, while maintaining their fierce and friendly and wisecracking rivalry. They're in the Klondike this time around, which doesn't stop the film from working in a glimpse of Dorothy in her sarong. Along the way, animals talk, including the humorist Robert Benchley, whose thoroughly dispensable introduction and running commentary I wouldn't dispense with for anything. This is arguably the goofiest of the road pictures. My favorite joke is when Bob is bested in fishing with Bing. Bob remarks, "My worm must have B.O." Bing comes back with "Couldn't B.U." You may not care where you're going, just as long as you're with them. Put it there, pal, put it there. --Jim Gay

Customer Reviews:

Fine Family Vewing.......2005-08-05

Where has the Golden Age of Hollywood gone? It's available in one box. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope keep you laughing in this collection of endearing films. Bing Crosby woos the ladies with his Crooning, Bob Hope keeps them entertained with his sly wit. As the series progress they make refrences to their previous adventures, and they even take time to include you the veiwer in on the joke.
The On The Road series of films revolve around the premise that Bob and Bing are broke knock around guys, that fall for the same woman (Dorthy Lamour) and the antics that suround them as they both try to win the girl and save the day.
These movies set the tone for all "Buddy" flicks that have followed. A great set of movies for the family to sit around and watch on a Friday night. Don't forget the pop corn. I highly recommend this Box set.

OUTSTANDING - Bing is as always memorable - 5 STARS.......2003-12-21

What to say. As a younger viewer, 18, of the road to series, mostly Bing Crosby, I can only tell you that this is not only funny and sweet. It's a movie for all ages, without the needed worrying of partial nudity or inappropriate language for younger viewers, or mature viewers. Bing and Bob, Hope and Crosby : ), have excellent chemistry, they ad-lib mostly because of the fact that they work so well together. This has great picture quality, and humor for all times. I recommend this set and all others that follow. The only drawback of the pack, is that it only contains the first four, (Road to Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco, and Utopia), it is missing the hilarious other 3, (Road to Rio, Bali, and Hong Kong), and the title being attributed to Bob Hope. I love them both, but Bing steals the scenes. For Hope and Crosby fans alike. GREEAAAAAAAAAAT!!!

Good quality- priceless entertainment.......2003-11-17

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope are hilarious together in these films. The quality of the dvds is excellent in both picture sharpness and sound. And the bonus features, of which there are several (photos from the sets put to music, sing-alongs, tribute to Bob Hope etc), are delightful. It is wonderful collection of the Road films and you would not go wrong purchasing this particular collection.

Ah yes....Thank you, so much...........2003-10-19

Pre-"Call Me Bwana" Bob Hope!! Is there anything better? NO ONE was better with a one-liner or an ad lib than old Ski-Nose! And Bing playing against him, never ceasing to amaze with his OWN ability to toss off a few!

Of the movies in this collection, "Utopia" is the best, with the slyest one liners, some fourth-wall breaking and lots of "in" jokes. And ALL the movies, at least on the VHS version, were crisp as could be!

The one thing you'll notice about the "Road" movies, is that the humor in them seems WAAAYY ahead of its time....like something you'd see in the fifties or sixties rather than the forties. Hope and Crosby were to comedy films what "Citizen Kane" and "The Wizard of Oz" were to late thirties drama.... trendsetting and exceptional! You couldn't possibly go wrong getting this set...if only it had "Hong Kong" and "Bali" in it....! (Not to mention "Rio"...)

Who is ever going to replace these two guys? George Clooney and Brad Pitt? Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey? I don't think so.

We'll miss you...Bob, Bing, Orson, Audrey, Cary, Frank, Sammy, Lucy, Desi, Kubrick, Federico, Henson, etc., etc.,.....

Somewhere up in heaven, someone is being entertained royally....

"Patty Cake..Patty Cake...Baker's Man........".......2003-10-13

"Bake A Cake as Fast As You Can...."...because you will not want to miss one second of the first four entries in The Road Series flicks with Bob,Bing and Dorothy!

This attractively boxed "Tribute Collection" is a must have for fans of these guys. The films, all from the early fourties,all Black and White, are beautifully restored and transfered on Dual layer discs. Although each has the special feature "Bob Hope and the Road to Success", the rest of the bonus material is different on each one. There are fun "Sing-Alongs","Entertaining the Troops", "Command Performances", photo galleries, DVD ROM and more.

The films themselves, are classic laugh out loud stuff, as in each story we follow our guys on their misadventures around the world. They never get old, each "road" brings new laughs and new plots.Always on the run from the bad guys, always some new money making scheme, and of course there's always the girl..the beautiful Dorothy Lamour. Will their "patty-cake" routine help them get away, will they become rich..will Bob EVER get the girl??? It's a pleasure watching on these DVDs.

Adding to all the laughs, are the wonderful song and dance routines, the exquiste costume design and the fabulous scenery. There are also always some terrific guest stars. Keep a look-out for these famous faces..Jerry Colonna, Una Merkel, Charles Coburn, Yvonne DeCarlo and the great Anthony Quinn.

So travel The Roads to Singapore,Zanzibar,Morocco and Utopia,with this famous trio. You'll be glad you did!

One note on "The Road to Utopia"..for some reason my DVD player was sensitive to this one, and would not load it, but I tried it on another player and it played perfectly...go figure!

Amazon.com

I feel sorry for people who can't appreciate Hope and Crosby "road" pictures. This is the fourth in the series, and has the boys masquerading as the killers Sperry and McGurk, from whom they've stolen the map to a gold mine, but which really belongs to Dorothy Lamour, but which... and you know it really doesn't matter anyway. The point is they've got this thin plot on which to hang a series of hit-and-miss jokes, coming fast enough to make it just all right and a certain amount of time to see who gets Dorothy Lamour, while maintaining their fierce and friendly and wisecracking rivalry. They're in the Klondike this time around, which doesn't stop the film from working in a glimpse of Dorothy in her sarong. Along the way, animals talk, including the humorist Robert Benchley, whose thoroughly dispensable introduction and running commentary I wouldn't dispense with for anything. This is arguably the goofiest of the road pictures. My favorite joke is when Bob is bested in fishing with Bing. Bob remarks, "My worm must have B.O." Bing comes back with "Couldn't B.U." You may not care where you're going, just as long as you're with them. Put it there, pal, put it there. --Jim Gay

Customer Reviews:

Put It There Pal. . ........2007-05-08

Bing, Bob, and Dottie in a another fun-filled romp, this time through the frozen landscape of Alaska in the early 1900's. Some great gags with plenty of laughs along with some quite lovely tunes. . ."Welcome to My Dream", and "Personality" being just a couple. Road to Utopia takes on everything we have seen before in the previous three Road films, and presents the gags, the songs, and the themes that make a Road film a Road film, in a fresh and original way giving forth a cornicopia of fun and playfulness that makes watching this movie a real reel pleasure.

Unmitigated lunacy.......2005-06-10

Loosen every stressed out cell in your body. As the amazon product description says, one can but feel sorry for people who can't appreciate this kind of comedy. However, I suspect these people probably (justifiably?) formed their opinions by watching "Road to singapore" or other somewhat less spirited/average films in the series, and are likely to miss out on this gem.

This one is the best of the "road" collection. You can watch this (utopia) a hundred times and still be tickled by Hope's one-liners.

A lot of fun ... in this road picture.......2005-01-22

This road picture is my co-favorite with Zanzibar. I just think that there are more funny lines per minute in these two than any of the others.

I read where they (Paramount) held off on releasing this picture because Bing was in the running for the academy award (for his performace in "Going My Way" ... and he would eventually win) and they didn't want to jeopardize his chances of winning.

He's a rogue here ... that's for sure. And Bob is his patsy ... again.

There's a nice little song on the deck of the ship. There's a talent contest, and the boys would lose out ... to a monkey. But it's a nice little number. Later on Dorothy Lamour sings "Personality", and is her usual charming self ... with a nice little Betty Boop accent.

But this road picture is aided by the sly commentary of Robert Benchley, and there is little or no lull in the fun.

Surrealism, songs, slapstick- a fantastically funny flick!.......2002-03-10

Classic 1946 comedy "Road to Utopia", the 4th in the "Road" series, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. After their Morocco jaunt in 1942, Crosby, Hope and Lamour spent four years making their separate successes, before rejoining to go back in time on an anachronistic Alaskan adventure in "Road to Utopia", a film that was nominated for a "Best Original Screenplay" Oscar and which is even crazier than its predecessor, with a talking fish taking over from Morocco's comical camel, the addition of narrator Robert Benchley and an ending so outrageous it's a wonder they managed to sneak it past the censor! The Johnny Burke-Jimmy Van Huesen score includes "Put it There, Pal", "Good Time Charlie" and "Personality". Surrealism, songs, slapstick- a fantastically funny flick and an essential for fans of Hope, Crosby, Lamour or crazy comedy in general. An American classic!

Who'd Be Selling Fish At This Hour?.......2001-08-25

This is hardly an original insight, but anyone who dismisses Bob Hope as the tiresome, unfunny comic from those dreadful 1960s 'comedies' he appeared in is missing out on a real national treasure - his films up to around 1952 are hysterically funny, and his ROAD entries with cohorts Crosby and Lamour are among the best of 'em. Hope, along with the brilliant Preston Sturges, had restored Paramount to the comedy throne they'd occupied in the early 30s; from the lavish budget and attention to period detail throughout UTOPIA, it's obvious that the studio was not ungrateful. For my money, ROAD TO UTOPIA is the funniest film he ever made (though there are half-a-dozen others close on its heels). As in all ROAD movies, the engine powering the vehicle was the lightning-quick banter between the two leads; Crosby smooth as snake-oil, Hope perpetually suspicious and cowardly. And with excellent reason - no straight man ever victimized a foil the way Bing routinely does to Bob. ROAD movies always threaded their satires of B-movie plots (this one spoofing Robert W Service-style frozen-North melodrama) with plenty of topical humor, much of it capitalizing on the fans' awareness of the stars' personal foibles (Crosby's rivalry with Sinatra, his investments in thoroughbreds, Hope's disastrous box-office returns in LET'S FACE IT), and there's a goodly amount of what's now referred to as 'breaking the fourth wall' (they talk directly to the audience at varying points). What elevates UTOPIA just over the others is the sky-high breezy confidence of everyone involved this go-around. The cast and crew, coming off ROAD TO MOROCCO, were on a roll and knew it, and they ride that momentum for all it's worth (Hope's constant kibitzing is particularly hilarious). Der Bingle gets to groan a couple of subpar songs (as opposed to MOROCCO's highlights - 'Ho Hum' and 'Moonlight Becomes You' - this outing's 'It's Anybody's Spring' and 'Welcome To My Dream' are instantly forgettable) but the team's 'Put It There, Pal' is infectious fun and Miss Lamour's 'Personality' is sexy and sprightly. A further note on Lamour - she's luxuriously beautiful here, an ice-cream sundae with curves (why she's never ranked with the decade's top screen sirens is unfathomable: she's every bit the looker that Lake, Grable, Hayworth & Sheridan were, and a better singer besides). My apologies for not quoting any of the zingers from the script, but there are just too many of them to play favorites with. ROAD TO UTOPIA is well worth the effort it'll take you to track down; get cracking.

Comedy Greats, Vol. 2: The Best of WC Fields/Utopia/The Road to Bali

Average customer rating:

Comedy Greats, Vol. 2: The Best of WC Fields/Utopia/The Road to Bali
Starring: Comedy Greats
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000054OUS
Release Date: 1999-06-29

Average customer rating:

Put It There Pal. . .
Unmitigated lunacy
A lot of fun ... in this road picture
Surrealism, songs, slapstick- a fantastically funny flick!
Who'd Be Selling Fish At This Hour?

Road to Utopia
Starring: Bing Crosby , Bob Hope , Dorothy Lamour , Hillary Brooke , and Douglass Dumbrille
Director: Hal Walker
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: 6305089078
Release Date: 1998-10-21

Amazon.com

Description

Two men get caught up in a race to stake their claim to a Klondike gold mine after nabbing the deed from a couple of vicious killers and assuming their identities. But then the beautiful and ambitious Sal puts the make on them.

Customer Reviews:

Put It There Pal. . ........2007-05-08

Unmitigated lunacy.......2005-06-10

A lot of fun ... in this road picture.......2005-01-22

Surrealism, songs, slapstick- a fantastically funny flick!.......2002-03-10

Who'd Be Selling Fish At This Hour?.......2001-08-25

DVD:

DVD

DVD