Road to Singapore is a 1940 comedy film directed by Victor Schertzinger. It stars Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and Bob Hope and is the first entry in the “Road to…” comedy film series starring the three.
Director: Victor Schertzinger
Production Company: Paramount
Distributor: Paramount
Cast: Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope, Charles Coburn, Anthony Quinn
US Box Office: $4,000,000 ($159,500,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Comedy
Release Date: March 14, 1940
Plot Summary: Josh Mallon (Bing Crosby) and Ace Lannigan (Bob Hope) are two goofy, irresponsible friends who work aboard a ship. Josh is the son of a prominent shipping company owner (Charles Coburn), and they both find themselves unhappily engaged to women they don’t care much for. They run away to the island Kaigoon where they both fall in love with a local woman named Mima (Dorothy Lamour).
Production: In the late 1930s Paramount began pre-production work on a comedy film with an exotic setting initially called “Road to Mandalay.” The lead male roles in the film were initially offered to Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie, but they declined. The film was also offered to George Burns and Gracie Allen, but they also turned it down. After this Paramount decided to pair Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Paramount had been impressed with how well the two performed a live comedy routine together at Crosby’s Dell Mar racetrack. Paramount retitled the film Road to Singapore (because that sounded more exotic) and chose Dorothy Lamour to be the leading lady because she had previously appeared in several adventure films set in the South Seas. Composer and director Victor Schertzinger directed the film, and the writers were Frank Butler and Don Hartman. However, Hope and Crosby ad-libbed a number of jokes and lines into the script. Road to Singapore was filmed in late 1939 over the course of two months, mostly at Paramount Studios. The jungle scenes in Kaigoon were shot at the Los Angeles County Arboretum.
Fun Facts and Trivia: This was the only installment of the Road to… series in which Bob Hope was billed third, under Dorothy Lamour, who was considered to be more popular than Hope at the time. After Road to Singapore the leads were billed in order: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour for the next few films. The soap suds used for ” Spot-O,” Ace’s less than helpful stain remover, were special heavy duty suds created by the prop department to hold up under the hot lights. During one lunch break, Hope threw a handful of the soap suds at Lamour and Crosby, leading to a “soap fight” between them. Schertzinger was annoyed because it would take hours to fix the hair, makeup, and clothing of the leads. Road to Singapore was an early role for Anthony Quinn (Caesar), while he had been acting for several years prior he would not get major attention until the following year with Blood and Sand (1941). There was previously a Warner Bros romantic drama film with a very similar title called The Road to Singapore (1931), though the two films are completely unrelated besides the title.
Reception: Road to Singapore received mostly positive reviews from critics. Magazines such as Picture Show and Harrison’s Reports thought that the film was goofy and nonsensical but that the singing and the comedic pairing of Hope and Crosby made the film hilarious. The magazine Film Daily also thought so and wrote, “Bing and Bob make up a swell team, with a resulting heavy bundle of laughs.”
Road to Singapore was also a big hit at the box office and was one of the top twenty highest grossing films of the year. The film’s popularity with audiences has been at least partially attributed to the fact that Bob Hope used his popular radio show to advertise it for his audience. Paramount quickly greenlit a sequel, Road to Zanzibar which was released the next year. That film reunited the three leads and was also directed by Schertzinger.
Why You Should See It: Road to Singapore is a pretty funny comedy film with plenty of zany moments. Crosby and Hope make a good comedy team, and this film does a good job showcasing their humor. Crosby and Lamour also have a number good songs in the film as well.