Most of my friends know that I’m a big Bing Crosby fan. One of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen is The Road to Morroco with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. I’ve never seen any of the other “Road” movies until this evening when I settled down with my dinner to watch The Road to Bali. This movies is circa 1952 (Morocco was a decade earlier). One of the things that is so hilarious about these movies is that they are just packed with Hollywood “in” jokes. I’ve read a lot about Hollywood from that era so I find them very funny. There is also a certain amount of self-awareness in these movies. The actors play to the camera, often speaking to it. I just saw one of the funniest moments in the movie that relates to this. It goes like this:
Dorothy Lamour: Do you always fight over girls?
Bob Hope: Well, what else can we fight over, we’ve never had any money.
At which point there is a long pause, and then Bob Hope looks directly at the camera and says, very clearly, “That’s for Washington.”
I spit out my food laughing!
Look, I like movies. I like going to see some of the films that come out today (the good ones). But there is just nothing like the movies that were made in the 40s and 50s. They required talent, timing, you had to do more than act. These movies are all rated “G” today, but they allude to things that are utterly hysterical and very un-G-like.
Incidentally, it occurred to me while watching this movie that kruppenheimer (who complains that I never mention her enough on this blog) bears a striking resemblance to Dorothy Lamour, circa 1952. I paused some of the scenes to be sure and the resemblence is really quite uncanny!
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