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Subpages:

Road to ...

The Road to ... movies are a series of comedy films starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, usually with Dorothy Lamour. Each of the films is a parody of a particular film genre.

Road to Singapore (1940)
Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Road to Morocco (1942)
Road to Utopia (1946)
Road to Rio (1947)
Road to Bali (1952) — The only one in color
The Road to Hong Kong (1962) — with Joan Collins

It inspired some other movies, including The Road to El Dorado.

This series provides examples, straight or parodied, of:

Be Careful What You Wish For:
- In Morocco, Hope's character gets his hands on a magic ring...
- Hope's magic flute in Bali, which backfires horribly when Crosby tries his hand at it.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Bob Hope addressed remarks directly to the audience several times per movie.
- Aside Glance
Book Ends: Road to Morocco
Captured by Cannibals: In Road to Zanzibar, with the cannibals thinking Hope and Crosby are white gods... until, that is, the cannibals decide to test their divinity by having Hope get into a sidesplittingly hilarious wrestling match with a gorilla.
The Cavalry: They arrive juust after the fact in Rio, although it's not for lack of trying.
The Cameo: Several, particularly in the last two films.
Cymbal Banging Monkey
Darkest Africa: Once again, from Road to Zanzibar. It uses all the standard Pulp Africa tropes and subverts the heck out of them.
Demoted to Extra: Dorothy Lamour, in The Road to Hong Kong. She actually wasn't going to appear in it at all after Crosby insisted on (and got) a younger female lead in Joan Collins, but Hope intervened to at least get her a cameo appearance.
Drink Order
Dueling Stars Movie
Early Installment Weirdness: Road to Singapore is a lot more subdued and conventional than the films that followed.
Fake Nationality
The Gay Nineties
Genre Savvy
Greek Chorus: Humorist Robert Benchley, in Road to Utopia.
Harpo Does Something Funny
Heterosexual Life Partners
Hollywood Mirage
Identical Grandson: Used to hilarious effect at the end of Road to Utopia. ("We adopted him.")
Incredibly Lame Puns
"Like Webster's dictionary, we're Morocco bound"
Invisible Backup Band
Large Ham
- Ham-to-Ham Combat
Literal Genie
Logo Joke
MacGuffin
Medicine Show
No Party Like A Donner Party
Oscar Bait: Lampshaded and spoofed in many of the movies, notably in Morocco.
Overly Polite Pals
Pardon My Klingon
Plot Armor
Road Movie
Running Gag: "Pattycake, pattycake.."
Setting Off Song
The Smurfette Principle: Lamour
Sneeze of Doom
Thirsty Desert
Those Two Actors
Throw It In: The most memorable incident involves a camel.
Title Theme Tune: "We're off on the road to Morocco..."
Travel Montage
Universal Adaptor Cast
Vagabond Buddies
Vitriolic Best Buds
We Need a Distraction
What Could Have Been: Road to the Fountain of Youth, planned in the late 1970s but called off after Bing Crosby's death.
- The first film, Road to Singapore, was at one point planned as a vehicle for George Burns and Gracie Allen.

References in other works:

Spies Like Us
The Road to El Dorado
Family Guy episodes "Road to Rhode Island", "Road to Europe", "Road to Rupert", "Road to Germany", and "Road to the Multiverse"
Taz-Mania episodes "Road To Tasmania", "Return Of The Road To Tasmania Strikes Back" and "Yet Another Road To Tasmania"
Duckman episode "Road to Dendron"
The Tale Spin episodes "For Whom the Bell Klangs" and "The Road to Macadamia"
The Legend Of Tarzan episode "Tarzan and the Fugitives"
The ALFTales cartoon episode "The Aladdin Brothers"
They Might Be Giants song "Road Movie to Berlin"
History of the World Part I The "Roman Empire" segment. Mel Brooks and others sing "We're off on the road to Judea!"
Ishtar