Director: Phil Karlson

Cast: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour

Synopsis: Having to leave Melbourne in a hurry to avoid various marriage proposals, two song-and-dance men sign on for work as divers.

Road to Bali, the sixth of the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) ‘Road to…’ movies is a typically fast-moving adventure that has virtually no plot, relying instead on the interplay between the two male stars who, it has to be said, formed one of the better comic acts during the forties and fifties. Road to Bali is the only Road movie in colour, and the screen is saturated with it. It’s also saturated with a number of beautiful babes in bikinis who form the subject of both Bing and Bob’s lust when they’re not focusing on third member of the Road triumvirate, Dorothy Lamour, modelling yet another succession of sarongs. It’s all good fun: the jokes come thick and fast and, although the meaning of many of them is a little obscure today, plenty of them hit the mark. The songs, provided by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen, are also pretty good — especially Moonflowers, sung by Lamour. Look out for a host of cameos, including Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Crosby’s brother Bob, Jane Russell and Humphrey Bogart (sort of).

(Reviewed 10th September 2005)