THE ROAD TO BALI
(Paramount) N this, the sixth of the Road series in which Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour established themselves as one of MHollywood’s most ‘popular comedy teams, the story moves from a vaudeville theatre in Melbourne, across country to Darwin, and from there to a mysterious but romantic isle named Vatu, not so far from Bali. Hope and Crosby, as the vaudeville team, are pursued across the Australian continent by indignant ranchers armed _ with stockwhips and boomerangs. In Darwin, disguised behind large beards and_ sundowner hats, they take on a job as deep sea divers for Vatu’s sinister Malayan prince (played by Murvyn Vye). On the island they both fall in love with a beautiful princess (Dorothy Lamour), the daughter of a Balinese mother and a Scotch father. In the intervals of shaking off the dancing girls and wisecracking their way around the princess’s palace, they do a song and dance number with kilts and bagpipes,
disappear into the heavens in a version of the Indian rope trick, and dive for a box of jewels hidden in the wreck on the reef. Having secured the jewels and escaped from the coils of a giant squid in the process, they set off across the Java Sea for Bali. Among their other encounters and adventures on the way, are a bout witn a love-sick gorilla, a battle with headhunters, an escape from an erupting volcano, a shipwreck, and visions at various tirnes in the jungle of Humphrey Bogart (towing the African Queen), Bob Crosby, Errol Flynn (in voice only), Jane Russell (whom Bob conjures out of a cobra basket with a magic flute), and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The Road to Bali shows a somewhat paunchy pair of. comedians and a plumper Dorothy Lamour. Its jokes and routines are also to some extent approaching middle-age. But the formula is still a pretty good one, and the old hocus-pocus which these three experienced entertainers are able to generate when they get together is still solid for one or two laughs.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530904.2.33.1.3
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 738, 4 September 1953, Page 16
Word count
Tapeke kupu
343THE ROAD TO BALI New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 738, 4 September 1953, Page 16
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in