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ROAD TO MOROCCO (1942) (***1/2)

This is the first of the Bing Crosby/ Bob Hope Road Pictures that I’ve seen. It’s the third in the loose series.

This time around Crosby plays Jeff Peters and Hope plays Orville “Turkey” Jackson, two carefree castaways who end up in Morocco. Penniless in the strange town, Jeff sells Turkey for a few hundred bucks to Princess Shalmar (Dorothy Lamour, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH), who used to be engaged to Sheik Mullay Kassim (Anthony Quinn, GUNS OF NAVARONE).

The film works because the writers Frank Butler and Don Hartman knew how to weave the setting, the gags and the songs together in a way that doesn’t seem forced and allowed us to care about the two main characters.

Crosby and Hope work wonderfully together with perfect timing. The dialogue and their double crosses are very funny. Crosby plays off his sex symbol persona well. Their pairing isn't like a traditional straight man and funny man. They play "morally" flexible shysters whose friendship is more like a mutually beneficial partnership until they come to something that they both want. This characterization gives them room to grow, which adds a simple emotional arch to the story. It's nothing deep, but it does help drive the story as it moves from one hilarious gag sequence to the next. It’s fun, carefree and silly entertainment done as well as it can be done.

Rick DeMott's picture

Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks