Road to...

Road to ... refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road" pictures or the "Road" series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music. The minimal plot often took a back seat to gags, many of them supposedly ad-libbed by Crosby and Hope during filming.

Each film is not simply a comedic film, but a satire of some of the popular film genres of the day, including jungle, Arabian nights, Alaskan adventure, and high seas. The final film not only comes much later, but involves a newer genre; Hong Kong spoofs the spy films of the sixties.

In 1977, an eighth Road to... movie was planned, titled Road to the Fountain of Youth; however, Crosby died that year of a heart attack.

In 1947, Astor Pictures released a compilation film of several of Crosby's Educational Pictures short subjects called The Road to Hollywood to evoke the series.

In Sweden, the first film was given the title Två glada sjömän går iland (Two Jolly Sailors Go Ashore), which led to the subsequent films in the series all being given a title beginning with Två glada sjömän ..., except for the last film, which was instead called Vägen till Hong Kong (a direct translation of the English title).

In the 1980s, Eric Idle wanted to make a "Road..." picture called The Road to Mars, but was so put off by the executive meddling done at Hollywood studios, that he decided to do it as a novel instead.

The films have a complex ownership history.

Rumor has it that, during the filming of ...Singapore, Dorothy Lamour said to the camera, "Hey fellas, I haven't had a line for ages!" From that time on, the scene was set for what was one of the most enduring franchises in the history of motion pictures.

Beginning with Road to Singapore the films also included in-joke references to other Hollywood actors and jabs at Paramount Pictures, the studio that released all the films except for The Road to Hong Kong. There are also frequent instances in which Bob Hope breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly, such as in Road to Bali, in which he says, "[Crosby]'s gonna sing, folks. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn."

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