Road to Utopia
| Road to Utopia | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Hal Walker |
| Produced by | Paul Jones |
| Screenplay by | |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Leigh Harline |
| Cinematography | Lionel Lindon |
| Edited by | Stuart Gilmore |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $5 million (US rentals) |
Road to Utopia is a 1946 American comedy film directed by Hal Walker and starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. Filmed in 1943 but not released until 1946, Road to Utopia is the fourth film of the "Road to …" series. Written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, the film is about two vaudeville performers at the turn of the twentieth century who go to Alaska to make their fortune. Along the way they find a map to a secret gold mine. In 1947, Road to Utopia received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Sal and Chester Hooton (Lamour and Hope), an old married couple, are visited by their equally old friend Duke Johnson (Crosby), and the three reminisce about their previous adventure in the Klondike. The film flashes back to the turn of the century. A man is murdered and two thugs, McGurk (Nestor Paiva) and Sperry (Robert Barrat), steal a map to a gold mine. The map and mine belonged to a man named Van Hoyden and the dying man tells Sal (Van Hoyden's daughter) the mine is in Alaska and to find a man named Ace Larson. Sal manages to get on the last boat to Alaska before McGurk and Sperry.
To evade the police, the thugs duck into a theater, where Duke and Chester are performing vaudeville. They proceed to work the crowd with a "ghost scam" into "gambling" their money in hope of doubling it. As the police find the thugs, they escape onstage and reveal Chester hiding under the table with the crowd's money. Duke and Chester are forced to flee the angry mob.
As Duke divides their money, Chester is fed up with having to jump from town to town. Duke convinces him to head north to Alaska to prospect for gold. Chester refuses on the grounds that every time Duke gets a "great idea", Chester is the one that gets the runaround. Chester then takes all the money and tells Duke to go on without him.
As McGurk and Sperry get on the boat bound for Alaska, Duke and Chester prepare to part ways. As they bid a solemn goodbye, and picking each other's pocket, Duke steals the money. Chester waves goodbye until he sees Duke counting the money and changes boats at the last moment. He is about to throttle Duke when he realizes the boat has left the dock for Alaska. In Duke's cabin, Chester takes the money back and puts it in a safe, which turns out to be a porthole. With no money to pay for passage, they are forced to scrub the deck and shovel coal.
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