Road to Morocco, 1942

Perfect for a rainy Sunday Afternoon while catching u with the ironing, Road to Morocco is an 1942 American comedy about two fast-talking guys  (Bing Crosby and Bob Hope) who are shipwrecked on the African coast after accidentally causing a merchant ship to blow up, because of Bob smoking in the Powder Room..  They sing on top of a camel on their way along the road to Morocco  and Bing sells Bob into slavery, where upon  he is dragged off to parts unknown.  Bing’s conscience, in the form of the ghost of his Aunt Lucy, bothers him,  and he searches the town in search of his buddy.  He sings Bob’s favourite childhood song to help find him, and despite Bob’s pleas to leave the country before he too is tortured, Bing enters a luxurious palace, where Bob is being treated like a rajah by a beautiful Moroccan princess (Dorothy Lamour).  

The princess announces plans to marry him, as she has been advised by her astrologers that her first husband will suffer a violent death, and that her second marriage will be long and happy. The boys don’t know this, but a Sheik  (Anthony Quinn) is waiting in the wings as husband number two.

Quinn and Lamour  source

 Of course on the eve of the wedding, the astrologers find they've made a mistake, and the princess is now free to marry the man of her dreams-who, by this time, is Bing.  Bob must console himself with the beautiful handmaiden (Dona Drake).  The sheik is non too happy, and kidnaps the princess and handmaiden, leaving Bob and Bing trussed up in the desert.  They escape and make their way through the desert (and mirages) sneaking into the sheikhs camp to attempt to rescue the girls.

The kidnap source

After getting captured again, they again escape, and start a small war, before finally rescuing the girls and catching a ship to New York.  Bob goes to powder his nose before arriving in the Big Apple, and of course he enters the wrong powder room for a smoke and manages to blow that ship up too, and the four are left on a raft in New York harbour, instead of entering it in style.

Just before the explosion source

The movie is the third of the "Road to …" films starring Bing and Bob and Dorothy Lamour, and there are a few gags to that effect.   In all I thought it was a delightfully funny movie, silly in parts, and I was glad when I finished the ironing and could sit down to enjoy the rest in peace.   Even the kids thought bits of it hilarious, and they loved the talking camels here and there.

American troops landed in Morocco on 8 November 1942 during Operation Torch, and the movie was released later in the month, so it had an automatic drawcard for viewers.  The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for a few others.

Worth a watch if you can.

Deb xx