Road to Singapore (1940)
Road to Singapore (1940)
Road to Singapore
(Victor Schertzinger, US 1940, 85 min., 35mm)
Road to Zanzibar
(Victor Schertzinger, US 1941, 91 min., 35mm)
Reinventing Hollywood. Films of the 1940s were more reflexive and self-aware than ever before, and this was evident in no place greater than in the “Road to . . .” series of films. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby play accidental adventurers on travels to exotic locales primarily as an excuse to take swipes at other Hollywood dignitaries, sing, and look at beautiful women. In Singapore, Crosby is running from an unwanted marriage, and in Zanzibar, both are running from a burning circus. David Bordwell writes, “In the course of these farces, the pair relentlessly insisted that a movie was just a movie.”