Road to Bali (1952)

Director:

Hal Walker

Writers:

Frank Butler (writer)
Hal Kanter (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

8 April 1953 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Tagline:

TOGETHER AGAIN!...in the BEST and FUNNIEST "Road" Picture Yet!

Plot:

Having to leave Melbourne in a hurry to avoid various marriage proposals, two song-and-dance men sign on for work as divers...

Plot Keywords:

Wedding | Sequel | Beautiful Woman | Flute | Love Triangle

Cast

Bing Crosby	...	George Cochran
Bob Hope	...	Harold Gridley
Dorothy Lamour	...	Princess Lala
Murvyn Vye	...	Ken Arok
Peter Coe	...	Gung
Ralph Moody	...	Bhoma Da
Leon Askin	...	King Ramayana
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michael Ansara	...	Guard (uncredited)
Besmark Auelua	...	Lesser priest (uncredited)
Humphrey Bogart	...	Charlie Allnut (uncredited)
Robert Cabal	...	Native (uncredited)
Herman Cantor	...	Priest (uncredited)
Sue Casey	...	Handmaiden (uncredited)
Larry Chance	...	Attendant (uncredited)
Leslie Charles	...	Handmaiden (uncredited)
Jack Claus	...	Specialty dancer (uncredited)
Jean Corbett	...	Handmaiden (uncredited)
Harry Cording	...	Verna's father (uncredited)
Bob Crosby	...	Himself, Cameo Appearance (uncredited)
Patricia Dane	...	Handmaiden (uncredited)
Devi Dja	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Shela Fritz	...	Chief's wife (uncredited)
Roy Gordon	...	Eunice's father (uncredited)
Bernie Gozier	...	Bo Kassar (uncredited)
Jerry Groves	...	Lesser priest (uncredited)
My Lee Haulani	...	Beautiful girl in basket (uncredited)
Carolyn Jones	...	Eunice (uncredited)
Mary Kanae	...	Old crone (uncredited)
Jan Kayne	...	Verna (uncredited)
Richard Keene	...	Conductor (uncredited)
Al Kikume	...	Warrior (uncredited)
Kukhie Kuhns	...	Fat woman in basket (uncredited)
Donald Lawton	...	Employment agent (uncredited)
Raymond Lee	...	Boy (uncredited)
Bunny Lewbel	...	Lala age seven (uncredited)
Jerry Lewis	...	Woman in Lala's dream (uncredited)
Sylvia Lewis	...	Temple dancer (uncredited)
Judith London	...	Handmaiden (uncredited)
Luukia Luana	...	Boy (uncredited)
Dean Martin	...	Man in Lala's dream (uncredited)
Charles Mauu	...	Warrior (uncredited)
Patti McKay	...	Handmaiden (uncredited)
Allan Nixon	...	Eunice's brother (uncredited)
Betty Onge	...	Handmaiden (uncredited)
Satini Pualoa	...	Warrior (uncredited)
Ethel K. Reiman	...	Chief's wife (uncredited)
Jane Russell	...	Cameo Appearance (uncredited)
Irene K. Silva	...	Chief's wife (uncredited)
Bhogwan Singh	...	Lesser priest (uncredited)
Chanan Singh Sohi	...	Lesser priest (uncredited)
Kuka Tuima	...	Warrior (uncredited)
Douglas Yorke	...	Verna's brother (uncredited)

Directed by
Hal Walker

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Frank Butler		writer
Hal Kanter		writer
William Morrow		writer
Harry Tugend		story

Produced by
Daniel Dare	....	producer
Harry Tugend	....	producer

Original Music by
Joseph J. Lilley		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
George Barnes

Film Editing by
Archie Marshek

Art Direction by
J. McMillan Johnson
Hal Pereira

Set Decoration by
Sam Comer
Ross Dowd

Costume Design by
Edith Head

Makeup Department
Wally Westmore	....	makeup artist

Art Department
Dorothea Holt	....	illustrator

Sound Department
John Cope	....	sound
Gene Merritt	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Cliff Shirpser	....	assistant camera: Technicolor
Loyal Griggs	....	camera operator: second unit (uncredited)

Music Department
Van Cleave	....	special musical arrangements
Gerard Carbonara	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)
Gus Levene	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)
Leo Shuken	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)
Van Cleave	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)

Other crew
Charles O'Curran	....	choreographer

Production Companies

• Bing Crosby Productions
• Hope Enterprises
• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1952) (USA) (theatrical)
• Platinum Disc (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Allumination Filmworks (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• BCI Eclipse (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Brentwood Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Brentwood Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Delta Expedition (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Passport International Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• UAV Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Front Row Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• GoodTimes Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Greatest Sports Legends (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Koch Vision (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Madacy Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Marengo Films (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Brentwood Home Video (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Delta Expedition (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Diamond Entertainment Group (DEG) (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Passport International Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Westlake Entertainment Group (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (worldwide) (VHS)
• St. Clair Vision (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Unicorn Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Paramount (????) (France) (theatrical)
• Paramount-Films (1953) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Bach Films (2009) (France) (DVD)
• Bridgestone Multimedia (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Kabaya Foods (2004) (Japan) (DVD)
• Peter Rodgers Organization (????) (worldwide) (TV)
• Punto Zero (2008) (Italy) (DVD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1965) (Finland) (TV)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (1953) | Finland:K-8 (1965) | Australia:G | Sweden:15 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bing Crosby Productions

Trivia:

In her 1980 autobiography, "My Side of the Road," (co-written with Dick McInnes), Dorothy Lamour relates how disappointed she was at not being asked to sing on the Decca album which re-created the film score. In Miss Lamour's place, the label recruited an artist under contract, Peggy Lee, to croon the sultry "Moonflowers" and then go upbeat with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope and on "The Merry-Go-Runaround" (both songs having music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke).

Goofs:

Continuity: When George and Harold meet Lala, Harold's coat is held on his right shoulder. But, between shots, Harold appears holding the coat in front of himself.

Quotes:

Princess Lala: [showing a portrait of a woman in regal dress] She was my mother, Queen Tama of Vaatu.
George Cochran: Hm, beautiful.
Princess Lala: [indicating the portrait next to it of a man in a kilt] And he was my father.
George Cochran: Didn't anybody in the family wear the pants?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 'White Christmas': A Look Back with Rosemary Clooney (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Whiffenpoof Song

The Dumb and Dumber of the early 50s

Road to Bali is one of the two or three best in the Hope-Crosby series, and sees the pair hot-tailing it out of Australia and across to Indonesia, where they are employed as divers by a mysterious islander princess (mind you, the Hollywood representation of Balinese culture tends to look more like Hawaii, but it's of little consequence, the whole thing is merely a stage for the Hope and Crosby routine.) When diving on a wreck the pair are warned about a mysterious sea-god called 'Boga-ten', so Crosby sends down Hope as something of a sacrificial lamb - he then encounters an unconvincing giant squid. They escape and end up in the clutches of an even more unconvincing tribe, in the hands of none other than General Burkhalter from 'Hogan's Heroes', who decides that sacrifice to a volcano is the best option...

The comedy is classic 'Road' - the pair stroll from situation to situation, taking humourous potshots at each other, making in-jokes about the entertainment industry, and occasionally bursting into song. Dorothy Lamour provides the female presence, love interest and 'straight person' to the duo's persistent childishness and oneupmanship. Crosby invariably comes out the winner, such as in the competition for Lamour's romantic interest (it seems she only likes Hope because he resembles a pet chimpanzee she had as a child.) It's all good fun, if slightly politically incorrect these days, but still holds up pretty well.