HAL WALKER

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBB.  USA, 1952.  Paramount Pictures, Bing Crosby Productions, Hope Enterprises.  Story by Frank Butler, Harry Tugend, Screenplay by Frank Butler, Hal Kanter, William Morrow.  Cinematography by George Barnes.  Produced by Harry Tugend.  Music by Joseph J. Lilley.  Production Design by J. McMillan Johnson, Hal Pereira.  Costume Design by Edith Head.  Film Editing by Archie Marshek.  

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope reunite for their second-last Road adventure, well past the prime of the series’ popularity and the only one filmed in colour.  It’s a forgettable collection of hijinks as the two play, what else, low rate vaudevillian actors working the Far East who desperately need cash.  They take a job as deep-sea divers for the ruler of a small tropical island, completely unaware that they are actually being enlisted to help an evil prince with wicked intentions get possession of buried treasure.  When they arrive at their destination, they also discover that the ruler has a gorgeous sister (Dorothy Lamour) who greets her guests with ravishing musical numbers (her “Moon Flowers” actually is truly wonderful).  From there things only get sillier, but watch it in the right frame of mind and you won’t mind a bit; the chemistry these three traded off on for so many years has grown no mould, while the overwrought, self-aware gags (“I promised my brother a shot in the picture”) still tickle a rib or two.