The way to Morocco
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The way to Morocco |
| Original title | Road to Morocco |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1942 |
| length | 83 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | David Butler |
| script |
Frank Butler Don Hartman |
| production | Paul Jones |
| music | Victor Young |
| camera | William C. Mellor |
| cut | Irene Morra |
| occupation | |
| |
The Road to Morocco (Original title: Road to Morocco ) is an American adventure film from 1942 directed by David Butler . The story is about two shipwrecked friends who end up in a sheikdom, which is accompanied by various complications. The friends are played by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope . The princess they meet in the sheikdom is played by Dorothy Lamour , the sheikh by Anthony Quinn .
The film belongs to the series of comedy "Road" films Road to ... or Weg nach ... and is the third film in a seven-part series.
action
Jeff Peters and Orville "Turkey" Jackson are stowaways on a freighter that explodes due to their negligence. Both are thrown out and can laboriously cling to a makeshift raft to save themselves on land. Since the ship was off North Africa , they met a camel there , which they harnessed to move on. So they end up in a city in Morocco . To satisfy their hunger, they go to a bar, even though they know that they cannot pay for the food. Jeff is called away from the table and a man offers him 200 drachmas for Orville. Happy to be able to escape the sinister landlord who had already threatened her with a dagger , Jeff is not afraid to sell Orville as a slave .
The following night, Jeff appears to Aunt Lucy in a dream and warns him to bring his friend back. So Jeff starts looking for him. He also passes the palace of Princess Shalmar and finds a note from his friend, who urgently advises him not to search for him any further, since he is trapped and exposed to severe abuse, but to get to safety and leave the city as soon as possible so that the same thing doesn't happen to him.
Jeff doesn't want to leave his friend alone in such a situation and climbs over the palace wall. When he finds Orville after a while, he doesn't believe he can believe his eyes, because the friend rests, surrounded by beautiful harem ladies , on a wide bed and is everything except tortured by a particularly beautiful girl. It turns out that this is Princess Shalmar, who even wants to marry him. Orville is annoyed by Jeff's appearance and even pretends not to know him. However, the princess immediately shows interest in Jeff, and he also likes the beautiful woman exceptionally well. Actually, however, the princess is promised to Sheikh Mullay Kasim. But since a prophet predicted that her first husband would die a violent death within the first week of marriage, the Princess Orville had Orville bought on the market so that this fate would overtake him.
The young lady from the harem, Mihirmah, likes Orville so much that she wants to spare him such a fate. Orville, too, suddenly wants to let his friend go first. When it turns out that the Prophet's prediction was wrong because some insects got lost in his telescope, it is too late for him because Shalmar has already given Jeff a marriage vows . Orville comes to terms with the circumstances and increasingly takes a liking to Mihirmah.
A double wedding is planned, which should be followed by an escape to New York . Sheikh Mullay Kasim, however, does not agree at all and robs the princess and Mihirmah to do so. Short work is made with Jeff and Orville, you put them in two mesh sacks and tie them to a camel that is released into the desert . Fortunately for Jeff and Orville, the sacks come off and fall into the desert sands. During their hike through the desert, they are haunted by various hallucinations , but finally end up at an oasis near which Kasim's camp is located.
When they are discovered, they are captured and imprisoned. The sheikh refrains from having them killed because it is his wedding night. Resourceful as both are, they manage to outsmart their guards , get back to the sheikh's camp disguised as Bedouins and so confuse the wedding guests that a guerrilla war breaks out among them, which Jeff and Orville use to steal back Shalmar and Mihirmahn, to grab two horses and, taking advantage of the general commotion, to escape with the women. They manage to board a ship to New York. However, this ship also explodes when Orville carelessly lights a cigarette. The couples have to make the rest of the way to New York by raft.
Production and background information
The filming of the film took place from February 25 to April 23, 1942. Was shot in Imperial County in the US state of California and in the Paramount Studios in Hollywood . Further exterior shots were taken in Yuma in Arizona in the USA . The film premiered in the United States on November 10, 1942 in New York. It ran in Germany on April 8, 1949, and in Austria on March 11, 1949. Two days before the New York premiere, US troops landed in Morocco as part of the invasion of French North Africa, Operation Torch , which made the film particularly topical at the time. To promote the film, the studio came up with the idea of placing cards on water fountains in every city in which it was played with the slogan: “Eager for entertainment? See what happens when Bob Hope chases Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour to an oasis in the desert on the 'Road to Morocco'. ” Edith Head , who has won eight Oscar for her costume designs and nearly 1,000 US people Films was also responsible for the costumes for this film.
Originally Victor Schertzinger was supposed to realize a film of the Road to… series with the title Road to Moscow , which however was dependent on the events of the ruling war . However, the plan remained, a script never came about. Paramount had Road to Morocco shot with two different film endings. In the unused final version, Jeff and Orville joined the Navy, and the film ended with the line, "See you on our 'way to Tokyo'." Bing Crosby and Bob Hope also took over their roles in one on April 5th Broadcast from the Lux Radio Theater in 1943. Big band singer Ginny Simms took on the role of Dorothy Lamour.
In the third film in the Road to ... series , its opening sequences are widely regarded as one of the best entries in the popular comedy series and the film itself as one of the funniest of all time. After the first two Road to… films had been written for other actors and then redesigned, the script for this film was specially tailored to the three “road stars”. Hope and Crosby were the comedy team of the 1940s. In addition to the corruption of popular genres such as "jungle adventure", or in this case the "costume films in the Arabian Night scenario", the Road to ... films were considered the climax of the Hollywood self-parody, filled with jokes, including about stars and films in general. The Road to Morocco was one of three films that Trudy Kockenlocker, played by Betty Hutton , was to watch with her admirer Norval Jones Eddie Bracken in the screwball comedy Sensation in Morgan's Creek .
Anthony, who played Sheikh Mullay Kasim, had to put up with so many taunts from Crosby and Hope that he threatened them with a beating. Although Quinn was attractive and athletic at the time, he was mostly offered "rogue roles". How Hope's remark was to be understood that he and Quinn were actually a bad cast in the film and were much more born for the romantic part, even the crew members did not know how to assess; Hope wanted to mess with himself or herself and Quinn; but maybe it wasn't a joke at all. Anthony Quinn already made an appearance as the villain in The Road to Singapore , the first film in the series.
The first film in the series The Road to Singapore was made in 1940 , followed by The Road to Zanzibar in 1942, The Road to Morocco in 1942 , then The Road to Utopia in 1946 , The Road to Rio in 1947 and The Road to Bali in 1952 . In 1962 there was still the straggler The Way to Hong Kong . The most financially successful was The Road to Rio . The road to Utopia is considered one of the best in the series. In the last film in the series, Dorothy Lamour only had one cameo role. Bing Crosby would have liked to have Brigitte Bardot as the female lead , but the role went to Joan Collins . The plan was another film in the series, titled Road to the Fountain of Youth ( way to the Fountain of Youth ), which did not come into being by the more made in 1977 death of Bing Crosby. It was planned to realize the film with Red Skelton and George Burns . But nothing came of it.
The Road to ... series inspired both Mel Brooks' films and the early works of Woody Allen . In Mel Brooks' comedy Mel Brooks - The Crazy Story of the World from 1981, Brooks and Gregory Hines sing the song Road to Judea based on the melody We're off on the Road to Morocco . The 2000 Family Guy episode Road to Rhode Island was inspired by Road to Morocco and features a theme song based on the same music as the title of the film. Seth MacFarlane , the creator of Family Guy , is a big fan of the Road to ... series. What is wrong with the film is that the two camels shown have two humps, whereas Arabian camels usually only have one hump. Yvonne De Carlo has one of her first film appearances here, she plays Dorothy Lamour's servant. The film was in the top 20 at the box office in the 1942/43 season, lifting Bob Hope to No. 2 on the Top Boxing Star List in 1943 and Bing Crosby to No. 4. One of the funniest quotes from the movie comes from Bob Hope as "Turkey Jackson", who says when looking at the desert: This must be the place where everyone empties their old hourglasses. Another quote from the protagonists: "We don't have to fear all the villains we encounter, Paramount will protect us because we have signed for another five years." In the Road to ... series, Road to Morocco contains some of the best Gags within the series and even features a talking camel. The scene in which the camel spits Turkey (Bob Hope) in the face was not planned that way. The camel did this of its own accord while the cameras were rolling, and Hope's disgust and Crosby's reactions were so funny that the scene was included in the film.
Music in the film
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Moonlight Becomes You - vocals: Bing Crosby, later by Crosby, Hope and Lamour
The biggest hit of this film was Bing Crosby's solo Moonlight Becomes You . He was represented in the charts for 14 weeks, including two weeks at the top. The song also appears on the 1996 Star Trek: First Contact soundtrack . - (We're off on the) Road to Morocco - vocals Bing Crosby and Bob Hope
- Constantly - vocals Dorothy Lamour
- Ain't Got a Dime to My Name - vocals Bing Crosby
The song Aladdin's Daughter by Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen was originally supposed to be included in the film, which was then discarded. The music and lyrics of all songs are from Burke and Van Heusen.
criticism
The lexicon of international films only stated that "Crosby and Hope were shipwrecked friends in adventures with a beautiful princess and a stormy sheikh".
The audience streamed into the cinemas regardless of the reviews of the film critics. Road to Morocco also received a lot of positive reviews. The New York Times stated: "In short, it is a mockery of all pictures with exotic romance, made up by a few clever people who offer good gags." There have also been reviews, for example in the Herald Tribune , who accused the film of “setting a new low point in vulgarity,” but had to state “that the film had received two Oscar nominations.” Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune ruled: “A uniquely tasteless and absurd example of mindless jokes in insanely funny situations in favor of the film, whereby a few good performances that are there in terms of capital are thrown away ”.
Variety said, “It is bubbly entertainment with no semblance of sanity. The absurdities are all aimed at Crosby and Hope [...] and do not offer any restraint. It is a crazy vacation for fun-makers who show Bing Crosby and Bob Hope at their best together with Dorothy Lamour, who, as usual, is the linchpin of the romantic part of the story. "
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said, “Let's be grateful that Paramount is still blessed with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope and that the camera is with them on their amazing outing. [...] Even the trip to Road to Morocco is too attractive after the trips to Singapore and Zanzibar to be able to escape it. "
Awards
The film was nominated for two trophies at the 1943 Academy Awards:
- Frank Butler and Don Hartman in the Best Original Screenplay category . However, the Oscar went to Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr. for the screwball comedy The Woman You Talk about .
- Loren L. Ryder in the "Best Sound" category . Nathan Levinson was ultimately awarded for the musical film Yankee Doodle Dandy .
- In 1996, the US National Library Library of Congress included the film in the National Film Registry , which contains films that are particularly worth preserving.
Web links
- Road to Morocco in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Road to Morocco at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (with trailer in English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Road to Morocco at TCM - Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
- ^ The Road to Morocco in the Lexicon of International Films . Retrieved February 6, 2013.
- ^ Road to Morocco reviews of the film. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
- ↑ Review: 'Road to Morocco'. In: Variety . December 31, 1941, archived from the original on November 29, 2015 ; accessed on September 2, 2018 .
- ^ Road to Morocco Bosley Crowther, The New York Times. Published November 12, 1942. Retrieved February 6, 2013.