Hollywood (1942)

55»» P to IH&r&^o / B V KAY PIMM T OK A camel named M artha pe gged it. Martha and another camel, together with a quartet of dancing cobras, eight woodenheads and sixteen harem cuties share honors with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in a new Paramount picture called Road to Morocco. It's the third road the trio has traveled incidentally, the other two having led to Singapore and Zanzibar. Halfway through the picture, Martha turns to her camel companion, dolefully shakes her head and says: "This is the screwiest movie I've ever worked Screwy it is, from beginning to end. Any semblance of sanity or reality was thrown overboard at the start because Director David Butler had but one goal in mind: to make people laugh. Laughter is needed now as never before, he feels, with the everyday drama of life geared to tragedy, suffering and sorrow. If gags and utter nonsense could do the trick, to heck with a plot or continuity! They had a script of sorts for Road to Morocco, but it turned out to be merely a handy clothesline on which to hang the impromptu zaniness the cast dreamed up on the spur of the moment. In one sequence, for instance. Bob and Bing are attempting to enter the harem boudoir of the lovely Princess Shalmar, played by Dorothy Lamour. The sheik to whom she is betrothed (Anthony Quinn) had sought to forestall such a venture by planting four cobras outside her door as bodyguards. The cobras swing into action and so do the boys: they grab musical instruments from a wall and seek to tame the reptilian playmates with sweet music. A conga keeps them in a rhythmic line, but each time Bing and Bob stop playing, the cobras again advance menacingly. So far so good but how to end the scene? "I've got it!" Bob yelled. "We play 'Off to Buffalo!' " "Off to Buffalo" it was, with the snakes exiting right in a perfect Buffalo shuffle. Again there was a scene in a Moorish inn where Bing is having a session with his conscience for having sold Bob as a slave. In his sleep the ghost of his Aunt Lucy appears, complete with wings, harp and neon halo, to chide him for the act and give directions for rescuing the hapless Hope. Suddenly Aunt Lucy interrupts herself. "I can't talk any more," she whispers. "Here comes Mr. Jordan." Two versions of the scene had to be shot, one with and one without the halo for Aunt Lucy, who was played by Bob with the aid of curls, earrings and an inflated bosom. English censorship prohibits the screen presentation of the accoutrements of an angel to British audiences. In America wings and a halo are okay. The thin thread of story starts with a shipwreck which lands Bing and Bob on the African coast. There they find Martha, the camel, and ride away to a village which is celebrating the betrothal of the local princess to a great sheik. Broke and hungry, Bing sells Bob into slavery, and then at Aunt Lucy's behest, starts out to rescue him, only to discover he has been bought by the princess and taken to the palace. Bob apparently has worked fast, for preparations are under way for his marriage to the princess. The sheik arrives in a grand flurry of fury and is placated only when the princess reveals she is marrying Bob for a good reason: the local astrologer has predicted her first husband will die a violent death within a week of the wedding! Meanwhile Bing has become smitten of the princess and enters the lists for her hand. From there on it is a potpourri of 24 Any semblance of sanity in Road to Morocco is purely accidental. The third in the popular Road series again stars Hope, Crosby and Lamour action, occasionally relevant to the story, which winds up with a grand kidnaping and a clue to the next Road picture. That gag is too good to be spoiled by telling. Just as the penguin almost stole My Favorite Blonde, Martha, the camel, bids fair to walk off with Road to Morocco. But it was by accident that she was permitted to remain in the cast! Director Butler reviewed the first day's rushes and was glum indeed about Martha; in all the footage she had maintained a blank expression which never varied by so much as the wink of an eyelash. He was staring at her at close quarters the next day, trying to figure an out. and as he stared he puffed thoughtfully on a cigarette. Suddenly Martha's nose began to twitch and her face HOLLYWOOD