Road to Zanzibar [Blu-ray]

Director: Victor Schertzinger Victor Schertzinger

Overview

The second Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "Road" picture casts Crosby as a penny-ante sideshow promoter and Hope as Crosby's only client, "Fearless Frazier." Under Crosby's tutelage, Hope has been shot from a cannon, zapped in an electric chair and nearly strangled by an octopus. Now they're practically broke and stranded on the African coast. Crosby spends the last of their money to spring helpless Dorothy Lamour from a native slave market. Actually, Lamour and her pal Una Merkel are scamming Crosby and Hope to finance a safari across Africa, so that Lamour can link up with her wealthy fiance in Zanzibar. En route through the deepest, darkest jungle, both Hope and Crosby fall in love with Lamour. But when they find out they're being taken for chumps, the boys leave the safari and strike out on their own. Captured by cannibals, the boys try and fail to win their freedom by having Hope wrestle a particularly grumpy gorilla. Making their escape after teaching the natives their time-honored "Patty Cake" routine, they head for Zanzibar. Once again, Crosby spends his ready money to spring Lamour from her captured-by-slavers con game, obliging Hope, Crosby, Lamour and Merkel to try to earn passage money home by staging a "sawing the lady in half" routine for the locals. Crosby: "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Hope: "If I don't, one of us is going back half fare." Like the earlier Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar sticks too closely to the script and plot to allow those inveterate adlibbers Hope and Crosby free reign. Still, there are some choice moments: our favorite bit occurs when Crosby comments to Lamour on the artificiality of movie musicals--whereupon the sound of an orchestra pops up out of nowhere.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/26/2019
UPC:	0738329236267
Original Release:	1941
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:31:00
Sales rank:	25,762

Special Features

Bob Hope and the road to success; Command performance 1944; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Bing Crosby	Chuck Reardon
Bob Hope	Hubert 'Fearless' Frazier
Dorothy Lamour	Donna Latour
Una Merkel	Julia Quimby
Eric Blore	Charles Kimble
Iris Adrian	French Soubrette in Cafe
Lionel Royce	Mons. Lebec
Buck Woods	Thonga
Leigh Whipper	Scarface
Ernest Whitman	Whiteface
Noble Johnson	Chief,Acrobat
Leo Gorcey	Boy
Joan Marsh	Dimples
Luis Alberni	Proprietor of Native Booth
Robert Middlemass	Police Inspector
Norma Varden	Clara Kimble
Paul Porcasi	Turk at Slave Mart
Ethel Loreen Greer	Fat Lady
Georges Renavent	Saunders
Jules Strongbow	Solomon
Priscilla White	Curzon Sister
LaVerne Vess	Curzon Sister
Harry C. Johnson Jr.	Acrobat
Alan Bridge	Policeman,Policeman
Henry Roquemore	Cafe Proprietor
James B. Carson	Waiter
Eddie Conrad	Barber
Charles Gemora	Aqua the Gorilla
Ken Carpenter	Commentator
Richard Keene	Clerk
Douglas Dumbrille	Slave Trader
Charles Coburn	Actor
Anthony Quinn	Actor
Victor Young	Composer

Technical Credits

Frank Butler

Don Hartman

Victor Schertzinger	Director
Paul Jones	Producer
Frank Butler	Screenwriter
Don Hartman	Screenwriter