| NAME | MESSAGE |
| Jim Kukura |
posted 10/03/05 08:00 AM Central Time (US)  contact the author directly
This is the second of the seven "Road" films, and a pretty good one by almost everyone's account. While "Singapore" was played straight, "Zanzibar" would start the ball rolling with fantasy and other unrealistic happenings, all in the name of laughs. Barnstorming through Africa, the boys are fleecing local crowds with various presentations of do and daring. They get into trouble and are running from the law. When apprehended, they are befriended by a member of a wealthy family, played by Eric Blore, who is somewhat eccentric. He bails them out and sells Bing a lost diamond mine. When they discover the mine is fake, Hope resells the mine to local shady characters, who want to be escorted to said mine. They escape after a fistfight, and the boys jump a boat and end up in a new location. There, they are snookered into buying Dorothy Lamour's freedom from slave traders, which is only a scheme of Dororthy and her friend, played by Una Merkel, who regularly do this and split the income with the slave trader. When the girls find out how much cash the boys have, they sob story them into booking a safari to get Dorothy to her dying father, but in reality she is going to her rich fiance. Of course, Dorothy falls for Bing, Bob thinks Dorothy is falling for him, and Una Merkel is determined that Dororthy will marry her rich fiance. When the boys get wind of how they have been taken, They blow off the girls and the entire safari crew. On their own, they wander into an abandoned jungle drum station, where they are captured and worshipped as gods. When they fail a test to prove they are gods, the end seems near as they are prepared for the tribal stew pot. But the patty cake routine saves them again and they get back to civilization. There they meet Dorothy and Una again. Una could not coerce Dorothy into marrying someone she did not love, and the traditional happy ending ensues. Interspersed among all this hopping around is a lot of snappy patter, and sight gags, and other funny routines. The film is well acted throughout. Because the boys are jumping from location to location so much, none of the supporting cast, except Una Merkel, get much on screen time. Una carried her top supporting position off quite well. Eric Blore, he of several Fred _amp; Ginger films, shines as the eccentric seller of lost mines. And Bing and Bob are having a ball, and it shows. This is the film with the cut Leo Gorcey scene, a photo of which appears in Bookbinder's book of Bing's films. Being a big Deadend/Eastside/Bowery Boys fan, I would have loved to have seen this. Not bad music either. "Road To Zanzibar", "You're Dangerous", and "It's Always You", are all very listenable songs, but none of the songs from this film charted. This would not happen to a "Road" film again until "Road to Bali". Dorothy Lamour sang "You're Dangerous" in the film, but although she had a few nice songs to sing in various "Road" films, her only 5 chart records were from 1937 to 1939, before any "Road" film. Bing usually recorded any songs Dorothy sang in the film, I guess because she recorded for other than Decca labels. My two favorite scenes in the film are when Bing and Bob think Dorothy was killed by leopards, and bury her clothes, while she watches from behind bushes in a nearby pool, where she was bathing. The other is when Bing and Bob stumble into the jungle drum hut and try to send a message that they are lost. This is another on screen opportunity for Bing to display his drumming technique. The films hints at antics to come in future "Road" films. When their first patty cake is foiled, one of them says "He must have seen the picture". Then there is the gorilla that can wrestle like Argentina Rocca, and blows out matches. And the orchestra music from the river, which was very tongue-in-cheek. I walked in during the screening of this film at the Lincoln Center and was amazed at how funny, people, who apparently never saw the film before, thought it was. If that isn't proof that these films are timeless in their appeal and humor, I don't know what is. Like all of the early "Road films, this is just a jewel. |
| Sue Horn |
posted 10/15/05 12:07 PM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
Jim, I'm with you. This is the first Road pic I ever saw, and it is still my favorite because of that. I love how Bing and Bob interact, and Dottie was still a beuty here. My sisters and I ended up having quite a few brawls between the ages of 4-8 after seeing this one because we'd innocently start playing "Patty-Cake" and then punch any unsuspecting sister who happened to be nearby. My dad, the biggest Bing fan in the Horn household, would have to pull apart the sobbing long-haired little bodies and remind us that we shouldn't play like that, even if Bob and Bing did. Memories!! |