Wednesday - Movies
The Age
Thursday June 19, 2008
Road to Utopia (1946)
ABC1, 1.25amBing Crosby, Bob Hope and the always game Dorothy Lamour made seven Road to movies and, thanks to the indiscriminate programmingpolicies of GMV-6 in Shepparton, I saw all of them by the grand age of 12. Directed by a succession of journeymen, the films had a simple format that was soon familiar to audiences: Crosby and Hope played a pair of artful dodgers invariably looking to relocate to good fortune, but barely arriving because of stumbling into trouble that was usually tagged with Lamour's exotic visage. No matter what the destination, they were shot in studios, half a dozen forgettable songs were mainly sung by Crosby, the two men improvised and Hope invariably provided commentary to the audience. Strangely enough, Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's movies go to a lot of trouble to allow George Clooney and Brad Pitt to riff off each other in the same knowing way, which makes you appreciate how clever the concept was in a supposedly rigid era. Given that it's a quarter-of-a-century since I've watched this, details are a little hazy, but don't be surprised if someone dresses like an Eskimo (Utopia is the Alaskan gold rush) or if Crosby makes a gag about Hope's lack of an Oscar. -- CRAIG MATHIESON
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