It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Hope and Crosby are two childhood fighting pals, first on a raft at sea, then reaching a desert shore. A camel finds them and they ride to Morocco. With no money, Crosby sells Hope into slavery (without the latter's knowledge), only to find him with the local princess, who he now wants for herself. Rivalry and treachery ensue.Yes, the movie is old, silly escapist entertainment for a worried wartime audience, but still works today thanks to broad if crazy humor and great performances by the leads, who also take jibes at their employers and government censors without overdoing it. Classic songs also make the experience enjoyable.

You can't go into a viewing of any Hope and Crosby picture expecting a strong story or plot,nor should you expect the acting to be great.Bob Hope's true strength was stand up comedy,not acting,and I think he knew that.That's why we only saw him in roles where he could be pretty much rely on his stand up skills.Bing Crosby,on the other hand,had a knack for acting even though he was primarily a singer.In fact,his knack won him an Oscar two years after he did this film,so you know he took it seriously.Since Hope's acting skills were not strong,I thing that Bing saw these films they did together as a chance to relax and have a little fun,and to take a break from the seriousness of the acting profession.Despite their contrasting talents,there is no denying the great chemistry that existed between the pair,which makes Road to Morocco fun to watch.Also,if I may add,Dorothy Lamour and Dona Drake are also fun to watch,but for a different reason.I suppose that's just the typical male in me talking. ;-)

ROAD TO MOROCCO (Paramount, 1942), directed by David Butler, the third installment of the seven journeys made by the famous trio of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, finds them in their wildest adventure of them all. Capitalizing on the current trend of "Arabian Nights" fantasies as Alexander Korda's THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (United Artists, 1940), featuring Sabu, and ARABIAN NIGHTS (Universal, 1942) that paved the way for a series of similar adventures teaming Maria Montez and Jon Hall, ROAD TO MOROCCO makes every attempt in spoofing every one of them, especially itself, and getting away with it in the process.The story gets right down to basics with the explosion of an ocean freighter which finds all passengers safely accounted for with the exception of two unidentified stowaways, Jeffrey Peters (Bing Crosby) and Orville "Turkey" Jackson (Bob Hope), seen floating together in the Mediterranean on a raft. They end up on shore where the carefree bachelors ride a camel that takes them to the city of Morocco. Unable to pay for their large meal they've eaten at a restaurant, Jeff meets up with a Arabian (Dan Seymour) who offers him six hundred "kolaks." Using that to pay off the meal, Orville wonders what Jeff did to acquire so much money. He soon discovers that he's been sold as he's suddenly being taken away by two strong armed men. Later that night, Jeff is awaken from his sleep by the ghost of Orville's Aunt Lucy (Bob Hope in drag) who orders him to get Orville back. Soon thereafter, Jeff searches about and locates his pal in the palace of Shalmar being "tortured" by a handful of beautiful maidens and in the arms of Princess Shalmar (Dorothy Lamour), royalty in an Arab kingdom. As Jeff attempts to break into Orville's territory by wooing the princess, he eventually learns as to why Orville was selected to become Shalmar's proposed husband. Complications ensue by the arrival Mullay Kasim (Anthony Quinn), a cruel desert chief out to claim Shalmar as his own, and having quite a time doing it.Other members of the harem consists of Dona Drake (Mirirmah); Vladimir Sokoloff (Hyder Khan, the astrologer who looks into the stars for Shalmar's future); George Givot (Ned Jolla); and Yvonne DeCarlo, uncredited as one of the handmaidens. Anthony Quinn, who co-starred in the initial film, ROAD TO SINGAPORE (1940), returns once more adding to some hilarity as the villainous sheik who falls victim to Crosby and Hope's antics. In tradition to the "Road" series with its selection of comedy routines, song interludes are worked well into the script, composed by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen, including: "The Road to Morocco" (sung by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope); "Ain't Got a Dime to My Name (Ho Hum)" (sung by Bing Crosby); "Constantly" (sung by Dorothy Lamour); "Moonlight Becomes You" (sung by Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour); and "Moonlight Becomes You" (reprised). Hope and Crosby clown around as they each sing the title song, throwing some in-jokes in the process, one of them being, "I lay you eight to five that we'll meet Dorothy Lamour," while Crosby and Lamour take part in what's to become the film's best song, "Moonlight Becomes You," later to be spoofed by the three principal players singing in each other's voices in the soundtrack. If that isn't silly enough, this bona-fide "Road" comedy also consists of talking camels ("This is the screwiest picture I've ever been in" says one, while the other talking like Katharine Hepburn); the traditional Hope and Crosby "paddy cake" routine; as well as Hope's attempt in an Academy Award nomination with his hysterical "No food, no water" outbursts. With a handful from outrageous to awfully silly and outdated routines thrown in this escapist comedy adventure, ROAD TO MOROCCO, which improves over its predecessor of ROAD TO ZANZIBAR (1941), earned two Academy Award nominations, for Best Screenplay and Best Sound Recording, but none for Bob as hoped. Aside from this being the best known and most revived in the series, ROAD TO MOROCCO proved so popular that it's been listed as one of the top 100 best comedies by the American Film Institute. Distributed to home video in the 1990s through MCA Home Entertainment, and later DVD, Cable television revivals were plentiful when ROAD TO MOROCCO was presented on American Movie Classics (1992-2000), and finally on Turner Classic Movies (2004-present). Next adventure, ROAD TO UTOPIA (1945), which is, in many ways, even better and funnier than ROAD TO MOROCCO. Watch it and see why. (*** camels)

I'll give it a two because it has a lot of music, otherwise it would be a one.I saw this movie for the first time tonight and it's the first "Road" picture I've seen. I was expecting waaaaay better. Robert Osborn says this is the best of the Road movies. If that's true I needn't bother to see the others. The best thing about this movie is that it has a lot of songs in the first half, but that's balanced out by only one production number with dancing in the entire movie.I didn't like the movie. Neither Hope nor Crosby came across all that well, their characters weren't very charming, the movie was not funny at all, most of the dialog was just lame filler, there wasn't much action, there wasn't much spectacle.The movie wasn't what I expected. I was expecting more "Road," but there isn't much. They quickly make it to the palace and then most of the movie takes place there, until the end. I was also expecting a lot more of the famous "road" style of breaking the fourth wall, wherein the characters talk directly to the audience or comment on the plot. There was only about 4 instances of that. One of those is an example of the non-funny humor of this script:(Hope recaps the plot up to now to Crosby) Crosby: I know all that! Hope: Yeah but the people that came in half-way through the picture don't. Crosby: You mean they missed my song?Those are two weak punchlines, but at least they are actually jokes. Much of the rest of the script doesn't even have any jokes. An example is: Crosby: Remind me to throw you a piece of cheese in the morning. (Indirectly calling Hope a rat).That's not funny at all, it barely even qualifies as a joke, but that's the kind of non-joke dialog that carries most of the movie. Many of the scenes don't even come that close to a joke, just using generic uninteresting dialog like:Crosby: Hey, whadda ya' take me for? You think that you can just throw me to the dogs? Hope: Well why not, you did it to me didn't you? Crosby: Yeah but that's because I was lookin' out for us. You're not lookin' out for nobody. Hope: Oh yeah? Well then why did I pay the check?(the above is just from my memory. It's not exact but it illustrates to you what I mean).And so on....just generic dialog with no jokes at all.My grade: A waste of time.