Songs: "The Merry Go Runaround" (Hope, Crosby, Lamour); "Chicago Style" (Hope, Crosby); "Hoot-Mon" (Hope, Crosby); "To See You" (Crosby, reprized Crosby); "Moonflowers" (Lamour); "Two Little Lambs" (Hope, Crosby). All songs except "Two Little Lambs" by James Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics). Music director: Joseph J. Lilley. Special orchestral arrangements: Van Cleave. Musical numbers staged by Charles O'Curran.Copyright 1 January 1953 by Bing Crosby Enterprises, Inc., and Hope Enterprises, Inc. Released worldwide through Paramount Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Astor: 29 January 1953. U.S. release: January 1953. U.K. release: 29 December 1952 (sic). Australian release: 18 December 1953 (sic). Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 28 November 1953 (ran eight weeks). 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Two vaudevillians are hired as deep sea divers by a South Seas island prince. NOTES: Third to Shane and Roman Holiday as Paramount's top-grossing domestic release of 1952-53. Second to Knock On Wood as Paramount's top-grossing Australian release of 1954. Sixth of the seven Road pictures. COMMENT: The first Road movie in color was a box-office hit in its day, despite lukewarm reviews. It holds up rather well despite a rather lackluster climax in which the scriptwriters run out of ideas. The notion seems to have been to spoof such films as Bird of Paradise and Lamour's own "Aloma of the South Seas", but the quips which had been flowing thick and fast unaccountably dry up about twenty minutes from the fade-out. Mind you, it's all rather lavishly and colorfully staged and the jests do resume with "The End" title which Hope vainly tries to delay as Crosby walks away with both Lamour and Russell. Otherwise the boys are in fine fettle and those who enjoy their mutual banter, plus a host of topical allusions, plus guest appearances by Jane Russell (stunningly costumed), briefly Jerry Lewis as "Lalah" partnered by Dean Martin, a spot by Bob Crosby (which alas falls flat due to pedestrian staging) and a clip of Humphrey Bogart from The African Queen, will have a grand time on this Road to Bali. The songs are mighty pleasant too. OTHER VIEWS: Top-class entertainment. Whilst the humor isn't quite as crazy as in some previous Road films and the direction is not as skillful (a few of the jests fall flat owing to far too casual staging), most customers will find the lush Technicolor production values more than take up any slack in the script. Crosby, Hope and Lamour make their usual frolicsome team. The villains led by deep- eyed, deep-voiced Murvyn Vye as Prince Ken Arok, are a rather jolly crew.

The Road Series, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour, peaked during the war years. Thereafter, only a few more were made, at multi-year intervals. This one, released in -52, followed "The Road to Rio" released in '47. The Bali film was the only one filmed in Technicolor instead of B&W. Like "The Road to Singapore", the story supposedly mostly takes place on an Indonesian island. And like that film, they never make it to their titled destination. Dorothy had starred in in several other films supposedly sited in the South Seas or other exotic locations, even though she didn't look exotic.As usual, it features a couple of ne'er-do-well drifters, who have been surviving by occasional gigs in bands playing trumpet or clarinet, or by putting on vaudeville-like shows. They have to exit Melbourne, Aus. quickly to escape a couple of angry fathers and their daughters. They love women, but not for keeps. Unfortunately, they are also hounded on the train to Darwin, on the opposite side of Australia, so have to quickly exit the train. Some time later, they arrive in Darwin sporting long beards, which quickly vanish. They get a job diving for sunken treasure near the Indonesian island of Batu, where they meet Princess Lala(Dorothy Lamour), who warns them this is a suicidal venture, as the last 4 applicants disappeared into the ocean. Nonetheless, Hope: the diver, finds the lost treasure and barely survives a wresting match with a giant squid. "Grab the loot and Scoot" says Bing. But their employer wants to hog all they jewels, even tough, they rightfully belong to Princess Lala. The squid takes care of him, and the 3 motor on toward Bali. But, their trip is cut short when they hit a reef, sinking their boat. They survive to find themselves on a small island, where there are tigers, elephants and rust-colored gorillas, along with many natives and their chief and an Indian King: Ramayana, who demands that Princess Lala marry him, though he already has several wives. But she loves Bing and Hope, not the king. The rest of the film deals mainly with the question of whom the princess will marry.Of course, there are various geographical or cultural absurdities. There is a Batu group of small Indonesian Islands, but its located off the west coast of Sumatra: hardly on the way to Bali, which is the only Indonesian island with a dominant Hindu cultural heritage. The very impressive gold headpieces sometimes worn by some of the dancers or by the princess, are characteristic of Thailand, but not of Balinese nor Indian Hindus. Tigers and elephants occur in some Indonesian locations, but not likely on a small island. Gorillas, of course are far from their native habitat. The rusty-colored beasts look like a cross between orangutans and gorillas. The kids, especially, will be impressed by the monstrous-looking headpieces worn by Bing , Bob and the officials, at times.Note" Jane Russell, who appears for a moment at the end, had costarred with Hope in "The Paleface" and "The Son of Paleface".I'm somewhat surprised the censors didn't nix the supposed marriage of Bing to Hope.

If you've never seen one of the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope "Road" pictures, then you shouldn't miss this one. Of course, if you've managed to miss all the others, it means either that you don't like movies or that you're young -- very young.There's nothing wrong with being young, aside from the fact that you're dominated by the sea of hormones your internal organs swim in, you're beset by curious and unbidden throbs, and that you go around uttering hoarse, goaty cries. It's just that, in watching this funny comedy, you're likely to miss some of the topical jokes.And, let's face facts, 1952, when this movie was released, is not 1941, when the first "Road" picture appeared, "The Road to Singapore," which served as a kind of plot-heavy notochord that provided the spine for the string of highly amusing sequels that appeared over the next five or six years -- roads to Zanzibar, Morroco, Rio and Utopia.By 1952, the formula had about played itself out. The two leads are as full of zest and spontaneity as always, they don't look much older, Dorothy Lamour is as pleasant a presence as ever, and the musical numbers are as catchy as usual, written by the same team, but the gags are repetitive and less fresh.It's worth catching, especially, as I say, if you're new to the genre. You may skip the geriatric antics of "The Road to Hong Kong."

For some reason, this particular Road movie was on television more often than the others when I was a kid, and my sister and I used to crack up at the loony gags and sheer silliness of the picture. We were especially amused by the bit where the high priest asks the " God of the Sleeping Volcano" if he approves of the impending marriage between beautiful native princess Dorothy Lamour and the lecherous old king, and the volcano erupts with fire while a deep voice belches "NO!" The movie is practically nothing but a series of blackout sketches, ad-libs and in jokes, set against vividly colored backgrounds of islands, ancient temples, the sea, and jungles. The whole thing seems almost like a series of improvisations made up as they went along, after hours in a comedy club. There's just enough plot to move things along, some nice musical numbers, and a winking, nudging attitude toward the audience, best exemplified by a scene where romantic music starts playing and Hope turns to the audience and says, " He's gonna sing, folks, now would be a good time to go get the popcorn", and proceeds to put cotton in his ears as Crosby begins to serenade Lamour.Road to Bali may be dated and corny, but it was meant to be just silly fun even when it was new. Maybe not the best of the Road pictures, but plenty of fun, anyway.