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Road to Hong Kong

The Road to Hong Kong on DVD

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby teamed up yet again in this 1962 outing that sees Chester (Hope) and Harry (Crosby) head to Tibet to find a special drug that’ll restore Chester’s lost memory.

They do, but that’s only the beginning of their adventures as they end up leaving Earth entirely, heading into space.

The story’s okay, though the producers apparently didn’t seem to think it was strong enough and so stuck in some Very Famous Stars making cameos.

Besides being Vaudevillians, Harry and Chester are also con artists who, at film’s opening, are about to unveil their newest scam: a rocket space suit-type thing. When their “test pilot” backs out, Chester straps it on.

In the hospital, where Chester's recovering from the experiment, Harry discovers that Chester has also lost his memory. He can’t even remember what girls are and what he did with them, nor (less importantly to him) can he remember his name. Harry, for once, feels terrible and takes tries to help Chester - which leads them to the Tibetan Monastery where a special herb brings back Chester’s memory.

Meanwhile, we need a love interest and this time instead of her being Dorothy Lamour (who has a small part near the end) it’s Joan Collins as Diane, agent for a group called the third Echelon. She thinks Chester is supposed to be her contact and gives him a secret physics formula that’s designed to send a rocket into space. Apparently, her group wants to beat both the Soviets and the Americans into space so they can threaten to drop bombs on them if they don’t accept their rule.

The Road to Hong Kong was made some twenty two years after Hope and Crosby kicked off the “Road” series and in some ways its "sci fi" aspects feel like other “classic comedy team” moviessuch as Abbott and Costello Go to Mars. It’s more “state of the art” than the earlier Road movies, therefore, and that’s fine.

Hope and Crosby are comfortable in their roles and Collins does a pretty good job substituting for Lamour. The cameos are also enjoyable, though the last one (featuring a pair of Hollywood giants) is more than a tad lame.

Still, it’s a Road movie in the tradition of the others, and that can’t be a bad thing now, can it?

The DVD is presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.66:1, but it isn’t anamorphic so we had to use the zoom setting on our 16x9 TV. Despite that, the black and white picture (we wonder why they didn’t use color for this outing) is very good. Audio is Dolby Digital mono and it’s fine for what it is.

The only extra, unfortunately, is the theatrical trailer.

Panama and Frank’s The Road to Hong Kong, from MGM Home Video
92 min. widescreen letterboxed (1.66:1), not 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital mono
Starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Joan Collins, Dorothy Lamour, Robert Morley
Produced by Melvin Frank
Written by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, Directed by Norman Panama

 

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Updated May 13, 2006