Road to Zanzibar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Road to Zanzibar

1941 movie poster
Directed by Victor Schertzinger
Produced by Paul Jones
Written by Frank Butler &
Don Hartman
from a story by
Sy Bartlett &
Frank Butler
Starring Bing Crosby
Bob Hope
Dorothy Lamour
Una Merkel
Music by Victor Young
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) April 11, 1941
Running time 91 min
Country U.S.
Language English
Preceded by Road to Singapore
Followed by Road to Morocco
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Road to Zanzibar is a 1941 Paramount Pictures comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour, and marked the second picture in the popular "Road to..." series made by the trio.

Paramount executives owned the rights to a story by Sy Bartlett entitled "Find Colonel Fawcett" about two men trekking through the jungles of Madagascar. They felt that its plot was so similar to the recently released Stanley and Livingstone (1939) that it could not be made as written without seeming too derivative, so they turned the project over to Frank Butler and Don Hartman, the writers on the wildly successful Road to Singapore which Paramount had released the year before. Thus reborn as a comedy and spoof of the safari genre, the film resembled its predecessor in every important way, with plot taking a back seat to gags (many of them ad libbed), and music. The film was so successful that further "Road to..." pictures were assured. Now in public domain[1].

[edit] Songs

  • "You Lucky People, You", performed by Bing Crosby
  • "African Etude / Road To Zanzibar", performed by Bing Crosby and a chorus while on safari
  • "You're Dangerous", by Dorothy Lamour
  • "It's Always You", by Bing Crosby

All lyrics by Johnny Burke, and music by Jimmy Van Heusen.

[edit] References

Strait, Raymond, Bob Hope: A Tribute. New York:Pinnacle Books, 2003.

[edit] External links

Road to... refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as "Road pictures."



Languages