Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

dougdoepke Delightful nonsense that kicked off the whole Road series. The songs and their staging are especially charming and fit right into the nonsense— where else, for example, can you catch such non- perennials as 'Captain Custard' and 'Sweet Potato Piper'. Plus that jungle chant along with the bevy of half-clad native girls is about the sexiest thing on film. Of course, Bing and Bob keep the chuckles coming without half trying. Their chemistry is just superb. Seems Bing's the son of a wealthy hard-driving businessman (Coburn) who wants Bing to eventually take over. Trouble is Bing and his buddy Bob just want to be regular guys (read typical 1930's concern for the 'common man'.) So, with Dorothy, they escape to Singapore. But Dad's hot on their trail. Meanwhile, the guys get to sample native life, while Dorothy's on the spot trying to choose between them. Quinn's role as an Apache dancer with a whip is colorful but incidental. My only gripe is with "comedian" Colonna. His ear-piercing screeches are anything but amusing. In fact, I don't know what they're supposed to be.Anyway, the boys put a whole new slant on the kid's rhyme 'Patty Cake, Patty Cake'. So if you hear it, duck! All in all, Paramount came up with a great slice of amusing nonsense, with a trio that still delights.

Neil Doyle ROAD TO SINGAPORE owes more to the charisma of its three stars--BING CROSBY, BOB HOPE and DOROTHY LAMOUR, for its success than it does to the silly script that has the boys meeting singer Lamour in a nightclub and taking her away from the clutches of villainous ANTHONY QUINN.The boys soon have Lamour keeping house for them and of course she falls in love with one of them--guess who? That's about it for the plot, with a few pleasant song interludes thrown in for the sake of singers Crosby and Lamour.For fans of this series, Dorothy Lamour never looked more fetching and shows a good flair for comedy while playing straight for comic Hope and casual Bing. There's nothing special here to make it one of the more memorable "Road" films--indeed, it's rather slow in getting started and takes awhile to make the proceedings look as amiable as they become, thanks to the interplay between the three stars.Better "Road" films were sure to follow, since this became one of Paramount's most popular films in 1940.

writers_reign Victor Schlesinger, who also helmed the second movie in the franchise, Zanzibar, may well have directed all the Road films had he not died tragically young (51) after helming The Fleet's In. Had he done so the franchise may have had more variable scores inasmuch as Schertzinger was one of a handful of film directors (another was Edmund Goulding) who also composed notable songs for their films - and Schertzinger went out in style given that the songs he wrote, with lyricist Johnny Mercer, for The Fleet's In, were some of the finest in the history of the movie musical. In 1939 no one was thinking franchise, in fact no one was thinking beyond a one-off entry pairing Hope and Crosby - who often cross-talked their way to their respective Sound Stages on the Paramount lot, and throwing Dorothy Lamour into the mix as love interest. The one-off aspect accounts for the fact that for the only time in the franchise Bing is given a solid background - in all the others both the boys are just THERE, usually performers of some kind doubling as flimmers but with no history whatsoever - as the Fifth in a dynastic line of ship owners but even then he has already teamed up with Hope from frame 1 and significantly Hope has no background. Schertzinger supplied the music for two of the five numbers - with series lyricist Johnny Burke - the duet Captain Custard and Lamour's solo The Moon And The Willow Tree but the standout ballad proved to be Too Romantic with music by James V. Monaco, then just coming to the end of a partnership with Burke. Anthony Quinn and Jerry Colonna, who would both feature in later 'roads' (Morocco and Rio respectively) were on hand and the banter between Hope and Crosby was in place but the 'realistic' aspect - Crosby is the despair of his family by preferring work to play, not a million miles away from William Holden's David Larrabee in Billy Wilder's Sabrina Fair, also a Paramount release - tends to impair the free-flowing zanyness of the rest of the franchise. Overall a modest entertainment that paved the way for several superior entries.

bob the moo Fleeing misadventures with girls once again, two playboys escape from women (in particular an arranged marriage for Josh Mallon by his shipping magnate father). However when they arrive in Singapore they meet Mima. A first the two use her for free labour, then they want their freedom from a woman but then they realise that they both want some time with her and compete for her affections.The first of the successful Road movies is the foundation on which the others were build, basically meaning that this is straight to formula without the shine and added touches that we got with the middle movies (before they just got silly towards the end). The plot is stronger as a result but it does feel a little ordinary in comparison to some of their later hi-jinx. However the film is weakened by far too many musical numbers, I don't mind about 2 or even 3 but here it was pushing up to about 5+ in a 80 minute run time. While these do give the film a more general entertainment value I prefer the out and out comedy of Hope and Crosby and the songs took away from that.This is not to say it isn't funny, but just that the duo seem to be finding their feet still. The jokes are good and the banter is sharp without being too knowing. Crosby plays the playboy very well and Hope is more controlled than usual – he is actually operating within the bounds of the film and not doing any knowing gags. This is a bit of a surprise for me as I'm used to hope being bigger than the film and interacting with the audience, but I still enjoyed it, he even worked better in the serious parts. Lamour is more understated than later films but it is strange to see a woman so clearly white portraying a woman supposed to be of ethnic origin – but I guess that's the period.Overall this is an enjoyable film but not the Road series at it's best. Instead this is the birth of the series and the formula is in place with a solid plot and songs, personally I preferred the middle movies where they let rip with the comedy a bit more but not to the point of silliness.