Road to Zanzibar

Chuck and his pal Fearless run out of money while putting on a show in Africa and cannot afford a ticket home. Two women turn up: one of them pretends to have been sold at a slave market and asks for help. The two men fall for it. After that comes a safari, an encounter with local people, a wrestle with a gorilla, and nobody telling anybody the truth. The women have a game of their own going, just as the men do. This is the second of the seven Road films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. The mould is simple: two men wash up somewhere, Dorothy Lamour appears, they compete over her, songs are sung, and now and then the characters talk straight to the audience to remind them the film is a film. The series was a great hit in America in the forties. Looked at from now, the way it draws Africa and the people there carries the habits of the period and sits uncomfortably.