January for comedies

American Centre weekly film screening will feature comedies throughout the month of January. Directed by David Butler, 1942 film ‘Road to Morocco’ will be screened on January 8, Tuesday at 6 pm. Starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope , Dorothy Lamour and Anthony Quinn , the comedy film which tells the story of two fast-talking guys who find themselves tossed up on a desert shore and sold into slavery to a beautiful princess.

Having accidentally caused a merchant ship to blow up, stowaways Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are shipwrecked on the African coast. Commandeering a convenient camel (who takes time to ad-lib a spit in Hope's eye!), Bob and Bing are off on the road to Morocco, an event they celebrate in song. With nary a penny in their pockets, the boys try various methods to scare up a meal. Old reliable Bing shows up with the necessary funds; when Bob asks where the money came from, Bing calmly informs his pal that he's been sold into slavery. Bob is dragged off to parts unknown; later, Bing, his conscience bothering him, scours the town in search of his buddy.

He stumbles into a luxurious palace, where Bob is being treated like a rajah. Even more puzzling, Bob is being kissed and cosseted by Moroccan-princess Dorothy Lamour, who announces plans to marry him in a few days! Neither Bing nor Bob can figure this out, but the audience knows that Dorothy has been advised by her astrologers that her first husband will suffer a violent death, and that her second marriage will be long and happy. Since Dorothy is affianced to desert sheik Anthony Quinn, ol' buddy Bob is once more set up as a dead duck.

But Dorothy finds herself attracted to Bing, and forgets all about her pre-arranged marriage to Quinn (just as well, since Quinn is the heavy of the piece). On the eve of the wedding, the astrologers find they've made a mistake, and that Dorothy is now free to marry the man of her dreams-who, by this time, is Bing. Bob must console himself with handmaiden Dona Drake, who's some looker herself. As the wedding procession proceeds, Quinn comes riding into town, kidnaps Dorothy, and leaves Bob and Bing trussed up in the desert.