Ten years after Road to Bali, Hope and Crosby made a belated farewell with this movie, much like Indy returning in Crystal Skulls I suppose.
I ordered this out of perverse curiosity. It starts off badly, with the pair caught up in some space rocket over the moon escapade which makes them men out of their time, a bit like Indy in the last one. It signifies it's the end of an era. Crosby looks old, he has the irascible, slightly scary look he took on in later years - his nonchalant, butter wouldn't melt expression is long gone so when he stitches up Hope it seems a bit sinister. Hope is older too and looks like a right-wing Republican of the Tricky Dicky era. Both could appear in more serious, credible movies (China Syndrome type stuff) as villainous types, you feel. Joan Collins shows up early on to offer up a flashback with her harpy narration.
It does get better, however, and for a film released in 1962, the same year as Doctor No, there are plenty of Bond connections. I enjoyed the zany credits and found they were done by one Maurice Binder. Walter Gotell turns up as an evil scientist, one year before his turn as Morzeny in From Russia With Love. Casino Royale's Peter Sellers and David Niven make cameos - Niven's is 10 seconds long, Sellers reprises his Indian doctor to not very humorous effect, save some goonish fun with a snake in a basket. The same year as Dr No we see the villain (played by Robert Morley) has an underwater lair with windows looking out onto sharks, which makes Hope gulp and grab his partner's lapels. Morley ends up with some Hugo Drax-like plan from Moonraker to exterminate 'the unemployed, the great unwashed' from space, a venture one can't help thinking the older, crankier comedians might have some secret sympathy with.
The finale is quite mad and risqué, with the pair winding up alone in an unlikely destination with Joan Collins , whom they agree to share carnally in a way that bizarrely anticipates her later roles in The Stud and its sequel, some 10 years later, thankfully the cringeyness is broken by another pair of welcome star cameos.
Not the best Road to... film but not really that bad either. Hope's mugging to the camera provides much of the comic energy.
I ordered this out of perverse curiosity. It starts off badly, with the pair caught up in some space rocket over the moon escapade which makes them men out of their time, a bit like Indy in the last one. It signifies it's the end of an era. Crosby looks old, he has the irascible, slightly scary look he took on in later years - his nonchalant, butter wouldn't melt expression is long gone so when he stitches up Hope it seems a bit sinister. Hope is older too and looks like a right-wing Republican of the Tricky Dicky era. Both could appear in more serious, credible movies (China Syndrome type stuff) as villainous types, you feel. Joan Collins shows up early on to offer up a flashback with her harpy narration.
It does get better, however, and for a film released in 1962, the same year as Doctor No, there are plenty of Bond connections. I enjoyed the zany credits and found they were done by one Maurice Binder. Walter Gotell turns up as an evil scientist, one year before his turn as Morzeny in From Russia With Love. Casino Royale's Peter Sellers and David Niven make cameos - Niven's is 10 seconds long, Sellers reprises his Indian doctor to not very humorous effect, save some goonish fun with a snake in a basket. The same year as Dr No we see the villain (played by Robert Morley) has an underwater lair with windows looking out onto sharks, which makes Hope gulp and grab his partner's lapels. Morley ends up with some Hugo Drax-like plan from Moonraker to exterminate 'the unemployed, the great unwashed' from space, a venture one can't help thinking the older, crankier comedians might have some secret sympathy with.
The finale is quite mad and risqué, with the pair winding up alone in an unlikely destination with Joan Collins , whom they agree to share carnally in a way that bizarrely anticipates her later roles in The Stud and its sequel, some 10 years later, thankfully the cringeyness is broken by another pair of welcome star cameos.
Not the best Road to... film but not really that bad either. Hope's mugging to the camera provides much of the comic energy.