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In another version, Dorthoy Lamour claims in her book My Side of the Road that she said to the script writers “I had just been joking with Hope and Crosby and that if they could only come up with a story involving two crazy guys and a ‘gal in the middle’ I would love to play her.” Whatever the origin of the Road to movies, they have roughly the same plot lines - Bob and Bing fight over the affections of Dorothy and in the process they are involved in dangerous situations (usually of their own making) that take place in exotic locations. As an experienced film actress Dorothy found it frustrating working with Bob and Bing because they often deviated from the script and made-up funny scenes and situations as they went along. Bob also employed his legendary team of gag writers to add one-liners to the script. This made life difficult for the rest of the cast and for the director, but this spontaneity and the chemistry between the three main actors works on screen. All the films have several musical numbers, and they are said to have created the ‘buddy’ film genre. The films constantly make references to other films or to previous Road to... adventures. In this Universal box set you get: Road to Singapore (Dir. Victor Schertzinger, 1940) Road to Zanzibar (Dir. Victor Schertzinger, 1941) Road to Morocco (Dir. David Butler, 1942) Road to Utopia (Dir. Dir. Hal Walker, 1945) They use newly restored prints, which makes the pictures look as good as new. Road to Morocco is regarded by fans as the best in the series, but Bob regarded Road to Zanzibar as the funniest. The DVDs contain collectors artcards of the original theatrical posters; notes by film historian Ken Barnes and a 30-minute feature Hollywood Victory Caravan.
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