At their best, the Marx Brothers were comedic anarchists who directed their chaos towards any poor saps who just so happened to be in their general vicinity. Watching David Butler's Road to Morocco, I was fascinated with how the legendary team of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope seemed to echo that similar sense of anarchy: lightning-fast dialogue inundated with puns and wordplay, physical sight-gag routines, and a kind of stream-of-consciousness approach to comedy. But if the Marx Brothers directed their anarchy towards other people, Bing and Bob directed their anarchy towards each other. Stranded in the Middle East, Bing sells Bob into slavery in order to pay for a meal. Bob is then purchased by a princess who wants to marry him. But Bing is infuriated by Bob's good luck, so he tries to ruin the marriage. And so on and so forth. I had never seen a Bing and Bob road movie before and Road to Morocco didn't disappoint. The film is unfortunately full of very offensive stereotypes. I'm aware that the film was designed to be a parody of similar adventure films being churned out by Hollywood at the time, but a stereotype is a stereotype. But if one can stomach the plethora of political incorrectness, one will be amazed by one of the best comedies ever made by one of the greatest comedic duos in American cinematic history.
9/10
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