Product Details

• Actors: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Hillary Brooke, Douglass Dumbrille
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (PCM Mono)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: October 21, 1998
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305089078
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,801 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Road to Utopia" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

I feel sorry for people who can't appreciate Hope and Crosby "road" pictures. This is the fourth in the series, and has the boys masquerading as the killers Sperry and McGurk, from whom they've stolen the map to a gold mine, but which really belongs to Dorothy Lamour, but which... and you know it really doesn't matter anyway. The point is they've got this thin plot on which to hang a series of hit-and-miss jokes, coming fast enough to make it just all right and a certain amount of time to see who gets Dorothy Lamour, while maintaining their fierce and friendly and wisecracking rivalry. They're in the Klondike this time around, which doesn't stop the film from working in a glimpse of Dorothy in her sarong. Along the way, animals talk, including the humorist Robert Benchley, whose thoroughly dispensable introduction and running commentary I wouldn't dispense with for anything. This is arguably the goofiest of the road pictures. My favorite joke is when Bob is bested in fishing with Bing. Bob remarks, "My worm must have B.O." Bing comes back with "Couldn't B.U." You may not care where you're going, just as long as you're with them. Put it there, pal, put it there. --Jim Gay

Product Description

Two men get caught up in a race to stake their claim to a Klondike gold mine after nabbing the deed from a couple of vicious killers and assuming their identities. But then the beautiful and ambitious Sal puts the make on them.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope and Crosby in one of the best of the Road series, March 15, 2001

By 

C. Roberts "movie buff" (Halifax, Yorkshire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Road to Utopia [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour made seven "Road" films in total and all were great entertainment and worth seeing (except perhaps for their last one "The Road to Hong Kong" (1962) which was something of a disappointment and not up to the standards of the earlier films). However, "Road to Utopia" in my opinion was one of the best and has not become dated over the years. The film is very fast moving with gag following gag, talking animals, Bob Hope's remarks to the camera, and even has comedian Robert Benchley interrupting proceedings to give a running commentary on the film as it progresses! Dorothy Lamour provides the glamour and adds a song or two.

Duke Johnson (Bing Crosby) and Chester Hooton (Bob Hope) are struggling entertainers down on their luck who travel to Alaska. Killers Sperry and McGurk steal a vital map showing the location of a gold mine. Our two heroes manage to obtain the map and decide to impersonate Sperry and McGurk which leads them into more trouble than they could have imagined. Along the way they meet saloon singer Sal Van Hoyden (Dorothy Lamour) and as usual both men compete for her charms. With the real Sperry and McGurk hot on their trail plus other assorted villains after them Hope and Crosby get into many tight corners but they still find time for some great songs along the way including "Put It There Pal" which is a typical Hope-Crosby number.

Some favourite lines from the film:

Bob Hope (to Bing Crosby): "I didn't think there was one more way to get the cops after us but you found it!".

Hope (to Crosby): "Next time I'll bring Sinatra". (When Crosby loses a talent contest on board ship).

Hope (to Crosby): "It may be a mountain to you but it's bread and butter to me!".

Hope (to Douglass Dumbrille): "I'll take a lemonade .... in a dirty glass".

I have always been a big fan of Bob Hope and as a young schoolboy and then later as a teenager I used to wait eagerly with anticipation for each new Bob Hope picture to arrive at our local cinema. They didn't always come up to expectations but if it was a "Road" film then I was pretty sure that it would be O.K. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were two of the biggest stars to come out of Hollywood in the 30's and 40's and although the "Road" films never won any "Oscars" they certainly brought an enormous amount of pleasure to a lot of people during that time and can still be enjoyed today.

BOOKS. For a more detailed look at the "Road" series of films take a look at a fascinating book by Randall G. Mielke entitled "The Road to Box Office: the Seven Film Comedies of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, 1940-1962".

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who'd Be Selling Fish At This Hour?, August 25, 2001

By 

El Kabong - See all my reviews

This review is from: Road to Utopia (DVD)

This is hardly an original insight, but anyone who dismisses Bob Hope as the tiresome, unfunny comic from those dreadful 1960s 'comedies' he appeared in is missing out on a real national treasure - his films up to around 1952 are hysterically funny, and his ROAD entries with cohorts Crosby and Lamour are among the best of 'em. Hope, along with the brilliant Preston Sturges, had restored Paramount to the comedy throne they'd occupied in the early 30s; from the lavish budget and attention to period detail throughout UTOPIA, it's obvious that the studio was not ungrateful. For my money, ROAD TO UTOPIA is the funniest film he ever made (though there are half-a-dozen others close on its heels). As in all ROAD movies, the engine powering the vehicle was the lightning-quick banter between the two leads; Crosby smooth as snake-oil, Hope perpetually suspicious and cowardly. And with excellent reason - no straight man ever victimized a foil the way Bing routinely does to Bob. ROAD movies always threaded their satires of B-movie plots (this one spoofing Robert W Service-style frozen-North melodrama) with plenty of topical humor, much of it capitalizing on the fans' awareness of the stars' personal foibles (Crosby's rivalry with Sinatra, his investments in thoroughbreds, Hope's disastrous box-office returns in LET'S FACE IT), and there's a goodly amount of what's now referred to as 'breaking the fourth wall' (they talk directly to the audience at varying points). What elevates UTOPIA just over the others is the sky-high breezy confidence of everyone involved this go-around. The cast and crew, coming off ROAD TO MOROCCO, were on a roll and knew it, and they ride that momentum for all it's worth (Hope's constant kibitzing is particularly hilarious). Der Bingle gets to groan a couple of subpar songs (as opposed to MOROCCO's highlights - 'Ho Hum' and 'Moonlight Becomes You' - this outing's 'It's Anybody's Spring' and 'Welcome To My Dream' are instantly forgettable) but the team's 'Put It There, Pal' is infectious fun and Miss Lamour's 'Personality' is sexy and sprightly. A further note on Lamour - she's luxuriously beautiful here, an ice-cream sundae with curves (why she's never ranked with the decade's top screen sirens is unfathomable: she's every bit the looker that Lake, Grable, Hayworth & Sheridan were, and a better singer besides). My apologies for not quoting any of the zingers from the script, but there are just too many of them to play favorites with. ROAD TO UTOPIA is well worth the effort it'll take you to track down; get cracking.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surrealism, songs, slapstick- a fantastically funny flick!, March 9, 2002

By 

Brendan Roberts "Aussie boy" (GEELONG, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Road to Utopia (DVD)

Classic 1946 comedy "Road to Utopia", the 4th in the "Road" series, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. After their Morocco jaunt in 1942, Crosby, Hope and Lamour spent four years making their separate successes, before rejoining to go back in time on an anachronistic Alaskan adventure in "Road to Utopia", a film that was nominated for a "Best Original Screenplay" Oscar and which is even crazier than its predecessor, with a talking fish taking over from Morocco's comical camel, the addition of narrator Robert Benchley and an ending so outrageous it's a wonder they managed to sneak it past the censor! The Johnny Burke-Jimmy Van Huesen score includes "Put it There, Pal", "Good Time Charlie" and "Personality". Surrealism, songs, slapstick- a fantastically funny flick and an essential for fans of Hope, Crosby, Lamour or crazy comedy in general. An American classic!