After watching The Road to El Dorado (2000) and learning how it borrowed from the buddy musical comedy movies collectively known as the Road to . . . series, starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, I thought I would take a look the source material.  Now that I have seen the first, Road to Singapore (1940), I can see why the comparison was made.  I was about to write that the 1940 production was better, but stopped myself short when I realized I was acting on my bias for older motion pictures.  While the modern animated feature is silly on a number of levels, it is (to say the absolute least) less overtly racist and sexist.  They are pretty close, however.  These features are, sadly, more a function of mid-twentieth century social mores.  What this Catholic reviewer was hoping for is that my fellow congregant in Crosby would have some kind of angle to the Faith that I could discuss.  It appears that if you want that from his acting career, you should watch either Going My Way (1944) or The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945).  For now, let us see if I can find anything to connect with Catholicism from Road to Singapore.

For a film called Road to Singapore, there are a surprising lack of the title conveyances.  Instead, Ace Lannigan (Bob Hope) and his best friend, Josh Mallon V (Bing Crosby), have returned home from a long voyage as deckhands on a merchant vessel.  Before they can depart with their shipmates, Ace is accosted on the ship by a group of men who want him to come with them.  They claim that he must marry their daughter/sister/whatever other relation is involved.  Josh is initially amused by the predicament, but pitches in to help fight Ace’s way out of the room.  I guess it is a slow news day because the ensuing brawl ends up on the front page of the daily paper.  This is bad for Josh because it means his father, Joshua Mallon IV (Charles Coburn), learns of the tussle and his son’s involvement.  The reason this is a big deal is because, in case you have not guessed it based on the sequential names, the Mallons are an important family.  Indeed, they own the shipping line on which we first see Ace and Josh.  The headlines strain an already tense relationship, highlighted by the fact that Josh refers to dad as “Skipper.”  What this captain of industry wants is for his son to settle down with his fiancée, the charming Gloria Wycott (Judith Barrett).  Josh appears to like her, and later that night he is to attend an engagement party aboard the Mallon’s personal yacht.  On the way, Josh’s motorboat happens upon Ace in his own vessel.  Ace is fishing and he has a large swordfish on the line.  It takes them hours to reel it in, and a disheveled pair finally make their way up the gangway to the soiree toting a 400-pound fish.  This and other antics they get up to during the revelry do not impress Gloria or Joshua, and the night ends in another fistfight.  Instead of waiting around for another lecture, Josh sends the Skipper a postcard saying that the heir has absconded with his best friend, bound for the title destination.  They stop on the fictional island of Kaigoon, which I guess is supposed to be somewhere in the vicinity of Bali, and watch as one of the Mallon freighters steams away leaving them behind.  Then and there they make a pact with each other not to let any women upset their determination to lead a bachelor life.  Naturally, in the next scene, they pick up a woman.  She is Mima (Dorothy Lamour), and she is a dancer at the local watering hole.  She does not appear to enjoy her routine, and I cannot blame her.  Her partner, Caesar (Anthony Quinn), uses a whip to control her.  When she makes eyes at Ace and Josh, Caesar takes exception to the gesture and another fight ensues.  In the chaos, Ace and Josh take Mima back to their little waterside hut.  The next morning, they awake to find her gone and what few valuables they have are missing.  They presume Mima has robbed them until she returns with provisions, minus Josh’s watch.  He is upset that the timepiece had been sold, but grateful for the food it bought.  She proceeds to settle in with the two men, cleaning up after them and cooking.  Initially, this behavior strikes them as a threat to their bachelorhood.  Yet, their attempt at getting her to leave is abruptly aborted when they have to rescue her from a vengeful Caesar.  From there, Ace and Josh separately begin to develop feelings for her, doing little things for her to win her favor while also telling her how truly rotten is the other.  Meanwhile, through contacts in Kaigoon, the Skipper learns that Josh is on the island.  Gloria accompanies Joshua across the Pacific Ocean, and they arrive as Ace, Josh, and Mima are attending a local wedding feast.  They are there in time to prevent Josh from inadvertently marrying a local woman.  While Josh is off dealing with his father and fiancée, Ace and Mima are left alone.  Mima is convinced that Josh is better off with Gloria, and thus agrees to Ace’s marriage proposal.  This becomes a bit awkward when Josh returns, having snubbed Gloria and the Skipper.  A physical confrontation is averted between the two when Mima chooses Ace, privately citing the reasons just discussed.  Though Josh goes away to return to the United States with his dad and Gloria, Ace can tell that Mima was simply being noble.  Hence, though they do not get married, Mima does help Ace avoid deportation.  As for Josh, he feels bad about how he left things with Ace.  Thus, at the next port of call, when he hears that Ace and Mima are there, too, he promptly leaves Gloria to track down his friends.  It all ends with the three reuniting and Mima finally confessing her true love.

To pay off something I mentioned in the introduction, what I did not discuss in my synopsis of Road to Singapore is how Ace and Josh go to the wedding feast in brown face.  They do this to blend in with the locals, but it is not a flattering depiction, even if Kaigoon is not real.  Based on what I have written, I think you can tell why I talked about sexism.  To underscore the point, Mima asserts that all she really wants to be is a house wife.  Still, any negative connotation of that marital position is the result of our modern culture.  More and more, doing the kinds of things that Mima does for the men is considered to be repressive, even if it is of the woman’s choosing.  Catholicism does not tell women that this is their lot in life, and that if they do not perform these duties then they are sinning.  Those Christians who posit such ideas do so based on a flawed way of looking at Scripture.  Despite the vocation under question in the film being matrimony, I would point out convents as evidence of the fact that God did not create women solely for stereotypical roles.  One of a couple of monasteries I follow are the Cistercian nuns at Mount St. Mary’s in Wrentham, Massachusetts.  This community of cloistered women supplement their lifestyle by making and selling chocolate.  This is not simply mixing the cocoa and packaging the product, but marketing and selling it.  They also maintain a small farm, with animals and crops.  Finally, there are all the other chores that come with living out their daily lives with a group of people.  They do not perform these jobs because they are trying to show that they can do anything a man can do, though you can draw your own conclusions from this description.  Instead, they do so because they are called by God.  This brings me back to the film.  Mima does feel fulfilled by the performances she does with Caesar, as problematic as they are regardless.  She wants to live the life she does with Ace and Josh, and she does so basically as a partner.  We can see this in how she helps sell Ace’s fake, clothes devouring soap.  It is about finding your calling from God in which true happiness lies.

There were some parts of Road to Singapore I enjoyed.  There were others at which I cringed.  The cringy aspects, like listening, sometimes, to our elders use outdated language, are the result of different times.  At the same time, I am not sure this is the best of starts for the series, so here is hoping that the rest are better.