Dorothy Lamour Movies
American actress/singer Dorothy Lamour graduated from Spencer Business College, after spending a few teen years as an elevator operator in her home town of New Orleans. By 1930, she'd turned her back on the business world and was performing in the Fanchon and Marco vaudeville troupe. In 1931, she became vocalist for the Herbie Kay Band, and soon afterward married (briefly) Kay. In the years just prior to her film debut, Lamour built up a solid reputation as a radio singer, notably on the 1934 series Dreamer of Songs. Paramount Pictures signed Lamour to a contract in 1936, creating an exotic southseas image for the young actress: she wore her fabled sarong for the first time in Jungle Princess (1936), the first of three nonsensical but high-grossing "jungle" films in which the ingenuous island girl asked her leading man what a kiss was. A more prestigious "sarong" role came about in Goldwyn's The Hurricane (1937), wherein Lamour, ever the trouper, withstood tons of water being thrust upon her in the climactic tempest of the film's title. A major star by 1939, Lamour had developed enough onscreen self awareness to amusingly kid her image in St. Louis Blues (1939), in which she played a jaded movie star who balked at playing any more southseas parts. Lamour's latter-day fame was secured in 1940, when she co-starred in Road to Singapore (1940), the first of six "Road" pictures teaming Lamour with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. It represented both a career summit and a downslide: As the "Road" series progressed, Lamour found herself with fewer and fewer comic lines, and by 1952's Road to Bali she was little more than a decorative "straight woman" for Bob and Bing. Very popular with the troops during World War II, Lamour gave selflessly of her time and talent in camp tours, USO shows and bond drives throughout the early 1940s. A tough cookie who brooked no nonsense on the set, Lamour was nonetheless much loved by Paramount casts and crews, many of which remained friends even after the studio dropped her contract in the early 1950s. Occasionally retiring from films during her heyday to devote time to her family, Lamour was out of Hollywood altogether between 1952 and 1962, during which time she developed a popular nightclub act. She returned to films for Hope and Crosby's Road to Hong Kong (1962), not as leading lady (that assignment was given to Joan Collins) but as a special guest star -- this time she was allowed as many joke lines as her co-stars in her one scene. More on stage than on film in the 1960s and 1970s, Lamour was one of several veteran actresses to star in Hello Dolly, and spent much of her time in regional productions of such straight plays as Barefoot in the Park. She took on a few film and television roles in the '70s and '80s, participated in many Bob Hope TV birthday specials, and was the sprightly subject of an interview conducted by Prof. Richard Brown on cable's American Movie Classics channel. Dorothy Lamour passed away in her North Hollywood, California home in 1996 at the age of 81. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Road to Rio was the first of three "Road" pictures jointly produced by stars Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. On the run from the law again, musicians Bob and Bing stow away on an ocean liner. They try to come to the rescue of heiress Dorothy Lamour, who is doomed to an arranged marriage to caddish George Meeker. All gratitude and effusions for their assistance, Dorothy surprises Bob and Bing on their next meeting by slapping them in their faces and declaring "I hate you! I loathe you! I despise you!" The explanation? Dorothy is being hypnotized by her scheming aunt Gale Sondergaard, who has set up the marriage for mysterious mercenary reasons of her own. When Dorothy is "herself" again, Bob and Bing smuggle her off the ship and into their Rio de Janeiro hotel room. The boys plan to save Dorothy from her unwanted marriage by passing her off as a nightclub singer, and themselves as band leaders. Trouble is, they have no band. Enter the Wiere Brothers, three Rio street entertainers. Bob and Bing hire the threesome on the spot, unmindful that they have booked themselves into Nestor Paiva's nightclub on the promise that they're delivering an American band. Since the Wieres speak only Portuguese, Bing teaches each brother an American phrase by rote: "You're in the groove, Jackson", "You're Telling Me," and "This is Murder." Naturally, it isn't long before the boys' ruse is discovered, and this coupled with the newly hypnotized Lamour's threats to have Bob and Bing arrested, leaves our heroes broke and stranded once more. Still, they pose a menace to Sondergaard, thus she contrives a method of disposing of them. Hypnotizing them both, Sondergaard orders Bob and Bing to kill each other. They snap out of the spell just in time, but still there's the problem of rescuing Dorothy. And now there's a new angle: mysterious stranger Frank Puglia informs the boys that the only way to stop the wedding is to retrieve (pause; a furtive glance left; a furtive glance right) "The Papers." Said papers are in the possession of Sondergaard, obliging Bob and Bing to show up at the pre-nuptial festival in disguise (with Bob in drag). Managing to hypnotize Sondergaard's henchmen Frank Faylen and Joseph Vitale, Bob and Bing uncover the precious Papers, and Dorothy is saved. But how can those papers stop a wedding? We won't give away the surprise, nor will we tell you whether Dorothy ends up with Bob or Bing, nor even what the heck Jerry Colonna is doing in the picture leading a cavalry charge. Not the best of the "Road" pictures, Road to Rio is nonetheless one of the most memorable--and quotable (how many of your high school pals used to confound the teacher by declaring "You're in the groove, Jackson"?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
The first "Road" picture in three years (the last was The Road to Morocco), Road to Utopia is set during the Alaskan gold rush. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby play a pair of third-rate San Francisco entertainers, Chester Hooton and Duke Johnson, who are obliged to skip town in a hurry. They book passage on a ship to Alaska, where they run afoul of escaped murderers Sperry (Robert H. Barrat) and McGurk (Nestor Paiva). Through a fluke, Chester and Duke overpower the killers, then get off the ship in Skagway disguised as Sperry and McGurk so that they themselves can evade the authorities. The boys can't understand why everyone is so afraid of them, nor why saloon owner Ace Larson (Douglas Dumbrille) and Larson's moll Kate (Hillary Brooke) are so chummy. It turns out that Sperry and McGurk had stolen a deed to a valuable gold mine before escaping to Alaska. Sal Van Hoyden (Dorothy Lamour) is the rightful owner of that deed, thus she too shows up in Skagway, hoping to extract the document from Chester and Duke. Whenever the plot threatens to become too difficult to follow, narrator Robert Benchley shows up to explain things -- which of course only adds to the confusion. At any rate, the whole affair ends up with Chester, Duke, and Sal running through the snowy wastes, with the villains in hot pursuit. Duke nobly stays behind to fight off the bad guys himself, handing the deed to Chester and Sal and wishing them Godspeed. Flash-forward to 1945: Chester and Sal, both old and wealthy, are reunited with their equally aged pal Duke, who wasn't killed after all. Sal tells Duke that Chester has been a wonderful husband and father. Yes, father...and wait till you see who plays their child ("We adopted him!"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
- 1945
The Technicolor musical Masquerade in Mexico is Mitchell Leisen's remake of his own Midnight. Stranded in Mexico City without a dime, glamorous Angel O'Reilly (Dorothy Lamour) is rescued by wealthy Thomas Grant (Patric Knowles). But Grant's motivations are anything but altrustic. In order to get his wife Helen's (Ann Dvorak) mind off handsome bullfighter Manolo Segovia (Arturo de Cordova), Grant passes Angel off as a Contessa at a weekend party, reasoning that Segovia will switch his attentions to our heroine. Screenwriter Karl Tunberg has added a jewel-theft angle to the original Edwin Justis Mayer/Franz Spencer story, which improves things not at all. Masquerade in Mexico is admittedly a handsomer production than Midnight, but the remake lacks the sparkle of the original film's stars Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer, Mary Astor et. al. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Arturo de Cordova, (more)
- 1945
John Steinbeck cowrote this sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-wrenching study of small-town hypocrisy. Shiftless Benny (who is never seen) has been tossed out of his Southern California town by the "proper" citizens. Drafted into the army, Benny is killed in action--and now that he's a hero, his old home town gears up for a Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony. Suddenly the same upright townsfolk who'd previously scorned Benny and his impoverished father (J. Carroll Naish) bend over backward to prove how much they "loved" the boy. Only Dorothy Lamour, playing Benny's former sweetheart, sees through the sham, though she's honor bound to celebrate Benny's heroism. A Medal for Benny bestows top billing upon Lamour, but the film's true star is J. Carroll Naish as Benny's volatile Italian papa--a performance which won Naish an Academy Award nomination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Arturo de Cordova, (more)
- 1945
Several of Paramount Pictures brightest stars make cameo appearances in this comedy set in "Duffy's Tavern," a favorite watering hole from old time radio shows. The trouble begins when the neighborhood bar is in danger of closing. The trouble begins when the proprietor, Archie, discovers that one of his regulars, Michael O'Malley, owner of a record company is going broke. This means that many veterans will soon be unemployed and therefore, unable to pay their tab at the tavern. Archie immediately begins recruiting famous stars to donate their services and help. They do, the record company is saved and so is the tavern. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, (more)
- 1944
Rainbow Island is a lavish Technicolor confection designed to show off the physical attributes of star Dorothy Lamour. This time Lamour is a white girl raised as native on a tropical isle. Barry Sullivan, Eddie Bracken and Gil Lamb play merchant-marine sailors hiding from Japanese troops on Lamour's island. The storyline may have had dramatic inclinations, but these are forgotten amidst several seductive musical numbers and numerous shots of Dorothy swaying in her patented sarong. Perhaps aware that no one could have taken this film seriously, Ms. Lamour plays her role for laughs, and gets them. Rainbow Island was based on a story by silent screen star Seena Owen, the "Dorothy Lamour" of her time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken, (more)
- 1944
An unofficial remake of the 1935 Alice Faye-George Raft vehicle Every Night at Eight, And the Angels Sing stars Dorothy Lamour as Nancy Angel, unofficial leader of a struggling, Andrews-like singing sister act. Nancy is in love with saxophone player Happy Morgan (Fred MacMurray), self-appointed "protector" of the Angel Sisters. Unfortunately -- and as it turns out, unharmoniously -- Nancy's sister Bobby (Betty Hutton is also ga-ga over Happy, but he barely acknowledges her existence. Meanwhile, the third Angel sister, Josie (Diana Lynn), stands on the sidelines and cracks wise. Before a happy ending can be realized, virtually every person in the cast goes through an extended period of poverty, which at one juncture forces Happy to form a singing-waiter act with his longtime crony Fuzzy Johnson (Eddie Foy Jr.. Although the film's title song is (surprisingly) never performed, And the Angels Sing is otherwise a smorgasbord of typical 1940s tunes, with Betty Hutton taking front and center with her inimitable "scat" renditions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1943
No relation to the 1950 Frank Capra film of the same name, the 1943 Technicolor musical Riding High is a by-the-numbers vehicle for Dorothy Lamour and Dick Powell. Lamour stars as Ann Castle, a former burlesque queen who heads westward to claim her father's silver mine. Powell plays mining engineer Steve Baird, who like Ann has a vested interest in the worked-out mine. With the help of genial counterfeiter Mortimer J. Slocum (Victor Moore), Steve and Ann are able to peddle mining stock, thus saving her from bankruptcy. The stockholders are in a lynching mood when it appears that they've been flim-flammed, but a last minute "miracle" saves the day. Featured in the cast are Paramount stalwarts Cass Daley and Gil Lamb, the former doing her quasi-Martha Raye act and the latter swallowing his harmonica for the millionth time. Production values are excellent and the songs are exuberantly performed; it's only in its hackneyed plot that Riding High slows to a clip-clop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, (more)
- 1943
According to this exuberant Paramount musical, famed pre-Civil War minstrel performer Daniel Decatur Emmett looked and sounded exactly like Bing Crosby! Very loosely based on the real Emmett's life and career, the film is essentially an excuse for an unending stream of Southern-fried ballads and boisterous blackface production numbers. The best scenes involve Emmet's creation of the minstrel tradition, helped along by Billy De Wolfe as the original "Mr. Bones." As Emmet's sweetheart Millie Cook, Dorothy Lamour has less to do than fourth-billed Marjorie Reynolds as Jean Mason, the physically challenged girl whom Emmet ultimately marries. In the midst of several old-time musical numbers, Bing Crosby introduces one of his lasting hits, "Sunday, Monday and Always". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
- 1942
Star-Spangled Rhythm is a typical wartime all-star musical-comedy melange, this time from Paramount Pictures. The slender plot involves the efforts by humble studio doorman Pop Webster (Victor Moore) to pass himself off as a big-shot Paramount executive for the benefit of his sailor son Jimmy (Eddie Bracken). The overall level of humor can be summed up by the scene in which Webster is advised that the best way to pretend to be a studio big-shot is to say "It stinks!" to everything -- whereupon Cecil B. DeMille shows up to ask Webster's opinion about his current production. Betty Hutton, cast as studio switchboard operator and co-conspirator Polly Judson, is at her most rambunctiously appealing here. The huge lineup of guest performers includes Bing Crosby (and his 8-year-old son Gary!), Bob Hope, Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, Mary Martin, Alan Ladd, Fred MacMurray, William Bendix, Paulette Goddard, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, most (but not all) of them going through their characteristic paces. Highlights include a surrealistic rendition of That Old Black Magic with Johnnie Johnston and Vera Zorina; a frantic staging of the old George S. Kaufman sketch "If Men Played Cards as Women Do" with MacMurray, Ray Milland, Franchot Tone, and Lynn Overman; and The Sweater, the Sarong and the Peekaboo Bang, first performed by Goddard, Lamour and Lake, then lampooned in drag by Arthur Treacher, Sterling Holloway and Walter Catlett! PS: The actor playing Rochester's chauffeur in the Smart as a Tack number is John Ford "regular" Woody Strode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Moore, Betty Hutton, (more)
- 1942
In this, the third screen adaptation of the musical revue Sailor Beware, William Holden plays Casey Kirby, a shy sailor who through a series of misunderstandings develops a reputation as a world-class lady-killer. In order to save face, Casey has to persuade "The Countess of Swingland" (Dorothy Lamour), a popular Big Band vocalist, to give him a big kiss in public. But the Countess is no pushover and has little sympathy for sob stories, so Casey soon learns his work is cut out for him. The Countess' best friend, Bessie Dale (Betty Hutton), is a bit less shy around the menfolk and sets her sights on Casey's buddy Barney Waters (Eddie Bracken). Betty Hutton made her screen debut in this movie, and she sings the novelty number "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry." Hutton is backed by Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra, who also perform several other numbers, including their hit "Tangerine." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, William Holden, (more)
- 1942
It's Dorothy Lamour again, sarong and all, in the South Seas wish-dream Beyond the Blue Horizon. Lamour plays Tama, a daughter of the jungle who heads to the US to claim an inheritance. For publicity purposes, press agent Squidge (Jack Haley) tries to team Tama with his client, circus lion tamer Jakra (Richard Denning). As it turns out, Jakra is compelled to return to the South Seas with Tama to obtain positive proof that she is indeed sole heir to her family's fortune. The climax finds Jakra putting his animal-taming skills to practical use when a rogue elephant goes on a rampage. One suspects that audiences in 1942 didn't believe this one either. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Richard Denning, (more)
- 1942
Bob Hope's first starring vehicle for producer Sam Goldwyn borrows the title of Bob's 1942 autobiography They Got Me Covered and very little else. Co-scripted by Leonard Q. Ross (aka Leo Rosten), Leonard Spigelgass and Harry Kurnitz (among many others!), the film casts Hope as Robert Kittredge, the Moscow correspondent for a major American news service, who is fired when he neglects to file a report about Hitler's invasion of Russia. Hoping to get back in the good graces of his boss Norman Mason (Donald MacBride), Kittredge steals another reporter's story about a Nazi spy ring operating in New York. Though officially a comedy, the film is curiously unfunny at times, with Hope playing an unsympathetic, unappealing character who'll step on anyone -- including his long-suffering sweetheart (Dorothy Lamour) and a hysterical kidnap victim (Phyllis Povah) -- to get ahead. Otto Preminger is funnier (perhaps intentionally) as the head Nazi. A few good gags notwithstanding, They Got Me Covered is nowhere near as satisfying as Hope's second Goldwyn effort, The Princess and the Pirate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
Having accidentally caused a merchant ship to blow up, stowaways Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are shipwrecked on the African coast. Commandeering a convenient camel (who takes time to ad-lib a spit in Hope's eye!), Bob and Bing are off on the road to Morocco, an event they celebrate in song. With nary a penny in their pockets, the boys try various methods to scare up a meal. Old reliable Bing shows up with the necessary funds; when Bob asks where the money came from, Bing calmly informs his pal that he's been sold into slavery. Bob is dragged off to parts unknown; later, Bing, his conscience bothering him, scours the town in search of his buddy. He stumbles into a luxurious palace, where Bob is being treated like a rajah. Even more puzzling, Bob is being kissed and cosseted by Moroccan-princess Dorothy Lamour, who announces plans to marry him in a few days! Neither Bing nor Bob can figure this out, but the audience knows that Dorothy has been advised by her astrologers that her first husband will suffer a violent death, and that her second marriage will be long and happy. Since Dorothy is affianced to desert sheik Anthony Quinn, ol' buddy Bob is once more set up as a dead duck. But Dorothy finds herself attracted to Bing, and forgets all about her pre-arranged marriage to Quinn (just as well, since Quinn is the heavy of the piece). On the eve of the wedding, the astrologers find they've made a mistake, and that Dorothy is now free to marry the man of her dreams-who, by this time, is Bing. Bob must console himself with handmaiden Dona Drake, who's some looker herself. As the wedding procession proceeds, Quinn comes riding into town, kidnaps Dorothy, and leaves Bob and Bing trussed up in the desert. Freeing themselves, Bob and Bing make their way through the desert wastes ("This must be where they empty the old hourglasses") in search of Quinn's camp. After an amusing series of mirages, the boys sneak into camp and attempt to rescue Dorothy and Dona. Imprisoned by Quinn, the boys muff an opportunity to use a magic ring, but still manage to escape. Using exploding cigars and hotfoots, our heroes sabotage a peace conference between Quinn and rival sheik George Givot, prompting a talking camel to remark "This is the screwiest picture I've ever been in." Bob, Bing and the girls escape to New York, but not before Crosby spoils Hope's chances at getting an Academy Award by interrupting Bob's "mad scene." Generally regarded as the best of the "Road" pictures, Road to Morocco is as fresh and funny today as it was back in 1942; even in repeated viewings, the rapid-fire one liners and comic setpieces result in boffo bellylaughs. An Oscar was bestowed upon Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's ballad "Moonlight Becomes You". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
- 1941
Bob Hope plays a famous movie star who does his best to avoid the pre-war draft, but ends up in uniform all the same. Hope marries Dorothy Lamour, the daughter of Army colonel Clarence Kolb, in hopes that this union will help him sidestep military service. Stuck in boot camp, Hope is a class-A screw-up until redeeming himself during a sham battle--though his "heroic" commandeering of a tank began as yet another boo-boo. Still not entirely certain that Hope could carry a film by himself, Paramount teamed him with Eddie Bracken and Lynne Overman--a sort of Abbott and Costello plus One. Despite the efforts to make Bob Hope part of an ensemble, it is clear from the first frame to the last who is truly the star of Caught in the Draft. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
The second Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "Road" picture casts Crosby as a penny-ante sideshow promoter and Hope as Crosby's only client, "Fearless Frazier." Under Crosby's tutelage, Hope has been shot from a cannon, zapped in an electric chair and nearly strangled by an octopus. Now they're practically broke and stranded on the African coast. Crosby spends the last of their money to spring helpless Dorothy Lamour from a native slave market. Actually, Lamour and her pal Una Merkel are scamming Crosby and Hope to finance a safari across Africa, so that Lamour can link up with her wealthy fiance in Zanzibar. En route through the deepest, darkest jungle, both Hope and Crosby fall in love with Lamour. But when they find out they're being taken for chumps, the boys leave the safari and strike out on their own. Captured by cannibals, the boys try and fail to win their freedom by having Hope wrestle a particularly grumpy gorilla. Making their escape after teaching the natives their time-honored "Patty Cake" routine, they head for Zanzibar. Once again, Crosby spends his ready money to spring Lamour from her captured-by-slavers con game, obliging Hope, Crosby, Lamour and Merkel to try to earn passage money home by staging a "sawing the lady in half" routine for the locals. Crosby: "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Hope: "If I don't, one of us is going back half fare." Like the earlier Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar sticks too closely to the script and plot to allow those inveterate adlibbers Hope and Crosby free reign. Still, there are some choice moments: our favorite bit occurs when Crosby comments to Lamour on the artificiality of movie musicals--whereupon the sound of an orchestra pops up out of nowhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
- 1941
The South Seas romance is set on the scenic island of Tahiti where the island chief betroths his son to a woman and then ships him to the US to attend Harvard. During the return voyage the lad is befriended by the ship's captain who also protects the beautiful girl the boy meets, but doesn't know he is supposed to marry. The two end up falling in love, even though the young man has sworn not to marry the girl his father picked out for him 15 years before. Meanwhile another jealous girl interferes with the romance as does another chieftain who wants the betrothed girl for himself and so tries to kill the young man. The whole mess is later resolved by a tremendous volcanic eruption which destroys the island and leaves the girl standing alone on a rocky peak staring at the blood red sun slowly sinking beneath the horizon. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, (more)
- 1940
Dorothy Lamour once again wraps a variety of alluring costumes around her hourglass frame in the Paramount bread-and-butter feature Moon Over Burma. Lamour is cast as Aria Dean, an American showgirl stranded in Rangoon. It doesn't take long before Aria becomes the romantic bone of contention between teak-lumber camp owners Chuck Lane (Robert Preston) and Bill Gordon (Preston Foster). The animosity between the two men is put on the back burner when the film's villains attempt to block shipment of Lane and Gordon's logs, a dilemma exacerbated by a deadly forest fire. Albert Basserman's performance as the blind logging-camp supervisor is an interesting precursor to his similar performance in the superior Paramount "B" Fly By Night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1940
Tyrone Power plays the college-grad son of jailed-embezzler Edward Arnold. Power tries to find work, only to be turned away because of his father's reputation. When he decides to use a phony name, he is still fired, because his ex-convict boss feels that Power is being unfair to his imprisoned father. If you can't win for losing in a 1940 film, you turn to crime. Power hires on as the right-hand man of personable but deadly gangster Lloyd Nolan. Arnold, who has become a model convict, is disgusted that his son has turned to crime. He even refuses to have anything to do with his son when Power lands in the slammer himself. Through the intervention of Nolan's moll Dorothy Lamour, a nightclub singer who has grown to love Power, Arnold realizes that his son is still a good guy underneath. Power proves as much by preventing a climactic jailbreak engineered by the homicidal Nolan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
- 1940
Typhoon was Paramount's answer to Samuel Goldwyn's The Hurricane, even utilizing the same leading lady, Dorothy Lamour. The film is set in a small island off Dutch Guinea. Two sailors (Robert Preston and Lynne Overman) make the acquaintance of a young white girl (Lamour) who has been living on the island since childhood, the victim of a shipwreck. The Technicolor cameras are given a thorough workout recording not only Lamour's sarong-clad frame and the climactic typhoon, but also an added-attraction forest fire. Incidentally, the working title for Typhoon was The Big Haircut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Robert Preston, (more)
The story goes that such stars as Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie and Burns & Allen had turned down The Road to Singapore before the leading roles went to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. More conventionally structured than future "Road" efforts, the film casts Crosby as Josh Mallon, the irresponsible son of shipping magnate Joshua Mallon IV (Charles Coburn). Though the elder Mallon wants his son to enter the family business and marry longtime fiancee Gloria Wycott (Judith Barrett), Josh would rather pal around with his carefree sailor buddy Ace Lannigan (Bob Hope). On the eve of his wedding, Josh escapes with Ace to Singapore, where the two of them cook up a get-rich-quick scheme involving a highly unreliable spot remover. The boys' friendship is strained when they both fall in love with cabaret dancer Mima (Dorothy Lamour), who is on the lam from her jealous partner Caesar (Anthony Quinn). Hiding out from the authorities, the three protagonists wind up in the midst of a native ceremony, where Ace and Mima rescue Josh from a hasty marriage to a local temptress. When Gloria shows up to drag Josh back to the altar, Mima nobly gives him up, pretending to be in love with Ace. Eventually, however, big-hearted Ace realizes that Mima belongs with Josh, and thus concocts another scheme to lure his pal back to the Far East. Though many of the earmarks of the "Road" series are evident in Road to Singapore (the "patty-cake" bit, the presence of such guest stars as Hope's radio stooge Jerry Colonna, etc.), the film lacks the spontaneous quality of the later Hope-Crosby-Lamour starrers. Even so, it's an awful lot of fun, especially when Bob and Bing team up on the novelty number "Captain Custard" and Dorothy croons her requisite "moon and stars" romantic ballads. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
- 1940
Henry Fonda plays Chad Hanna, a New York country bumpkin of the mid-nineteenth century who joins a travelling circus. He falls in love with beauteous bareback rider Dorothy Lamour, but she spurns him. Chad Hanna then finds himself attracted to another runaway, country girl Linda Darnell. Though everybody assumes that the boy is slow on the uptake, Chad Hanna manages to save the circus from financial ruin. He also secures the services of a trained elephant; when asked how he acquired such a prize, Chad laconically responds "I gave him half interest in the circus." A lightweight period piece, Chad Hanna is visually impressive, and best viewed in its original pristine Technicolor state. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
- 1939
Idealism vs. Practicality is the Disputed Passage in this lavishly mounted soap opera. Based on a novel by Lloyd C. Douglas (The Robe, Magnificent Obsession) the film stars John Howard as young medical student John Wesley Beaven. In the course of his education, Beaven is torn between two philosophies: the cold pragmatism of Dr. Forster (Akim Tamiroff) and the humanistic attitudes of kindly Dr. Cunningham (William Collier Sr.), who of course is author Douglas' alter ego. The crisis within Beaven comes to a head when he must choose between his career and his impending marriage to Audrey Hilton (Dorothy Lamour). A literally explosive climax in war-torn China brings the story to a logical and satisfying solution. Kudos again to director Frank Borzage for bringing warmth and credibility to the most sloppily sentimental of storylines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff, (more)
- 1939
Jack Benny goes to London in this frothy musical. He plays a Broadway producer and while in London begins pining for the love of glamorous singer Dorothy Lamour. Unfortunately, she finds him unattractive. Wanting to make her jealous, Benny pursues a pair of women who are trying to make their neglectful husbands jealous by pursuing Benny. Their ploy works and creates all kinds of comical mayhem until Benny's butler steps into to save his boss from the husbands' wrath. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Benny, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
