Ten years had passed since Bing and Bob had embarked upon a Road together and for whatever the reason they decided to get together again in 1962 for a final trip.
However some Burk made the monumentally bad decision of dropping Dorothy Lamour from the fun, and replacing her with the much younger and much less talented Joan Collins.
Lamour had been their friend and co-star in all the Road Pictures and had joined both Bing and Bob in other solo vehicles for over twenty years and being all but dropped from 'Hong Kong' must have felt like a right royal smack in the teeth.
However she is given a ten minute cameo three quarters of the way in, and to be honest it is the only segment of this rather drab movie that really shines. It makes you realise that had Dorothy held on to her usual third billing status, then this film would have been 100% more entertaining and 150% better received than it was.
Joan Collins fails to interest the audience but does nothing but interest our two nigh on sixty year olds, who as usual swindle, cheat and hoodwink the other in an attempt make her their own...it would have been more appropriate if they were fighting over which one would adopt her.
Even the gags are rubbish and far from the standard we expect from a Road film. there is one scene in particular when on a space craft Bing and Bob are auto-fed by a machine which starts to malfunction. It's no wonder this joke seems old and dated to a 21st Century audience; it was practically resurrected from the dead in 1962 as the great Charlie Chaplin brought us that old chestnut in Modern Times almost twenty five years earlier.
It was also the only movie in the series not made by Paramount and was mainly a British made film, with many of the cast and cameos coming from notable British actors, As well as Collins, there was Robert Morley, Peter Sellars, David Niven and Felix Aymler, with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra dropping by in the final reel to help out their old mates and provide much needed American presence.
If you have the wherewithal to sit through this turkey to the very end, it is clear that this was literally the end of the road, and as swan songs go this was probably the worst in movie history. They should have finished on the high note of walking into the sunset with Dorothy and Jane Russell on that far away and colourful Balineese Island.
Despite the fact that at the time of Bing's death in 1977, the three were planning yet another Road film reunion, their glory days had long since gone and another dirty smear joining this one, on the otherwise spotless Road To.. brand would have been a major mistake.
However some Burk made the monumentally bad decision of dropping Dorothy Lamour from the fun, and replacing her with the much younger and much less talented Joan Collins.
Lamour had been their friend and co-star in all the Road Pictures and had joined both Bing and Bob in other solo vehicles for over twenty years and being all but dropped from 'Hong Kong' must have felt like a right royal smack in the teeth.
However she is given a ten minute cameo three quarters of the way in, and to be honest it is the only segment of this rather drab movie that really shines. It makes you realise that had Dorothy held on to her usual third billing status, then this film would have been 100% more entertaining and 150% better received than it was.
Joan Collins fails to interest the audience but does nothing but interest our two nigh on sixty year olds, who as usual swindle, cheat and hoodwink the other in an attempt make her their own...it would have been more appropriate if they were fighting over which one would adopt her.
Even the gags are rubbish and far from the standard we expect from a Road film. there is one scene in particular when on a space craft Bing and Bob are auto-fed by a machine which starts to malfunction. It's no wonder this joke seems old and dated to a 21st Century audience; it was practically resurrected from the dead in 1962 as the great Charlie Chaplin brought us that old chestnut in Modern Times almost twenty five years earlier.
It was also the only movie in the series not made by Paramount and was mainly a British made film, with many of the cast and cameos coming from notable British actors, As well as Collins, there was Robert Morley, Peter Sellars, David Niven and Felix Aymler, with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra dropping by in the final reel to help out their old mates and provide much needed American presence.
If you have the wherewithal to sit through this turkey to the very end, it is clear that this was literally the end of the road, and as swan songs go this was probably the worst in movie history. They should have finished on the high note of walking into the sunset with Dorothy and Jane Russell on that far away and colourful Balineese Island.
Despite the fact that at the time of Bing's death in 1977, the three were planning yet another Road film reunion, their glory days had long since gone and another dirty smear joining this one, on the otherwise spotless Road To.. brand would have been a major mistake.