An amiable excursion! Admittedly, Bing has lost a bit of the old bounce, but Hope is as enthusiastically ingenuous as ever. The team's old Road companion, Dorothy Lamour, has an ten-minute scene at the climax and proves that she can still hold an audience even though she hasn't been on the big screen since the 1952 Road to Bali. This time, however, the main femme role is taken by Joan Collins who certainly looks very alluring. On the other hand, her ultra-cultured voice tends to get a bit monotonous. It's also unfortunate that the screenplay has her spending the last twenty minutes of the movie in an unattractive Chinese coolie outfit. As we might expect, the screenplay employs some good gags and amusing situations – though some of the scenes could stand a bit of trimming, particularly a long encounter between Hope and Dave King (who plays a Chinese restaurant proprietor).
Norman Panama's direction tends to be loose rather than tight, flaccid rather than taut. And the same remarks could be applied to the script. Sure, the plot is a ludicrous enough peg on which to hang various "in" jokes, guest star spots and the musical numbers, plus a bit of gentle ribbing. Unfortunately, at times, some actors choose to play the game perfectly straight – particularly Collins, Morley and Gotell – instead of tongue-in-cheek. Fortunately, other credits are up to par and the movie has been realized on a fair- sized budget, including even a tiny bit of location filming in Hong Kong.
Norman Panama's direction tends to be loose rather than tight, flaccid rather than taut. And the same remarks could be applied to the script. Sure, the plot is a ludicrous enough peg on which to hang various "in" jokes, guest star spots and the musical numbers, plus a bit of gentle ribbing. Unfortunately, at times, some actors choose to play the game perfectly straight – particularly Collins, Morley and Gotell – instead of tongue-in-cheek. Fortunately, other credits are up to par and the movie has been realized on a fair- sized budget, including even a tiny bit of location filming in Hong Kong.