Trying to avoid shotgun weddings, two entertainers (Bob Hope, Bing Crosby) run away and take jobs as deep sea divers. This leads them to Bali and princess Dorothy Lamour. Inevitably both guys vie for Dorothy's affections while tangling with bad guys and a giant squid.

Routine 'Road' picture with the notable difference of it being in color. Hope and Crosby are always fun, especially when they break the fourth wall. Lamour is lovely in color. This was her last film for ten years. Some of the gags are tired but there are still lots of yuks. Also some decent songs. Overall the likable personalities of the trio keep it afloat. Jane Russell, Martin & Lewis, and Humphrey Bogart (through African Queen footage) all have cameos. There is one rather odd sequence where Dorothy dreams of her childhood pet monkey and we see a real chimp wearing a very creepy Bob Hope mask.

For some strange reason, this film was allowed to slip into the public domain. This is odd because it is the only one of the Hope-Crosby road pictures to be in the public domain AND the only one filmed in color. Not surprisingly, however, because these are public domain prints the color is very washed out and the prints I have seen are a bit fuzzy. It must have looked great in 1952...my how times have changed.

This film finds the boys playing pretty much the same characters they played in most of the other films in the series. Once again, they are broke, scheming for money and fighting over women. Also, just like most of their other films, the natives and native dances look like they stepped right out of a Hollywood sound stage...which they have. This makes for an odd film that bears as much resemblance to Bali as it does to Cleveland (well, actually less).

Because Bing and Bob are broke, they accept jobs as divers to retrieve a sunken treasure. What they don't know is that the job is practically suicide--with a horrible giant squid waiting for them. It already has killed several other divers and the boys are next. But, in typical road movie style, the Princess (Dorothy Lamour) falls for the boys and doesn't want to see them risk their miserable lives.

As for the quality of the film, it's a mixed bag. Because the plot and so much about the formula of the movie is the same old same old, it certainly isn't a must-see movie. However, it's pleasant entertainment and the film does have an even higher number of jokes that pokes fun of itself and cultural references than usual. This is how they get little cameos of Humphrey Bogart and Martin & Lewis in a film supposedly set in Bali and the South Seas. It also has gorillas (in Indonesia?!).

For fans of the series, it is a nice return to the past but to someone wanting something different, you're gonna be disappointed.

Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but c'mon gag writers of the 1950's, less is more. It is indeed a mixed bag of gags, and by the early 1950's, old movie comics were finding it hard to stay fresh. Bob Hope ends up in the can, literally, in this case a deep sea diver's outfit, possible squid food, set up by the evil cousin of island queen Dorothy Lamour, determined to depose her and claim the gems of sunken treasure for himself. Now a queen without an island after being betrayed, Lamour heads to Bali with hope and tag along Crosby who is determined to get rid of lover boy Hope and get l'amour from Lamour himself.

The first five "Road" movies were amusing ( some more than others),but after a five year hiatus, the magic seems forced. Actors can only look at the camera so many times before it starts to get old, and inside jokes of Crosby having an Oscar but Hope not having one (after an outtake of Humphrey Bogart in "The African Queen" appears out of nowhere) is funny once, but unlike others in the series and similar parodies, they don't work on repeat viewings.

The one thing that benefits this is the use of color, showing Lamour off in slim sarongs and odd hair pieces. Songs thus time out are rather mediocre, with nothing standing out. Shots of cute clapping monkeys and singing sheep get more plaudits than "The Merry Go Round and Round", although Hope gets a funny gag by having his face imposed on a baby chimpanzee's. The conclusion involves a musical number straight out of the type of musical numbers from the early 1930's and a twist involving an unorthodox marriage. But with it being rather juvenile, it's a disappointment although some amusing cameos do add laughs.