Road to Utopia ( 1945 )

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are on the road once again in the 1945 comedy classic Road to Utopia, this time heading out to Alaska during the Klondike gold rush at the turn of the century. Hope and Crosby play a couple of down-in-their-luck vaudevillians named Chester and Duke who find a map to a gold mine, a map initially stolen by Sperry and McGurk, two murderous thugs who are hot on the twosome's trail to retrieve the map. En route to Alaska, Chester and Duke lose their money and stow away on a steamer. After they are caught, they assume the identities of Sperry and McGurk in order to disembark unobserved. This is when the film really gets fun watching the cowardly Chester and mild-mannered Duke swagger and snarl as they masquerade as tough guys. 

"I'll have a lemonade," Chester barks at the bartender and then, realizing he was supposed to be Sperry, adds with a growl "....in a dirty glass!"

Also on the trail of the map to the gold mine is the curvaceous Sal (Dorothy Lamour), whose father was murdered for the map. Ace Larson (Douglas Dumbrille) and his gal Kate (Hillary Brooke) claim they will help her retrieve it but they too are after it for themselves.  We never do get to see this elusive gold mine but the fun of the chase for the map makes up the best parts of the picture.

Road to Utopia was the fourth film in the Road Pictures series and it ranks as one of their most hilarious. Crosby and Hope are clearly having a ball and their verbal sparring is furious and fun. Their dialogue is delivered so off the cuff that one wonders how much of it was written in the script and how much was impromptu. The words that were written on paper earned screenwriters Melvin Frank and Norman Panama an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. 

"Am I dead?" - Chester

"I can't tell, you always look that way." - Duke

Like many of the Road pictures, the "fourth wall" is often broken with Bob Hope making sly glances and remarks to the audience. This one also features humorous breaks from Robert Benchley who comments on the silliness of the script. 

Silliness it indeed is, but this is what makes the film so amusing. Hope and Crosby deliver their lines and then add some personal comments and a little playful bickering before going back to playing their parts. Plus, der Bingel takes time to sing a few songs including the memorable "Welcome to My Dreams". Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen penned the songs for the film and Dorothy Lamour's sizzling rendition of "Personality" hit #1 on the music charts that year. 

Hope and Crosby would return to the sweltering climates of the other Road pictures in Road to Rio (1947) but for wintertime fun you can't beat this Alaskan outing with the twosome. The film is available on DVD ( in multiple editions ) and via streaming. 

British Pathé: Jemima's Journey Through Switzerland ( 1963 )

Jemima's Journey Through Switzerland is not one of the usual British Pathe newsreel clips that we share. This seven-and-a-half-minute film follows in the footsteps of a group of people who are re-enacting the trip taken by Ms. Jemima Morrell in 1863, a young woman who journeyed to Switzerland and wrote of her adventures in a diary. It was to mark the 100th anniversary of her trip. Obviously, the sight of a group of people dressed in period costumes going around Switzerland in 1963 caused quite a commotion because she drew crowds wherever she went. 

The narrator of this clip, Tim Brinton, talks with Jemima ( portrayed by Janet Edwards ) as though she were alive at the time. She relates her thoughts about the customs, people, and landscape of Switzerland as she saw it then. 

The film has some beautiful footage of the Alps and gives its audience a wonderful look at what it must have been like to travel throughout the Alpine region in the mid-1800s. My sister and I are restoring photos and paintings for our Alpine Collection project on Kickstarter and, judging from the photographs that we have seen, this is exactly how it was then. Women often went mountain climbing with the men in their wide skirts with just a little walking stick to guide them. 

At the end of the clip, the narrator asks Ms. Morrell whether she would like modern times and she replies that "I should be happy here. I should be happy in company with people like those," ( referring to the men and women playing the parts of her contemporaries ) to which he replies, "But clothes don't make those people Victorians, their values are different." How true! Times changed quite a bit between 1863 and 1963 and have changed even more from 1963 to 2023. 

Ready to watch Jemima's Journey Through Switzerland? Simply click on the link below: 

Jemima's Journey Through Switzerland ( 1963 ) - 7:34 minutes

Similar British Pathé newsreels: 

Victorian Beach Dance ( 1961 ) - 3:14 minutes

Victorian Fish Bar ( 1962 ) - 2:06 minutes

Victorian Hardware Shop ( 1963 ) - 1:38 minutes 

The Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game

We have a special edition of The Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game this month. Instead of the usual prize, the first person who can guess which film this screenshot came from will receive a one-year subscription to ReMind classic television magazine. If you are not familiar with the magazine, simply click here to read our latest review of it. 

The contest is open to everyone but only those residing in the USA are eligible for the prize. Good luck! 

GAME OVER. 

Congratulations to Anon for correctly identifying this screenshot as being from Dear Heart ( 1962 ) starring Glenn Ford and Geraldine Page. This fellow was the hotel clerk at the Metropolitan hotel where Glenn Ford attempted to check in as a married man. 

Snowbound ( 1948 )

Dennis Price and Stanley Holloway head to the Swiss Alps in the 1948 British thriller Snowbound. Price is assigned to pose as a screenwriter gathering material for a new film when in reality he is to gather information about the people who are staying at a mountain chalet and report that information to a former British espionage agent ( Leo Genn ). Within days, his cover is exposed and he quickly finds that everyone staying at the chalet is there for a secret reason...and not for "their health" as they claim. Among the suspicious characters are Marcel Dalio, Mila Parely, Herbert Lom, and Guy Middleton.

Snowbound is a quick thriller that has some nice Alpine location filming. While the story is easy to follow, the film could have been improved upon by a little less dialogue and more action. Aside from an occasional visit to the hotel down the mountain, most of the action takes place within the chalet, making it seem rather stage-like. This is surprising since the story is from a novel ( The Lonely Skier by Hammond Innes ) that was adapted directly to the screen. 

Variety magazine's review of the film claimed that the "main failing of the yarn is that situations do not thrill sufficiently", which is quite true. The action does not build up until the second half of the film, but then it does conclude with an exciting finale. 

Sydney Box produced the film, which was distributed stateside by RKO. Sydney was the head of Gainsborough Studios and produced a number of fine British films on his own as well. His sister Betty Box was also a prolific producer of many great British classics. 

Snowbound is worth watching for its cast of character actors ( Dennis Price makes a good "spy"  ) and its snowy mountain location. It is especially enjoyable to watch on a winter afternoon, but if you miss it airing on television, it really is not worth going out of your way to hunt it down.  

From the Archives: Sabrina ( 1954 )

Audrey Hepburn falls in love in the delightful romantic comedy Sabrina ( 1954 ). In this scene, the chauffeur's daughter Sabrina ( Hepburn ) has just arrived home from Paris and catches the eye of her father's employer David Larabee ( William Holden ). 

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store : http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures

The Happiest Millionaire - Valentine Candy ( 1967 )

Valentine's Day is only ten days away, so we have a clip to share of Lesley Ann Warren's beautiful rendition of "Valentine Candy" from The Happiest Millionaire ( 1967 ). What has this to do with Valentine's Day? Absolutely nothing. It's just fun to listen to! 

Mr. Forbush and the Penguins ( 1971 )

Richard Forbush is a rich young philanderer. He likes to woo girls and wear smart-looking clothes to college. His professor considers him to be one of the most academically brilliant students in his class with "the potential to be an outstanding biologist," but Forbush has little interest in biology, only mating. 

One day, he meets Tara (Hayley Mills), the new waitress at his local pub, and, smitten with her, attempts to impress her with tales of how he will go "down the Amazon" and be one of the last men to undertake a great scientific adventure. When his professor offers him the opportunity to live the great adventure by spending six months in Antarctica tracking the population and habits of a penguin colony, he turns it down.... until a casual remark made by Tara changes his mind. 

"That's all you are. Wind. Empty wind."

He is aghast that Tara does not succumb to his charms and is downright offended when she calls him "empty wind". He decides to accept the position after all but begins to regret it soon after. 

"It's a grim prospect, all that ice. I don't know how I am going to get back in one piece. I feel rather like poor Captain Oates. Remember what he said when he walked into the blizzard to die, 'I'm just going outside and may be some time'"

Within a few weeks, Forbush is dropped off at Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds with a two-way radio being his only link to the outside world. He is told not to interfere with nature but he grows attached to the penguins he is studying and their plight to survive. After months of watching skuas steal the penguins' eggs, he attempts to destroy them by building a catapult to hurl rocks at them. All is in vain and Forbush comes home realizing that every living creature depends in some way upon every other.

Mr. Forbush and the Penguins, also released as Cry of the Penguins, is not your typical arctic adventure film. Instead of the man-battling-the-elements plot line, this film focuses on how six months spent alone with penguins can change a man. It does indeed transform Mr. Forbush dramatically. 

John Hurt gives a wonderful sensitive portrayal of the young playboy turned penguin fancier. It is hard to imagine that the man throwing rocks at the invading skuas at the end of the film is the same Mr. Forbush who showed little to no interest in arctic birds at the beginning of the picture. Hurt has such a marvelously silky voice that it is a pleasure to hear him narrate the penguin sequences. Hayley Mills also gives a good performance in what is strangely listed on the credits as a guest appearance. Also in the cast is Tony Britton as Forbush's professor, Dudley Sutton, Thorley Walters, and Judy Campbell.

The production for Mr. Forbush and the Penguins was rather rocky. Alfred Viola, a commercial director, was making his directorial debut when he signed on for the production but mid-way through was dismissed by producer Roy Boulting, who took over directing himself. Boulting also put his wife Hayley Mills in the role of Tara, in place of Susan Fleetwood, whom Hurt preferred. Swedish director Arne Sucksdorff flew to the Arctic for location filming and captured some beautiful footage of the penguins in their natural habitat while John Addison (Tom Jones) created a compelling score for the film. 

Unfortunately, after all that effort (and a nearly £600,000 investment), Mr. Forbush and the Penguins tanked at the box office.  The publicity department mistakenly tried to publicize the movie as a comedy, plastering the posters with corny taglines like "It's not often that 740,000 penguins can help a love affair!" and "the zaniest bunch of birds on the South Pole!". 

If one is looking for comedy, then this film would fall short. In fact, the first 15 minutes are rather a drag. But after the professor hands Forbush his opportunity to become an explorer of old, the film becomes an absorbing blend of documentary and drama. A look into the life of one man and over half-a-million tuxedo-clad arctic birds.... quite a novel idea for a film. And speaking of novels, if you want to enjoy this story in print, read Graham Billing's original 1965 novel "Forbush and the Penguins".