The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
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Bob Hope in Plymouth
Bob Hope disembarks the Queen Elizabeth II in Plymouth.
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Overview
Bob Hope is in England to meet up with the straight man of the comedy duo Bing Crosby to film what turns out to be the last Road to movie ever made. Hope and Crosby formed a formidable double act and made seven films in the Road picture series. The films are satirical works of Hollywood blockbusters and comedy classics. Bob Hope is interviewed after disembarking from the transatlantic liner Queen Elizabeth II at Millay Docks in Plymouth.
The Road to Hong Kong (1962) was British-made and the only movie not made by Paramount. It included notable British actors. Actor Dorothy Lamour was replaced by Joan Collins and Robert Morley, Peter Sellers, David Niven and Felix Aylmer all had roles. Hope refers to Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. The pair met at university and became producers and writer-directors of comedy although many gags in The Road To movies were supposedly ad-libbed by Hope and Crosby. This film was Frank and Panama's last together effectively ending a long-running and successful writing partnership. Hope never won an Oscar but was the Academy Awards regular host at which he once jibed…. Or as they call it in my house, Passover.
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