Independent Films, Film Profiles

Road to Zanzibar

Road to Zanzibar is a 1941 Paramount Pictures comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour, and marked the second picture in the popular "Road to..." series made by the trio.Paramount executives owned the rights to a story by Sy Bartlett entitled "Find Colonel Fawcett" about two men trekking through the jungles of Madagascar. They felt that its plot was so similar to the recently released Stanley and Livingstone (1939) that it could not be made as written without seeming too derivative, so they turned the project over to Frank Butler and Don Hartman, the writers on the wildly successful Road to Singapore which Paramount had released the year before. Thus reborn as a comedy and spoof of the safari genre, the film resembled its predecessor in every important way, with plot taking a back seat to gags (many of them ad libbed), and music. The film was so successful that further "Road to..." pictures were assured.The film's copyright was renewed in a timely manner by the company which had acquired it. Originally registered for copyright as LP10409 with a declared publication date of April 11, 1941, the continuation of copyright was contingent upon renewal between the 27th and 28th anniversaries of that date. Renewal occurred April 18, 1968, number R434268. Although the film opened in New York April 9, 1941, the renewal is still timely even if the earlier date were considered publication date. Renewal was filed by EMKA, Ltd., which acquired Paramount's classic pre-1950 library in 1957--today, EMKA is part of NBC Universal Television Distribution, and summarily Universal Studios is now the theatrical and home video distributor. The copyright is now scheduled to run until 95 years after the publication date (2036). The film has not entered the public domain.