BUS STOP

US, 1956, 96 minutes, Colour.
Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O’Connell?, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Gray, Hope Lange, Hans Conreid.
Directed by Joshua Logan.

Bus Stop is based on a play by celebrated playwright, William Inge. He wrote Come Back Little Sheba, Picnic, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Splendour in the Grass, All Fall Down, The Stripper (Woman of Summer). The film was co-written by George Axelrod, writer of many comic films as well as adapting serious novels like The Manchurian Candidate.

Bus Stop was best known as a star vehicle for Marilyn Monroe in the mid-50s. By this time, she had emerged strongly as a screen presence. After Niagara and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 20th Century Fox gave her the star treatment with such films as River of No Return, How to Marry a Millionaire, There’s No Business Like Show Business and The Seven Year Itch. Don Murray, in an early film, and winning an Oscar nomination, plays the shy cowboy who is attracted by the singer at a club in Phoenix. She sings ‘That Old Black Magic’ and weaves a spell on him – and he tries to abduct her. There is strong support from character actors Arthur O’Connell?, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart. Hope Lange appears at the beginning of her career as Marilyn Monroe’s friend.

The film was directed by Broadway director Joshua Logan. He made a few films – most of them very big-budget (and some rather overblown): Mister Roberts, Picnic, Sayonara, South Pacific, Fanny, Camelot and Paint Your Wagon.

1. The meaning of the title? The alternate title was ‘The Wrong Kind of Girl’. More appropriate? Why?

2. How would you describe this film in terms of genre? Comedy or drama? As a piece of Americana? How successful as a sketch of Americana was it? The perspective of William Inge?

3. How successful was the film as comedy? The presentation of human foibles, laughing with people, at them? An exploration of comic foibles? Was the comedy cheap as many critics at the time said?

4. Was the film convincing as drama? As the portrayal of a cow poke and his awareness of the city life? of a down and out girl and her response to life and the interaction between the two?

5. How was the film a portrayal of clashes? of innocence versus experience, of naive versus the jaded, of the country versus the city, of unsophisticated versus the sophisticated, of man versus woman? How humanely were these clashes portrayed? Were they explored or were they trivialized? How did the film’s success depend on this?

6. Comment on the journey structure of the film ? the bus ride into the city and out again? The significance of the bus stop on this journey? The centre of the rodeo and the visit to the city? Did this give a sense of framework and purpose to the film?

7. How enjoyable was the portrayal of Bo? Was he credible as a person? His Montana farm background, the horses, Virgil’s tutoring him? The nature of his innocence, lack of relationship with women? His incessant American talking and shouting? His boorishness? How naive was he? How genial, how likable? How did the bus trip illus trate this? His response to the night club, his response to Cherie? Why was he swept off his feet? His gifts to Cherie? His love for the rodeo but his forcing of Cherie? Even into the bus? The importance of the fight with the driver? When did he change, how did he grow? Was this journey for him credible? How tamed was he by the end? What future would he have?

8. How enjoyable was the performance of Marilyn Monroe as Cherie? As opposite to Bo, tired, her response to him, her fear? The satire in her singing of the songs? Her exasperation with him? Her response to being forced? The effect of the bus ride on her, the fight? What future did she have with Bo? Was she credible and was her change
credible?

9. How important was Virgil in the film ? his comic function? His friendliness, his shielding of Bo, his sympathy for Cherie? His role on the bus? Relationship with Grace?

10. How important was Grace? At the bus stop going down, on the way back? The importance of Elma as a young girl facing life?

11. How important was Vera? What impression did she make?

12. What were the highlights of the film its colour, wide screen atmosphere, rodeo, American flavour? Particular sequences?

13. What values did the film stand for as regards the quality of life and relationships?