THE WAYWARD BUS
US, 1957, 88 minutes, Black and white.
Joan Collins, Jayne Mansfield, Dan Dailey, Rick Jason, Dolores Michael, Larry Keating.
Directed by Victor Vicas.
The Wayward Bus is based on the novel by John Steinbeck, best known for his novels Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden. This book is much less well-known than his classics.
The film was shot in black and white and Cinemascope, providing a vast background of the United States near the Mexican border, towns, mountains, rivers.
The film is interesting because of its cast, Joan Collins getting lead billing after her arrival in Hollywood several years earlier and such films as Land of the Pharaohs, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, The Opposite Sex. She was being promoted as a sex symbol, though in this film she plays a dowdy role, a woman running a diner in an isolated town, with relationship problems and prone to drinking. In the same year she portrayed a nun in Sea Wife. It is also a star vehicle for Jayne Mansfield, also promoted as a sex symbol, appearing in such films as The Girl Can’t Help It and The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw. Also in the cast is Dan Dailey who began in drama but developed into a star in musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.
The film seems rather minor but is an interesting look at different filmmaking of the 1950s. The director was Victor Vicas, whose main career was in Germany.
1. An adaptation of a John Steinbeck novel? The Mexican border? The status of the characters in these remote areas?
2. A star vehicle for Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield? Their status at this time?
3. The black and white photography, Cinemascope, the locations, realism, the towns, roads, the rivers, the mountains? The musical score?
4. The title, the bus needing to be fixed, the wayward routes during the storm? The wayward characters?
5. The introduction to the bus, Johnny and his situation, the young man wanting to help, getting the bus ready for the trip? Alice, her relationship with Johnny, her irritability? The service station, as a stop, providing meals, transit?
6. The passengers, the Prichards and Mildred, Ernest Horton as the salesman, Camille, the busy old man in a hurry? Norma leaving after the interactions with Alice?
7. Alice and her love for Johnny, antagonism, his love or not? The drinking, the angers and insults? The sexual relationship? The journey and the intercutting of the sequences with Alice? The worker and her being in the bar? The helicopter, the phone calls, her concern about Johnny, flying to him?
8. The Prichards, the brutal relationship, the prim mother and her puritanical comments, the husband’s roving eye, seeing her in the magazine, his talk with Ernest about setting up a place in Los Angeles? The keeping their eye on their daughter, breaking off her engagement, the implications of the sexual relationship with Johnny?
9. Mildred, her anger with her parents, the fiance, her flirting with people, with Johnny, the antagonism on the bus, following Johnny to the garage, the sexual encounter, her being upset?
10. The young man, conscious of his look, helping with the bus, wanting to be respected with his own name? Johnny’s treatment of him, welcoming on the bus, helping to fix the bus, his interest in Norma?
11. Norma, the clashes with Alice, wanting a Hollywood contact from Ernest, her chatter, on the bus, Alice’s later apology to her?
12. Camille, her look, the background, the appointments and her performances, in the magazine, becoming friendly with Ernest, their talking, the bond, his respect for her, her hopes for the future, not wanting him to see the magazine?
13. Ernest, the salesman, flirtatious, his toys and his merriment with them, talking in the bus, the attraction to Camille, talking, their future, Prichard and his showing Ernest the magazine, his angry reaction?
14. The trip, the dangers, the roads, the river flooding, caution in going over the bridge, bogged down, Johnny and his walk to get the tractor? The phone calls? His decision to go the alternate route, the pressure from the old man? Mildred and the following him? The helicopter arriving, fixing the bus? Alice’s reaction, suspicions – Johnny thinking things over, realising his love for Alice, finding her in the bus?
15. Range of short stories, characters, crises and the resolutions?
