THE RUNAWAY BUS
UK, 1954, 78 minutes, Black-and-white.
Margaret Rutherford, Frankie Howerd, Petula Clark, George Coulouris, Toke Townley, Belinda Lee, Terence Alexander, Michael Gwynn, Stringer Davis, Reginald Beckwith.
Directed by Val Guest.
Frankie Howerd became a very popular comedian in film and television from the 1950s to his death in the early 1990s. Suffering from nervousness, he developed mannerisms of expression which became very distinctive for his comedy, from Roman slaves in Up Pompeii to participation in the Carry On series.
Here he is at the beginning of his career, his screen personality quite ready for the career.
The film makes jokes about London fog, especially with the broadcaster announcing the news and weather forecast. Heathrow is fogged in, planes unable to take off and land, passengers all caught in the lounge but demanding information about getting out. In the meantime, a robbery is planned to take place during the fog – and does.
Margaret Rutherford does one of her most obnoxious characters, fussy and demanding all kinds of attention, eventually getting a relief bus to take her and some other passengers to another airport where the fog might be lifting. Frankie Howerd is the relief bus driver – only later to find that he is driving for BOAC instead of BEA!
Petula Clark is the efficient airport official on the bus, Terence Alexander a suspicious air force captain, George Coyulouris is a suspicious businessman, Belinda Lee, at the beginning of her short career, as a glamorous young woman who has a passion for gory crime novels. Toke Townley is an unobtrusive arrival from South Africa.
Also in the cast is Margaret Rutherford’s husband, Stringer Davis, who often appeared in small roles in her films, this time as a transport official who is told that the bossy lady is causing trouble and he agrees that this is an emergency!
Blend of comedy and slapstick with serious undertones, the bus getting lost in the fog, arriving in a minefield at a military installation, complications when the audience wonder which of the two men is the criminal, the Banker, responsible for the robbery – only to be very surprised at who the Banker is at the end of the film!
1. A British comedy, 1950s style? Brief, black and white photography, comic and serious, the British cast? Character actors?
2. The situation, the jokes about British fog, the radio announcer and the predictions? The thick fog, closing down of the airport, the planning of the robbery during the fog and its execution, the stranded passengers, causing difficulties, queues, buses, relief drivers, transport office, security, companies and reception desks? Comedy but audiences identifying with the situations? the musical score?
3. The background of the robbery, the discovery of those tied up, drilling through the wall, the use of the bus for the bullion?
4. Miss Beeston, the Margaret Rutherford type, fussy, bossing everybody about, going to the head of the queue, making the audience dislike her? Demanding the bus, on the bus, with the little man from South Africa, sitting with him, his reading from the seedlings catalogue, her liking him? Her statements about positive thought? The treatment of everyone else on the bus?
5. Frankie Howard as Percy Lamb, his distinctive comedy, his dithering style, the pratfalls and slapstick? His verbal expressions, shock and oohing? The substitute bus driver, the phone call to his grandmother and the comic interchange, spending the sixpence, the collector and his wanting the refund, procedure to get the refund? Lost in the fog, into the security room, in and out the window, lost in the fog, finding the bus? With Miss Nichols? With the passengers? The driving of the bus, in the fog, the little man getting out to lead, the pilot suddenly arriving, the girl from Basingstoke and her glamour, the businessman? The driving, lost in the fog, lost destination, his standing in the water, the setting off of the mines?
6. Petula Clark as Miss Nichols, practical, common-sensed, trying to work aware out where they were, the mileage and the information to the police? The captain flirting with her? Her suspicions of Percy, the wrong name? The irony of his driving the wrong bus?
7. The girl from Basingstoke, glamour, quoting all the murder mysteries?
8. The businessman, the information about his brother, the phone number, being searched? His having the gun? His knowledge of High Wycombe and the mines and the use for the military?
9. The authorities, discovering what happened, contacting the bus, working out where the bus was?
10. The man in the back of the bus, tied up, his escaping?
11. In the inn, making the coffee, the suspicions? The pratfalls? Miss Beeston and her fainting?
12. Audience suspicions of the businessman, the captain? The irony that they were with the police as well as the man in the back of the bus? The captain and his decoration on wrongly, the mutual suspicions?
13. Could the audiences have suspected Miss Beeston as the banker, her sudden taking control, the little man being her ally? Percy Lamb and Miss Nichols engineering the projectile? Overcoming Miss Beeston?
14. And the girl from Basingstoke and Percy writing down her number – and ringing his grandmother?
