Bus Stop (1956)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Joshua Logan

Writers:

George Axelrod (screenplay)
William Inge (play)

Release Date:

31 August 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

The coming of age of Bo Decker...and the girl who made him a man!

Plot:

A naive but stubborn cowboy falls in love with a saloon singer and tries to take her away against her will to get married and live on his ranch in Montana.

Plot Keywords:

Cowboy | Montana | Bus | Phoenix | Ranch

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 nominations

Cast

Marilyn Monroe	...	Cherie
Don Murray	...	Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
Arthur O'Connell	...	Virgil Blessing
Betty Field	...	Grace
Eileen Heckart	...	Vera
Robert Bray	...	Carl
Hope Lange	...	Elma Duckworth
Hans Conried	...	Life Magazine Photographer
Max Showalter	...	Life Magazine Reporter (as Casey Adams)

Also Known As:

The Wrong Kind of Girl

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:14A (video rating) | USA:Approved (certificate #18041) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | UK:U | West Germany:12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Marilyn Monroe Productions

Trivia:

Marilyn Monroe objected to the color of Hope Lange's hair, claiming that it was too fair and detracted from her own. As a result, Lange's hair was darkened.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Cherie exits the bus because the snow is too deep for the bus to continue, heavy snow is falling yet the sky in the background is clear and you can even see a few clouds over the mountains.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Beauregard 'Bo' Decker: Are you ready, Virge?
Virgil Blessing: Anytime.
Beauregard 'Bo' Decker: Turn him out!
[calf is released from chute]

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Midnight Hour (1991) (V)

Soundtrack:

That Old Black Magic

A comedy-drama very well done!

Alternately puzzled, lost, desperate, lonely, confused and unexpectedly radiant with happiness, Marilyn Monroe, with a mixture of humor and pain scores her greatest triumph in Joshua Logan's "Bus Stop" creating a complete and deeply touching character...

Singing 'That Old Black Magic' to a noisy crowd of cowpokes who couldn't care less about her efforts to entertain them, Cherie is pleased to discover a fan in Bo, a young and innocent cowboy who has come to make his fortune at the Rodeo and finds himself an Angel to take back to his Montana ranch...The kiss she gives him in appreciation, determines him then and there to be his beloved wife...

Logan gives Don Murray his first and best-remembered screen role, as the gauche simple-thinking cowboy who romances the glamorous 'chantoose'... Marilyn succeeds in making him say "please" which is the point of the whole thing... Murray was Oscar-nominated for his performance...

There are other fine performances in the movie: Arthur O'Connell, delightful as the cowboy's pal who big-brothers him with loving patience; Eileen Heckart amusing as the old time friend; Betty Field, strong enough as the bus stop owner; Robert Bray, firm as the driver of the bus and Hope Lange, so auspicious in her screen debut whom Cherie reveals details of her past...

With a modern Western background and rodeo atmosphere, and with panoramic long shot and overwhelming close-ups in color and CinemaScope, "Bus Stop" is a comedy-drama very well done, and a modest entertainment in familiar American vein...

The film had one of Monroe's most touching songs: 'That Old Black Magic' was as funny as it was heartbreaking…