Bus Stop (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Unusual role for Marilyn Monroe, some great dialogue, moving
Disadvantages:	Rodeo scenes, you hate Bo at first !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Bus Stop is a film from 1956 starring Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray. This film lasts 96 minutes and was Marilyn's 29th movie. She had star billing in this one and plays quite a different role from what you might expect.

Cherie is rather a sad character in many ways. She has had to grow up quickly, has few friends and longs for a better life. She owns a map charting where she has come from and intends to go to Hollywood to become a star. Most of all though, she craves respect.

She has short blonde curly hair and is very pale, this being exaggerated by her bright red lipstick. She is pretty, naïve and a dreamer. She is a singer in a saloon bar and receives little respect on a daily basis. Men leer after her or push her around and they all expect her to be a certain kind of girl. Our first glimpse of Marilyn Monroe is 14 minutes into the film, where Cherie is sat on a windowsill outside the Blue Dragon Café. She is in a kind of negligee with one leg showing and sat underneath a red light.

Marilyn Monroe really proves she can act in this challenging role. She is wonderfully convincing; she holds her accent throughout and displays every facet of Cherie's personality and character. You feel you know Cherie quite quickly and that you just want to look after her and make everything okay. (This is really how Marilyn Monroe makes most of her fans feel too, that we wish we could have rescued her before it was too late!)

Don Murray plays Beauregard (Bo) Decker, a twenty-one year old cowboy, who owns a ranch in Montana. He is an annoying character initially, with very little to like. He is immature, inexperienced, sexist, demanding, not bright and generally a bit of a buffoon.

He is a real country hick, who doesn't leave his farm much. He is unused to roads, doesn't know how to treat women, has no idea of manners or how to behave, and is prone to behaving like some primitive animal.

Virgil Blessing (played beautifully by Arthur O'Connell) is Bo's 'buddy' and mentor, who advises him and generally goes round apologising for Bo's social faux pas! He is kind, charming and thoughtful - the complete opposite to Bo in several ways.

In one scene which displays their differences, Virgil tells Bo that it is time he met 'a gal' to which young Bo vows "I'm gonna get me an angel!" Virgil retorts - "I wouldn't set my sights too high, if I were you."

Bo compares women to a horse who doesn't want to be broken in, but you have to break them, so you do! This adds an undercurrent of violence and menace to the character. Personally, I wondered if Bo would turn out like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, but the film doesn't quite go in that direction.

Bo sees Cherie performing in the saloon bar and is annoyed at the crowd's rudeness, so he steps in to ask the men to be more respectful to her. This makes Bo a hero in her eyes, coming to her rescue, but he is so unused to women, that he does not understand how to behave.

Jumping in with both feet, he proposes and begins to arrange their wedding for the next day! Bo tells Virgil they're engaged and Cherie is equally shocked by this announcement. Bo says they will get married at the rodeo, then he'll take her home. Lacking any kind of romance, he offers his intended a wedding present of "a deep freeze, an electric washer or any other major appliance you want"! Ahhh, they don't make them like that, any more…

So, what will happen? Will Cherie manage to escape? Will she want to? Watch to find out…

The film is mainly drama, with some comedic moments. There is a touch of the sinister, as you don't fully trust Bo. You sympathise with Cherie - she's vulnerable, insecure, sad and lost and you want her to be happy. She seems to need looking after and surely Bo isn't right for her?

Marilyn gets to wear a couple of tacky showgirl costumes in her act. Describing herself as a "chanteuse" (which she pronounces as 'shon-toose'), her image is somewhat less classy. She has a sparkly leotard in greens with black net and gold tassels, yet wears this with tights which have big holes in.

Later on, she wears the famous short-sleeved green and brown peasant blouse with a tight black satin skirt. She looks lovely in this, though it still fits with her character and her low status in life.

Cherie sings 'That Old Black Magic' and this is an impressive performance in itself. Marilyn could sing much better than this, but she stays completely in character throughout, warbling very slightly in Cherie's irritating accent.

Marilyn's comic timing is evident too and I especially enjoyed the scene at the rodeo, where Cherie is sat on Bo's shoulders. She sees her friend Vera in the crowd and they mime their thoughts to each other, over the heads of the crowds.

I used to watch Bus Stop a lot in the late 1980s. I went to University in 1988 and took my VCR and some of my favourite films, including this one. I used to think Don Murray was a bad actor in this, but in hindsight, I think he is actually acting very well here - it is the character that is annoying.

Bo starts off as an ignorant bully, but makes a journey throughout the film. He is advised by Virgil and learns from the people he meets, especially Cherie. Both the main characters develop across the story and it is an emotional and moving film at times.

The only disadvantage the movie has is the rodeo scenes. I find the action sequences here to be rather boring, and although I'm not sure if any cruelty was involved, some scenes make me feel uncomfortable watching them - especially the "bullfighting chimpanzee" which I feel wouldn't be allowed these days.

Overall though, I enjoyed Bus Stop more today than I have before. I think I 'got it' more than I did twenty years ago. I think Don Murray did a great job of making the audience hate Bo, then slowly warm to him.

It is well-paced, the rodeo scenes are thankfully quite short and the film is peppered with witty dialogue and clever interchanges.

Marilyn Monroe is amazing as Cherie. Each emotion the character is feeling seems etched on Marilyn's face, as though she were living every second of it. This is an impressive talent and one which has been largely ignored, as Marilyn's memory lives on in buxom, pouting, dumb blonde creations.

PRICE and INFORMATION

I own Bus Stop as part of The Diamond Collection box set, but the film is available by itself from Amazon for £4.97.