Bus Stop (1956)

Rodeo cowboy Beauregard Decker (Don Murray) is a stubborn naive idiot. He takes the bus to Phoenix for the rodeo. His friend Virgil Blessing encourages him to talk to girls but he doesn't have much experience. In Phoenix, singer Chérie (Marilyn Monroe) at the Blue Dragon Cafe, who is aiming to go to Hollywood, is forced to hustle Virgil to pay for her drinks. Bo falls for her right away. She likes him but has no intention of marrying him or going back to Montana with him. He keeps ignorantly dragging her around expecting to get married. She tries to run away to Los Angeles but he literally ropes her like cattle and force her onto the bus to Montana.

This is dumb and dumber, the rom-com. I find Beau to be very annoying in his clueless childishness. First, he's a clingy stalker. Then he becomes a full blown kidnapper. I really feel sorry for Chérie. While I understand the attempt to out-dumb Marilyn Monroe, Beau needs to be a lovable dunce. To top it off, he also has that loud mouth and bad singing. Monroe is relatively good but I just hate him so much. I guess he's playing the fool but he fails to find the balance... any balance... any sense that there is a balance. He is all idiot and no likability.

Fmovies: 'Bus Stop' is a cheerful and romantic old-style film with part of the action centering around a bus stop and bus journey. Bo, a not-very-bright cowboy, does not know anything about love but has his heart set on bringing a woman back home with him. He sees Cherie (played by Monroe) at a bar and falls instantly in love, but she does not quite feel the same way about him. The film explores this romance and the lessons that Bo (and Cherie) has to learn in order to 'grow up'. It takes him several mistakes and character flaws to overcome, but, with the help of Marilyn Monroe, everything comes to a happy (and quick) ending, like most 1950s films.

Overall, 'Bus Stop' is an engaging and funny film and it is worth a watch. However, there are some problems. One of the problems is that I found Bo to be extremely annoying in places. He is too 'in your face'; I am not sure whether Bo's innocence was over-played by the actor or if it was written in the script. The other problem I had was the ending. Older films typically have a rushed ending, at least when compared to the present day. It just seems to abrupt.

The film also has some amuzing adult humor, and this is subtle so there is not a chance of a child picking up on it. (Look at the float in the parade!) Overall, 'Bus Stop' is an all-around enjoyable tale about an age past.

...is the "corn" factor in this at times embarrassingly bad Marilyn Monroe feature. I like to cut Norma Jean a fair bit of slack on the subject of her acting ability and will go a little out of my way to watch some of her lesser-known movies when they air on the schedules but I found this country bumpkin nonsense almost toe-curlingly unwatchable.

I'm struggling really hard to think of any redeeming features but I find I can't. The story is lighter-than-fluff fluff and one you'd more likely see fleshed out from near-nothingness in a musical of the era. Unfortunately some of the hokiest hillbilly music you'll ever hear does make something of an intrusion into the story and I'm sorry but I find old-style country and western music as harmonious as a nail-scratched blackboard.

Monroe looks fine if a little shop-worn at times, gives us a variety of accents from most of the mid-western states and is required at various times to dress herself in a mildly prurient way in a way that no other major Hollywood star of the era would or should have to. However her co-star, "introducing" Don Murray (how I wish he'd been introduced to oblivion!) gives the most lunk-headedly irritating performance I think I've ever seen as a hayseed country boy who gets the hots for Monroe's down-at-heel showgirl with plenty, in fact, far too much a-whooping and a-hollering for normal patience to bear. I see to my horror that Murray inexplicably got an Oscar nomination for his I hesitate to call it acting which must surely have given hope to every non-actor of the day!

The direction is almost as dumb and the dialogue dumber again, - I defy anyone to not laugh out loud at Murray and Monroe's big "at long last love" scene where their faces fill the screen and unfortunately the world's worst dialogue simultaneously fills your ears.

I guess the producer and director were seeking to cash in on Marilyn's ascending star with a light-hearted country-style romantic comedy but really do yourself a favour and give this particular bus the widest possible berth and wait for the next one, no matter how long it takes

Bus Stop fmovies. "Bus Stop" is named for the setting of the last half-hour of this film, the bus stop in the snow, somewhere in Wyoming, where Beau finally gets his 'comeuppance', right before he and Cherie reconcile. If this movie had not been made in 1956, but instead in modern times, it would have received a very laughable reception. As it is, I consider it a cult classic in the genre of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", so horrible and fake are the characters and the dialog.

However, Marilyn Monroe, in her 26th film, playing a simple showgirl from Arkansas, does very well with her role. Don Murray as "Beau", in his very first film, is so obnoxious that by the time he apologises for his bad behavior, we no longer care about him, and "Cherie's" accepting him just doesn't make sense. Hope Lange has a small part as "Elma" on the bus, in this her first film. She and Murray married afterward in real life, but it didn't last. Murray made a number of other films, including the father in "Quarterback Princess" in 1983 with Helen Hunt.

The reason to see this film is Marilyn Monroe in her prime, almost 30, and only 6 years from her death. The story, of the possessive cowboy who decides to marry Cherie and haul her away to his ranch in Montana, is pretty simple and pretty implausible. The scene in the bus stop, where he finally kisses her "for serious", was also featured in an episode of Northern Exposure, with Chris playing Beau and Maggie playing Cherie, for a community theater production they were rehearsing for.

Bus Stop has been rightly hailed as Marilyn Monroe's breakthrough performance in a movie as a serious dramatic actress. She is absolutely superb here, ditching the breathless dumb blonde of earlier roles and playing a hardened, Southern chanteuse in search of true love. She manages to convey a whole range of emotions which is testament to her time spent at Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio in New York. As usual she sparkles and it's difficult to take your eyes off her, but there is a depth and sympathy to her playing that makes you take note of the performance and not simply the curves.

However, Bus Stop is a relatively simple picture of unrequited then requited love. The comedy moments don't often work that well and Don Murray's Beau has to be one of the most irritating characters I have ever seen in a film. Him and Cherie coming together at the end of the picture is unbelievable and spoiled the movie for me...I always wanted her to get away!

Bus Stop is more enjoyable from the Monroe point of view as her playing is spellbinding and marked a turning point in her career.

I recently saw a tribute to Marilyn Monroe and it was mentioned that Marilyn called "Bus Stop" her favorite film in which she acted. She thought she did her best work in that film and it legitimized her as a serious actress. This was one of the few films of hers I had never seen so I was very anxious now to see this, especially on widescreen. Well, it was disappointing: not because of Marilyn - she was fine - but the story was incredibly stupid.

Part of the problem might be the way our society has changed, although I doubt even 50 years ago - when this film came out - a guy could do what "Bo Decker" (Don Murray) did in here and get away with it. Nonetheless, to watch this brainless idiot - in a crowded nightclub - chase a woman down, rip off half of her dress, break into her dressing room, follow her out the window to a bus station, lasso her and kidnap her by dragging her onto the bus.....and have NOBODY even attempt to stop him during all of this (and more) is a real insult to any viewer's intelligence. No police? No security? No harassment, et al?

The story, like Murray's character who has fewer brains than the rodeo animals he's battling, is just plain dumb. Monroe ("Cheri") and friend Eileen Heckart ("Vera") are fine, as is the other main character, "Virgil" (Arthur O'Connell) but Murray is so loud, abrasive and stupid that he ruins the movie. He - not Monroe - dominates the film, unfortunately.

Thankfully, Monroe is.....well, Monroe, so all is not lost watching this movie but this screenplay is so dated and so moronic you'll cringe watching the film.