Bus Stop (1956)

I liked this movie when I saw it decades ago, before I knew anything about rape culture. Monroe gives her best performance playing an insecure, untalented, sweetly vulnerable singer with dreams of Hollywood. The film is breezily shot and contains solid performances by character actors Arthur O'Connell and Eileen Heckart. And unlike almost everyone here on IMDb, I found Don Murray's antics reasonably entertaining.Watching this again many years later, I'm far more horrified by the story. Once upon a time, movies about boorish men aggressively, even violently, pursuing women, were so common that you never gave it much thought, but I no longer can see the romance in that. Bo's behavior is not just boorish but downright criminal, and even in the fifties it's hard to believe it would be seen, as every character in the movie does, as basically just bad manners.The movie feeds into the idea that you can force a woman to love you by making Monroe ambivalent throughout. This is not unconvincing, because she is established as someone who has been badly treated, but it would make far more sense as a dark drama than as a light romantic comedy.The movie also might work better if the actors were younger. Murray is a 27-year-old man playing a 21-year-old man who acts like a 15-year-old, and Monroe is a 30-year-old woman playing someone whose naivety would be more appropriate to a teenager.My girlfriend, who was curious about Marilyn, was horrified by this movie. But I told her if you want to see a non-sexist Marilyn Monroe movie you are destined to be disappointed.Honestly, if I just turn off the part of my brain that says kidnapping women and forcing them to marry you is a bad thing, I can still enjoy this movie. But in an age where I've heard too many stories of women being harassed and attacked and treated like toys, that's a part of my brain I can no longer turn off.

This isn't exactly a feminist movie! It's much more misogynist. The only thing that the film is worth is Marilyn Monroe. At the time, she was going to learn acting from Lee Strasberg at the famous Actor's Studio. So, her performance here is certainly better and more nuanced than it had been.The cinematography is fine, and director Joshua Logan keeps things moving along. But, at the same time, Logan allows the bracing level of sexism to go on in the movie. Logan was a well-regarded director, and certainly had the pull to change things if he had wished.But, he doesn't. Don Murray, who went on to be a perfectly decent actor, plays Beau with a ham-fisted, way over-the-top quality that is embarrassing, to say the least. His borderline-violent way of going after Monroe's Chérie is difficult to watch. At least Chérie holds off against him for a while, before giving into him at the end.You wonder why women would put up with this. This movie was just on TCM's "The Essentials," with Robert Osborne and, inexplicably, Drew Barrymore. I say "inexplicably" because there are a great many very knowledgeable women in the film business. Barrymore is most likely on there because TCM is endlessly fascinated by the children of famous Hollywood families, like the Barrymore's, Mankiewicz's, Fonda's, etc. Or, she's there because Osborne has a crush on her, like he did Rose McGowan.So, Barrymore didn't have a problem at all with Murray's Beau. She found him attractive, passionate and erotic! There are women who obviously get off on men who treat them like garbage. I think it's about women with a lot of spare estrogen who want men with a lot of spare testosterone. So, Barrymore obviously is one of those women.But, you could tell how Osborne was very much put off with Beau's endless bullying of Chérie. And, the fact that the movie makes it seem to pay off for Beau at the end makes it even more reprehensible.*** (3 Out of 10 Stars)

When Joshua Logan tested the play "Picnic" out of town, he had to confront the fact that audiences did not like certain aspects of the William Inge play, especially the ending. Over Inge's protests, he changed the play. It went to Broadway where it was successful. Logan was then pegged to direct the film. He brought the play "out of the box" of the theater and set the movie in an actual town.After the success of "Picnic" the movie, another Inge play, "Bus Stop" was brought to film with Logan again directing. This film has obvious similarities to "Picnic" even though Logan is not listed as writer. In particular, the scenes that occur before they reach the bus stop--with their slice of life montage--and the presence of Arthur O'Connell. Marilyn Monroe replaces Kim Novak as the small-town girl and Don Murray replaces William Holden as the interloper who enters her life.I disagree with those who find Marilyn Monroe's performance lacking. She plays Cherie--at least that's what she calls herself--a "chanteuse" from the hill county who has created what she thinks is a refined personality. For those who find her accent uneven, I suggest that it is no more real than her name, so it makes perfect sense that it comes and goes, mixed with her hill folk twang.Don Murray's performance is criticized by some as annoying or overly loud. Beau is a farm boy who has probably never talked with a woman, let alone kissed one. His manners are suitable for the barn because he doesn't know any better. His attraction to Cherie (whom he calls "Cherry") is like the first crush of a schoolboy, transformative and tempestuous. He is bursting at the seams with enthusiasm. His ideas of manhood are, no doubt, garnered from ranch hands. Jack Lemmon has played a few characters with similar traits--loud and enthusiastic.The original play was much different and, as Inge intended, much darker. It is a story about the essential loneliness of life. The movie has been considerably brightened. No doubt Logan had a large hand in that. When Cherie and Beau are waylaid at a bus stop with some strangers, Beau is forced to confront his caveman ways. Cherie is touched, leading to her revelation about her background. Somehow the bus stop scene is still the central part of the film. The kiss between Cherie and Beau after their transformations is touching and intense (thanks to the contrast with Beau's behavior beforehand).I don't think Cherie's decision at the end is as risky as the decision Madge makes at the end of "Picnic", but it still indicates a major change in the character. In the end, "Bus Stop" goes from over-the-top comedy to a love story.

You know how sometimes you watch a movie and you know it was based on a play? Well this is that kind of movie. I went into it unaware of its origins and could peg it right away. The dialogue and performances are overly theatrical and loud, very much like stage acting. Not realistic in the least. Just terrible acting, especially from the two leads. Marilyn's acting is praised a lot by people who inexplicably enjoy this movie. I guess I see why -- she is stepping outside of her comfort zone and portraying a character unlike anything else she had done up to this point. However, I can't really compliment her performance. Her accent is terrible, for starters. Obviously translating such a broad stage character to film is difficult but not impossible. The performance isn't subtle but, then again, not many in this movie are. Marilyn's makeup is also atrocious. I guess the character is supposed to be pale (why I don't know) so they cover her in makeup in some scenes to make her appear more pale. It's gross really.The worst part of the movie is Don Murray's Bo. He is insufferable to a degree words can't convey. I don't remember the last time I loathed a character as much as this one. He acts like an animal. He even eats raw meat! He barks at people and thinks he can just force them to do whatever he wants. He's completely unappealing as a human being. I recently watched the Joan Crawford "classic" Trog and let me tell you that troglodyte has more class and humanity than this...thing...Murray plays. Also this is supposed to be at least partly a comedy. Where was the humor? All of that obnoxiousness from Bo? Spit on that! The part in the end where he supposedly learns his lesson, or at least one of them, seemed forced and inauthentic. As with Marilyn, it's tempting to blame all of this on the story and how the characters are written. But I'm not giving the actors a free pass like that. A good actor could have brought some subtlety and humanity to these cardboard roles. But neither lead does that. They just play their parts like the worst community theatre hacks out there. If you're a Marilyn fan, you'll probably want to see this to judge for yourself. But be forewarned there's little of her charm, sex appeal, or personality on display here. Everybody else I can't stress enough how much you should avoid this rubbish.