The Big Bus **** (1976, Joseph Bologna, Stockard Channing, John Beck, René Auberjonois, Ned Beatty, Bob Dishy, José Ferrer, Ruth Gordon, Harold Gould, Larry Hagman) – Classic Movie Review 8172

All aboard the ultimately luxurious coach for director James Frawley’s 1976 The Big Bus, a hilarious parody of Seventies disaster movies in which drivers Dan Torrance and Shoulders (played by Joseph Bologna and John Beck) and stewardess Kitty Baxter (Stockard Channing) crew the world’s first nuclear-powered bus on its maiden trip from New York to Denver with the world’s oddest group of passengers – including a mad bomber – aboard.

Fred Freeman and Lawrence J Cohen’s amusing screenplay has a good go at all the stereotypes and dialogue of the jeopardy genre, and The Big Bus is nearly as funny as Airplane! and The Naked Gun, the best of the parody films that followed it.

The Big Bus features hilarious performances and bright, fast direction from Frawley, who keeps it going right up to the cliffhanging finale.

Also in the lovely cast are René Auberjonois, Ned Beatty, Bob Dishy, José Ferrer, Ruth Gordon, Harold Gould, Larry Hagman, Sally Kellerman, Richard Mulligan, Lynn Redgrave, Howard Hesseman, Murphy Dunne, Richard B Schull, Stuart Margolin, Mary Wilcox and Vic Tayback.

RIP James Frawley, also the director of The Muppet Movie (1979), who died of a heart attack on January 22, 2019, aged 82.

RIP Joseph Bologna, who died from cancer on August 13, 2017, aged 82.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8172

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