Bus Stop **** (1956, Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray, Hope Lange) – Classic Movie Review 2,654

The static but enjoyable 1956 movie version of William Inge’s classic play Bus Stop showcases Marilyn Monroe’s appealing turn as vulnerable saloon singer Chérie. Oscar-nominated Don Murray is nearly as good as Bo Decker, the cowboy who pursues her.

Director Joshua Logan’s rather static and stage-bound but enjoyable 1956 movie version of William Inge’s classic play Bus Stop showcases Marilyn Monroe’s appealing performance as the emotionally vulnerable saloon singer character Chérie.

Monroe’s performance is the main reason to watch the movie nowadays but Oscar-nominated Don Murray is nearly as good as Beauregard ‘Bo’ Decker, the bewitched, bothered and bewildered rodeo cowboy who pursues her in Phoenix, Arizona. The naïve and stubborn cowboy falls in love with her and tries to take her away against her will to get married and live with him on his ranch in Montana.

She tries to run away to Los Angeles but he finds her and forces her to board the bus to Montana. When the bus stops at Grace’s Diner, the passengers learn that the road ahead is blocked. Bo is determined to have Cherie, but everyone knows what he’s up to.

As regular revivals show, Inge’s Tennessee Williams-style play still has a lot of power on stage, but unfortunately that power was diluted on the way to the cinema. Nevertheless this is still quite an engrossing film enshrining one of iconic Monroe’s best, most telling acting performances. And Marilyn’s musical number version of ‘That Old Black Magic’ has a lot of magic too. 

Monroe rejected most of the costume designs by Travilla and went through the studio costume department to find things she thought suited the character. The black-lace blouse that she wears in the early scenes was originally worn by Susan Hayward in With a Song in My Heart (1952). Monroe did accept the studio-designed outfit for ‘That Old Black Magic’ but told Logan: ‘You and I are going to shred it up, pull out part of the fringe, poke holes in the fishnet stockings.’ The costume sold for $230,000 in 2011.

Also in the cast are Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray, Hope Lange, Hans Conried, Casey Adams (aka Max Showalter), Henry Slate, Terry Kelman and Linda Brace. The Arizona State University Sun Devil Marching Band appear as themselves.

The original Broadway production of opened at the Music Box Theater in New York on March 2 1955, ran for 478 performances and was nominated for the 1956 Tony Award for the Best Play.

What comes round… Monroe patterned her hillbilly accent and performance on those of Kim Stanley, who originated the character of Chérie on Broadway. Two years later, Stanley played a thinly-veiled version of Monroe in The Goddess (1958).

It was Murray’s film debut after six years of TV work. He married co-star Hope Lange (also making her film debut) on 14 April 1956 and they had two children, but they divorced on 7 July 1961.

Murray said that, because of Monroe’s problems with lines, every scene with her was difficult. ‘On some scenes there would be 30 takes. If Marilyn was having trouble getting through a scene, and finally got it, they would print it. It did not matter how the other actors did. I had a feeling of relaxation doing the scenes she wasn’t in. She was detached, into herself. On the set, she appeared frightened, worried.’

Script-writer George Axelrod said about Marilyn: ‘She had reached a point in her neurosis where if anybody said “Cut!” she took it as an affront, burst into tears and ran to her dressing room.’

However, Logan said: ‘She was the most constantly exciting actress I ever worked with.’

Bus Stop drive-in ad from 1956.

Marilyn learned an Ozark accent for her role. Filming took place in Idaho and Arizona in early 1956, with Monroe technically in charge as the head of her film production company MMP (Marilyn Monroe Productions), making some of the decisions on cinematography (though the cinematographer is Milton R Krasner) and with Broadway director Logan learning to adapt to the difficulties of her regular lateness and constant demands for perfection.

Axelrod recalled: ‘It took Marilyn two years to realise this was her best performance. She did not speak to either Josh Logan or me for a year afterwards, because she felt we’d cut the picture in favour of the boy. Later she came to realise she was wrong.’

It was a hit for Marilyn Monroe Productions and 20th Century Fox, taking $7.27 million in rentals on a budget of $2.2 million.

Eileen Heckart, Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray in Bus Stop.

The cast are Marilyn Monroe as Chérie, Don Murray as Beauregard ‘Bo’ Decker, Arthur O’Connell as Virgil Blessing, Betty Field as Grace, Eileen Heckart as Vera, Robert Bray as Carl the bus driver, Hope Lange as Elma Duckworth, Hans Conried as Life Magazine Photographer, Casey Adams as Life Magazine Reporter, Henry Slate, Terry Kelman, Linda Brace and The Arizona State University Sun Devil Marching Band as themselves.

Running time: 96 minutes.

Release date: August 31, 1956 (US).

Donald Patrick Murray (July 31, 1929 – February 2, 2024).

Don Murray died at his home in Goleta, California, on 2 February 2024, aged 94. His other films include A Hatful of Rain (1957), Shake Hands with the Devil (1959), One Foot in Hell (1960), The Hoodlum Priest (1961), Advise & Consent (1962), Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), Deadly Hero (1975), and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,654

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