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| Bus Stop | 
 enlarge | Director: Joshua Logan
Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.56
You Save: $7.42 (50%)
New (40) Used (10) from $7.56
Avg. Customer Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 11605
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 96
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.4
MPN: D2001448D
UPC: 024543014485
EAN: 0024543014485
ASIN: B000059GEJ
Theatrical Release Date: August 31, 1956
Release Date: May 14, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Customer Reviews:
 If you liked the play, you'll be disappointed November 30, 2004
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
Inge's play takes a bit of time to grow on you, but there's a lot of depth to it, and it does a good job of showing many facets of love and loneliness. The movie strips a lot of that out and ends up simplifying things to the point where it just seems hollow. Many of the same emotional peaks are in there, but without anything in the story to give them context, they end up feeling false and overdone.
I think that a film needs to be taken on its own merits, so I'll spend a little time talking just about the movie. But there's no review that says much about the play here, so I want to cover that as well.
I thought Monroe was pretty good in this. There are moments where she was brilliant (the "Old Black Magic" song is a great piece of character work); watching this gives you another chance to appreciate how smart Marilyn actually was.
I thought the actors that did Grace, Carl the bus driver, and Virgil were acceptable (Carl the most so), but Bo was far too one-note a performance. He had some great physicality for the role, which was nice, but the vocal work was grating.
Overall, the pacing of the film seemed poor, but that's somewhat normal with older movies, and I'll admit I probably was biased by knowing the play in this.
The restoration is excellent, I thought. No complaints in the quality of the image.
Basically, had I not just done the play, I probably wouldn't have watched. It was actually a bit stunning to sit through, seeing what a play that I really enjoyed had been morphed into...
The plot's the same, but the movie takes an hour to cover what a few expository sequences in the first act cover: the rodeo, why everyone's on the bus, and so on. This really strips some of the tension from the actual part of the show that takes place at the bus stop; there isn't enough time to build it up.
If you liked Will the sherrif and Dr. Lyman the professor from the play, too bad. They're completely gone. Lyman had to go for 1950s sensibilities I suppose, but taking him out makes Elma a cutout character, almost pointless. Virgil's changed; he's got a different focus, and that really dilutes his part at the end. I always felt he gave the play a "happy" ending by actually answering positively the question of whether there still was love, sacrificial love. You get echoes of that in the film, but just echoes. And you lose a lot of the humor and character of Grace and Carl with the cleaning up of their relationship. Grace becomes a skit character, channelling Mae West, and Carl ends up an amalgam of Carl and Will from the play.
In a nutshell, if you're going to be doing the play, do not watch this movie beforehand! Watch it afterwards with the cast, like I did last night. It'll be fun, but in an MST3K kind of way. Otherwise, unless you're a Marilyn Monroe fan, I'd probably skip it.
 Great Movie August 17, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am a Marilyn Monroe fan and I always heard this movie had some of her best acting. I didn't think I would like this movie but it turned out to be great. Marilyn plays a diffrent character for once. Marilyn also did a great job acting as well! The main plot of this movie is about a cowboy named Bo who goes down to Phoenix for a rodeo. He meets a cafe singer named Cherie. Bo is in love with Cherie but she isn't in love with him. So she tries to escape to Los Angeles but he finds her and forces her to ride back with him to his home in Montana. On the way to Montana they stop at a diner and it turns out that the road ahead is blocked due to a snowstorm. I'm not going to tell the rest of the movie. This is a really good movie!
 What's the point of this movie? July 20, 2004
8 out of 22 found this review helpful
I have to agree with "Keialove". I can't figure out why everybody loves this thing. It's based on a play by William Inge, but in my opinion it never should have made it to the stage, much less screen. The story is about a woman (MM) who resists the advances of an obnoxious cowboy played by Don Murray, but in the end she realizes that she really loves him. Yeah, sure. She's so lonely, she'll go off with anybody. It's boring and overrated.
Man, this stinks. July 19, 2004
7 out of 17 found this review helpful
I love old movies and I love Marilyn. But this just stinks. There's none of Marilyn's glamour or gold-digging charm. She's shrill and whiny in a terrible hick accent. "Beau" is obnoxious and completely over-the-top.The premise of the movie is Beau, a young cowboy, going to a rodeo. He's an innocent, never off his ranch in Montana. He decides he's going to find himself an angel to take back home. So he meets "Cherie" in a saloon. He manhandles her, browbeats her, and eventually kidnaps her. His screaming and fighting make a person think that if he managed to force her to marry him (after abducting her with a lasso as she desperately tries to flee), he'd probably rape her on the wedding night. It's just that creepy. So they end up stuck at a bus station together due to bad weather. FINALLY someone steps in when they see Beau manhandling Cherie, and says he can't kidnap this woman. Beau objects and ends up getting his butt whipped. Which somehow makes Cherie love him and they ride off to Montana together. It's really objectionable. Offensive, really. I can't say one single good thing about the entire movie. It wasn't believable, enjoyable, amusing, or entertaining. I'm really sorry I watched it.
I'm sorry March 25, 2004
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
First off I am a HUGE Marilyn Monroe fan. I also believe only Marilyn Monroe fans watch this movie. She is great in it. It's one of her best performances. As Cheri, she gives a dazzling performance of 'Black Magic', and it's great listening to her in her hillbilly accent. The final scenes where her face take up the entire screen was great directing and she looked as beautiful as an angel. Her comic timing was delivered perfectly, and the costumes she wore in this movie lead to some of her greatest still photograph.So why only 4 stars? The rest of the cast did a great job, Virg, Elma, Grace, and Carl. Who did I leave out? That's right, Bo. Don Murray single-handedly ruins this movie. His cowboy mannerisms are waaaay over the top, he overacts every scene he's in, he's rude, stupid, and to tell you the truth, Marilyn ending up with him is so unbelievable, it makes you just want to scratch your head. Now I know that Bo was supposed to be an inexperienced cowboy right off the ranch, but no one is going to arrive in a city and acts like he owns the world. Kidnapping a woman (with a lasso of all things) and dragging her on the bus is a stretch, but when Bo finally gets his butt kicked by Carl, and learns a lesson in humility, and then Marilyn falls for him, well... I can't believe someone would give up their Hollywood dreams and go to a ranch with a doous like Bo. Again This was a great performance by Marilyn, watch it for her. I'm sure you will. I've never met a Don Murray fan.
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