The Wayward Bus (1957) User Reviews

Jayne's finest hour?

[gnb · 7/10 · 12 January 2008]

Like many Steinbeck stories, this is more of a snapshot of a time and place as opposed to a rigid start-middle-end kind of movie. What we get here is a look into the lives of a bunch of characters with many of their respective futures left open to interpretation.

So we have the buffoonish travelling salesman, the alcoholic diner owner, the teen dreaming of Hollywood stardom, the rugged bus driver, the embarrassed stripper, the repressed teen...the list goes on. Basically, a cross section of society travel on a bus whose journey is as unpredictable and dangerous as that of the lives of most of the passengers aboard.

While it's not the most riveting of movies, and the vastness of Cinemascope certainly spoils the intimacy of some of the scenes, it is a solid little drama in the kitchen sink/new wave style that is an entertaining watch from start to finish. While the copy I own on DVD has clearly been copied from a television broadcast resulting in fluffy picture and muffled sound, I still enjoyed (and repeatedly enjoy) watching this film.

The standout? But Jayne Mansfield of course. If Marilyn silenced the critics that she could act with a movie about a bus, then so did our Jayne. Of course the platinum blonde tresses and eye-popping figure are present and correct but gone are the silly wiggle, the high pitched squeals and the plunging necklines. Here, in a rare straight dramatic performance, Jayne present Camille not as a cartoon character a la Jessica Rabbit, but rather a sex symbol with feelings, someone who is employed for her looks but has fears and emotions beneath the surface. Jayne moves and talks naturally in this film and is a revelation.

How sad that after this solid performance and her wonderful turn as Rita Marlow in Rock Hunter, ego would dictate that she would agree to appear with Cary Grant in what many consider the final nail in her A-list film career, Kiss Them For Me...a truly abysmal waste of time.

But forget about her career mistakes; Jayne is solid gold here and this is well worth a watch.

Based on the John Steinbeck Book of the Same Title

[Uriah43 · 7/10 · 10 July 2017]

"Johnny Chicoy" (Rick Jason) owns a run-down bus which operates on a route from Rebel Corners, California to San Juan, Mexico. His wife, "Alice Chicoy" (Joan Collins) runs the small bus stop and and they have two young employees named "Norma" (Betty Lou Keim) and "Ed 'Pimples' Carson" (Dee Pollock) who help them out. Although Johnny and Alice love one another the problem is that Alice is an alcoholic who is insanely jealous of other women and mistreats both Norma and Ed rather badly as well. In any case, after a heated argument Norma decides to quit and gets on the bus to San Juan with some other passengers which includes several rather unusual characters. Although the actual bus ride isn't very long, what none of the people count on is the weather taking a severe turn for the worse which subsequently results in some life-changing decisions for all them. Now from what I understand, this film was based on the book of the same title written by John Steinbeck with a few changes here and there to accommodate a motion picture audience. Likewise, it was also being used to showcase the talents of Jayne Mansfield (as the stripper "Camille Oakes") who had only recently come into prominence as one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols. Be that as it may, what I liked in particular about this movie was the depth of the characters and the manner in which all of the actors played their parts. Additionally, there were a couple of suspenseful scenes which were also quite entertaining as well. That being said, although it is certainly dated, I enjoyed this movie and have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Washboard Rd.

[srkoho · 8/10 · 7 February 2020]

The combination of Mansfield along with the bus ride to San Juan, this movie is worth the ride.

Interesting film

[SlimJim39 · 7/10 · 9 February 2020]

I was surfing the channels and came upon this gem. I liked it! Interesting to see Rick Jason out of uniform. The one neat thing about it is the ending. Good movie.

Strong Performances From Stereotyped Actors

[boblipton · 7/10 · 7 February 2020]

A bunch of random strangers get on a bus for a short haul across the border to Mexico. They find out something about the other passengers, but more about themselves.

At one time this had been planned as a prestige production, with names like Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Susan Hayward, and Gene Tierney mentioned for the role. By the time it came to the screen, the cast consisted of lesser-regarded players like Dan Dailey, Joan Collins, Jayne Mansfield, and Larry Keating in the roles. Although on paper it looks like a low-rent version of GRAND HOTEL, the characters are well drawn from a Steinbeck story, and the performers offer much stronger performances than the usual work they are noted for.

Credit producer Charles Brackett. He started as a writer, and in the mid-1930s, he hooked up with Billy Wilder. When they grew tired of directorial interference with their scripts, Wilder began to direct regularly, with Brackett as the producer. After 1950, they went on their own ways. Brackett continued to produce, occasionally taking writing credit, through 1962. Along the way, he picked up three Oscars, including one honorary one, amidst a baker's dozen nominations. He died in 1969, aged 76.

Jayne Mansfield in Steinbeck

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 22 October 2020]

Kind of a remake of bus-stop, from the year before. this one has the incredible Joan Collins, who played opposite Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in Road to Hong Kong. here, she's Alice, who works in a diner where the bus stops. although she's a plain jane in this one. you almost won't recognize her. With Jayne Mansfield as Camille, and Dan Dailey as Ernest. and Rick Jason is Johnny, the bus driver, Alice's husband. when washouts and a slide block the road, Johnny wants to see if he can drive around them. it's pretty good. Directed by Victor Katz. after his first fifteen films, he moved into television. It's a Steinbeck story; the usual interactions between people, traveling on a journey, far from home. and some great california scenery, although there's nothing specific listed here on imdb. good stuff.

Rolling Soap Opera with a Few Thrills

[dougdoepke · 1 May 2016]

Starting from a backwater bus stop, a load of assorted passengers and their hunky driver have to negotiate terrible road conditions, while dealing with personal problems along the way.

Catch that bus. No wonder it's "wayward". Looks like it was bought at a junk yard sale, but, hey, it proves to be a real trouper. Chicoy (Jason) is the driver and he's got to get his assorted passengers to their destination, come heck or high water, both of which make a scary appearance. Meanwhile, the passengers have to pair up or straighten out, meaning the bus journey is not just literal but symbolic of personal discoveries. That may not be an original plot device, but the road effects are really well done. One thing for sure, except for Mansfield the film has a really drab look to it. Even the usually glamorous Collins is dressed down. Speaking of Collins, she's the only one to go over- the-top amongst a generally well-acted storyline. Going in, I thought this would be a Mansfield showcase, but it's not. She's just one of the passengers with her own personal difficulties to get straight. In fact, her budding romance with an aging Dailey is rather poignant. All in all, the movie adds up a decent time-passer with a few thrills and some non-sappy soap opera to carry the narrative.

Grand Hotel on a bus

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 24 July 2015]

It took a decade for one of John Steinbeck's lesser known novels to be made into a film. As you can guess by the title it's a bus picture. But if you are expecting The Wayward Bus to be another It Happened One Night your expectations will be dashed.

It's more like a Grand Hotel on a cheap bus with many characters and many stories intertwining. The driver is Rick Jason and this is a special run that he has for between two small towns, kind of like the Hooterville Cannonball between Hooterville and Pixley. The Hooterville of the story is Rebel Corners where Jason's wife Joan Collins runs the diner and the bus stop and he drives the bus. It's a pretty dull and routine life. But this particular trip which Jason makes in very bad weather brings out the best and worst in him and his passengers.

The Wayward Bus is an unusual story in that there's no real main story line. It's a whole lot of little stories just woven together by John Steinbeck. Jason and Collins are the nominal leads, but coming in a strong second are Dan Dailey as a traveling salesman a revival of sorts from his part in I Can Get It For You Wholesale and Jayne Mansfield a stripper on her way to a job, but not particularly happy with the life she's leading. She gets hit on by all the men on the trip, but particularly Larry Keating who is traveling with his frigid wife Katherine Givney and their rebellious daughter Dolores Michaels. Then there's Will Wright whose greatest joy in life is to complain.

As a lot of Steinbeck's work The Wayward Bus is set in California which was his birthplace and the man was definitely a firm believer in writing about what you know. The Wayward Bus is not in a league with Of Mice And Men or The Grapes Of Wrath, but it's still a well told tale by John Steinbeck.

And you certainly can't pass up seeing two of the greatest sex symbols of the last century in Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield together in the same film.

Jayne & Joan = FASCINATING!

[hilljayne · 10/10 · 3 September 2005]

You would expect a total bitchfest with a movie starring both legendary bombshell Jayne Mansfield and soap opera diva Joan Collins....but what you get is a fascinating film based on the John Steinbeck novel of a bus driver and his passengers and their adventures as they get detoured and sidetracked...both on the bus and in life. Joan Collins is the wife of driver Rick Jason (so gorgeous). It's a small and run down little bus that makes side trips. Joan Collins is the owner of a little restaurant who likes the bottle a bit too much. Unhappy with what has become of her life, she decides to "surprise" husband Jason mid-way through his bus trip. Jayne Mansfield is the shamed burlesque dancer on the way to a heavy paying gig in San Juan and gets caught up in the flirtation by a traveling salesman, played by Dan Dailey. Delores Pritchard gives a great performance as the "fast" daughter traveling with her parents on this trip. Also noteworthy is Betty Lou Keim who plays Norma. A really good ensemble piece that deserves a remastered DVD version.

It's not real bad and it's not real good. Let's just say, "Middling!"

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 27 June 2017]

Copyright 1957 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Victoria: 5 June 1957. U.S. release: June 1957. U.K. release: 19 August 1957. Australian release: 26 September 1957. 8,001 feet. 89 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: A bus is forced to divert from the main highway to San Juan by a landslide and travel along an old washboard road.

COMMENT: Originally slated as a Henry Hathaway film, this project was turned over to French director, Victor Vicas, as his first Hollywood assignment. Unfortunately, he does little with it.

Admittedly the script wasn't much to begin with, but the players — with the notable exception of Dan Dailey's joke salesman — are also little help in breathing life into basically second-rate material.

I never met Charles Brackett (1892-1969), the famous screenwriter who teamed so notably with Billy Wilder. At this stage of his career, Brackett was working as a producer at 20th Century-Fox, and by and large, alas, the movies to which he was assigned at this period of his life, were not worthy of his talents. Perhaps, alas, the least memorable of them all, was "The Wayward Bus".

Admittedly, "Wayward Bus" is not a bad movie, but I think a talented, sensitive man like Charles Brackett would be the first to agree that "Wayward Bus" was second rate material - a second rate script with a second rate cast, a second rate budget and a second rate director.

Stereotypes aboard a wayward bus ride...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 27 September 2006]

You hear so little about this film although it was taken from a well received John Steinbeck novel which I understand had to be cleaned up for the screen version. Of course in today's world there's nothing particularly shocking about any of the unruly passengers as they get detoured on a rundown bus making a short trip through California.

RICK JASON is the ruggedly handsome driver (whatever happened to him?), JOAN COLLINS is his unhappy wife tipping the bottle, JAYNE MANSFIELD is a showgirl riding to her next strip assignment, DAN DAILEY is a stock character as a traveling salesman with an eye for a pretty girl, and others are strictly cardboard creations.

But it's strikingly photographed in B&W and CinemaScope, briskly directed by Victor Vikas (who won a directing award for this at the Berlin Film Festival), and not as bad as it might seem for all of its obscurity in the realm of classic films.

Probably lacks the punch of the Steinbeck novel in transferring his characters to the screen in accordance with the code of the '50s.

A journey worth watching

[hollywoodshack · 9/10 · 10 March 2015]

I have often liked this film with Joan Collins as the bus stop café owner whose wandering husband-bus driver, Rick Jason, takes a group of oddly matched tourists on a rugged journey south down a storm flooded road. There is quite a bit of gripping suspense as Chicoy (Jason) manages to pull the bus across a flooded river before the bridge collapses. Also, it has some romantic surprises while the passengers are stranded from their bus as Chicoy searches a barn for a tractor he can use as a tow. Jayne Mansfield does quite well as a cynical bubble dancer trying to conceal her trade. Someone should do a remake of this movie.

Steinbeck Re-Jigged For The Screen

[esoxasox · 7/10 · 21 May 2023]

This will be short as there are many positive reviews here and few wrinkled noses!

I watched the film immediately after reading the book (again), and it does what you'd expect in re-jigging a series of individual character studies (with their thought processess) into a mini disaster movie, and I'm fine with that as it didn't deviate too far from the central story line.

The theme of book and almost all of it's characters throughout is sex, trying to get it, or fending it off. If you want to know more read it. However, that was not possible to integrate integrate much into a film of the era, apart from one scene in a barn.

BUT Jayne Mansfield was excellent as the beautiful but battle-hardened wanting-out stripper, and Steinbeck would have been very happy with her portrayal.

The storyline involving Joan Collins was padded out to give her screen time (and over act).

Finally and the MOST disappointing aspect of the film was the usual Hollywood practice of giving a romantic male lead to a guy who was too old. Dan Dailey was 18 years older than Jayne Mansfield and at 42 looked it. You can't suspend disbelief for that sort of nonsense.

Completely misses the qualities of the book

[peefyn · 5/10 · 16 November 2015]

This is not a terrible movie, but I would not recommend it if you're looking for a classic Steinbeck story. The book was a fascinated nuanced look into how people perceive themselves and others, often wrongly. A big part of the book was exploring the thoughts of the various characters as they are judging each other silently (or openly!). All of this in a story of a crowd of completely different people stuck on a bus.

Making a movie of the book must have been a hard task, and it seems like they opted to go for streamlined versions of the characters, focusing on the melodramatic aspects of the book. However, without the thought of the characters explaining the motivations behind their actions, the movie ends up being about Thing Happening. Because there's such an ensemble of characters involved, you only briefly get to know each character.

I know I'm judging this movie a bit harshly, and it's unfair to hold the movie up against the book - after all, the book is (almost) always better. But when the movie misses the point of the book and only keeps the uppermost layer of it, it's doing itself (and the book) a great injustice.

A group of ill-assorted passengers...

[lucyrfisher · 7/10 · 27 November 2022]

...board a falling-apart bus to drive into Force 10 gale to get to San Juan... "And Lordsburg!" Yes, it's Lifeboat. Or Stagecoach. Or the Shanghai Express. There are perils, there are land-slips, it rains a lot, the passengers skip across a collapsing bridge (the women all in high heels, so practical).

But it's by John Steinbeck, so you have to have your nose rubbed in the working-classness of it all, and some method acting, and some inconsequential naturalistic dialogue, and some yelling, and some slapping. I began to wish it was just a noir B picture.

But then you get interested in the characters - the boy, "Kit" Carson, chatting up Norma the waitress. "All I want is a wife and a little home" - he's going to get swept away when the bridge collapses, isn't he? Miraculously he survives, despite idiotically going back for his jacket.

Jayne Mansfield, the stripper with a snappy comeback for the salesman. How come he's so naive? She looks just like a stripper, despite pretending to be a dental nurse.

The strange trio of hovering parents and forward daughter who makes a dead set for Chicoy the bus driver. The congratulate themselves on having detached her from a basketball player. The trip to see a tedious historical monument off the beaten track is supposed to, as she says, "save her soul". The parents are well-acted, the mother quoting her daughters psychoanalyst and the father dismissing it all as tosh. He seems like a sensible chap. But he spots Jayne's picture in a "true confessions" magazine, draws conclusions and approaches the salesman for help in meeting "that kind of girl - bar girls, chorus girls". He hints he could borrow the salesman's flat in LA for a consideration.

Later, when the bus is stuck in a pond, his wife reveals that their marriage has been all-but sexless. You can understand his behaviour somewhat - and he seems to genuinely care for his wife.

While stuck in the pond, the characters emerge from the bus and find themselves in a spot of raw nature with nothing more civilised nearby but a few barns. They act as if they were on a day trip to heaven, or maybe Narnia. I admit I began to fast forward.

Mrs Chicoy hitches a lift in a helicopter and joins the party. The salesman decides, so what if Jayne is a stripper, she's a nice girl. The Chicoys - well, you can imagine.

Yes, it was a noir B picture after all! There's even a Murder She Wrote Tribute.

Jayne Mansfield is excellent as the shame-faced stripper, as is Joan Collins as the alcoholic café owner, Alice Chicoy. If she's going to get back together with her husband, she's going to need to join AA. I wish them luck.

Bus ride of self discovery

[kapelusznik18 · 7/10 · 17 September 2014]

****SPOILERS****Based on John Steinbeck's racy 1947 novel the film "The Wayword Bus" gets the "Grand Hotel" treatment here on the big screen with a number of sub-plots about ordinary people in a very un-ordinary situation. It's the handsome Marlon Brando-like, who was originally tapped the part, bus driver Johnny Chicoy, Rick Jason, who gets the ball or bus rolling with his deteriorating relationship with his alcoholic wife Alice, Joan Collins. It's Alice who's suspects him having affairs with his women passengers while he's on the road thus leaving her high & dry. It's Johnny's trip to San Juan that has Alice finally drop him when Johnny shows a strong interest to young and unexperienced, in sex, Mildred Pitchard, Dolores Michaels, who does everything to get his attention.

There's the also soon to be reformed high priced stripteases artist Camille Oakes played by blond bombshell Jane "40-24-36" Mansfield who's fantastic and sexy body is hard for any red-blooded man like Johnny to overlook. It's Camille who's been looking for love in all the wrong places and finds it with traveling salesman "Honest" Hrnest Horton played by song & dance man Dan Daily. Not to overlook Mildred's straight laced parents Elliott & Bernice Pitchard, Larry Keating & Kathryn Givney,who feel that their out of control daughter is well on her way to self -destruction. There's also young Norma, Betty Lou Keim, who's looking to become a star in Hollywood and thinks that Camille can help her get discovered there. With Kit "Pimples" Carson, Dee Pollock, the bus mechanic and cranky businessman Morse, Robert Bray, making up the rest of the passenger crew the bus goes on its merry way through a mine field of landslides and downpours as well as bridge wash outs until it reaches its final destination in San Juan.

***SPOILERS*** It's at the end of the movie that all involved finally overcome their petty hangups and phobias and change their lives for the better. As for bus driver Johnny just when it looked like his old lady Alice left him for good, in him being caught fooling around with Mildred. It's then that Alice had a change of heart in knowing that her actions, with the bottle, lead him to it. It's just then and unexpectedly Alice came back to him,as the only passenger in his bus, as he was just about to it into oblivion.

Apparently this movie's director isn't good with actors

[movieswithgreg · 6/10 · 21 February 2020]

Or else he didn't like this cast. Rick Jason is just terrible. Overacting, inappropriately angry, exaggerated emotional outbursts -- I can see why his wife hits the bottle. It's a good thing Jason found his happy place on TV's Combat!.

Joan Collins is one of the oddest so-called alcoholic characters I've seen on screen. The good part is she's not an exaggerated drunk. The bad part is she doesn't seem drunk; she merely seems neurotic and unhappy.

Dan Dailey seems too big a star for this project. He was already the biggest-name actor in this movie of character actors. Not surprisingly, Dailey is easily the most convincing performer here.

It seems this project was originally intended to be a bigger film with a bigger cast, and for some business reason, they were "stuck" making it. Beats me.

The Wayward Bus

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 20 April 2023]

The rather dashing "Johnny" (Rick Jason - he reminded me of Laurence Harvey a bit) runs his bus service/diner with help from the young "Kit" (Dee Pollack) and his dipso wife "Alice" (Joan Collins). She is jealous of just about everyone and when she slaps their waitress "Norma" (Betty Lou Keim) he has had enough. He embarks his passengers and sets off - amidst quite a thunderstorm - to San Reno. The bus has a mixture of occupants. The glamorous and savvy "Camille" (Jayne Mansfield) soon attracts the attention of travelling salesman "Horton" (Dan Dailey) and the slightly sleazy "Pritchard" (Larry Keating) who is travelling with his rather high maintenance wife "Bernice" (Kathryn Givney) and daughter "Mildred" (Dolores Michaels) and, finally, they've got the rather curmudgeonly "Van Brunt" (Will Wright). As the weather closes in and they have to take a diversion along a washboard, desert, road, the characters on the bus appear, gradually, to face the sane uncertainty in their lives as the bus does on it's increasingly perilous journey. Meantime, poor old "Alice" is stuck at home nursing a bottle, having a bath and bemoaning the absence of her husband. Can they reconcile? For the first half hour or so, this is actually not bad. Thereafter, though, it strays well over the border into soap. Mansfield has probably the strongest character and plays quite well but Collins just hasn't the skill to carry off her role with anything like a convincing performance. The last twenty minutes rob the film of what jeopardy the wet and windy journey had hitherto established and by the end you just know what is going to happen - and it's nothing special.

Mansfield and Collins

[januszlvii · 10/10 · 26 April 2020]

The Wayward Bus is Jane Mansfield's best movie ( interesting that both her best and Marilyn Monroe's ( Bus Stop) take place on a bus, with "Bus" in the title). It is also one of Joan Collins best ( right after The Girl On The Red Velvet Swing). I am not going to spoil things, except to say that the film is dominated by the Mansfield/Dan Dailey coupling ( one of several in the movie), and it proves that Jayne really could act. It is important to note that Jayne and Joan had one scene together and it was very effective, and not what you expect. If someone is a fan of Mansfield or Collins ( or both), it is on FXM and if you have not seen it, do not miss it ( It is rarely ever shown ( and I have looked for it for years)). Easy 10/10 stars.

decent movie with uneven cast

[jimakros · 6/10 · 3 June 2021]

This is well directed and with decent script. Most actors in it are ok in their parts ,even Jayne Mansfield tries to rise to the occasion and act as naturaly as she could. The guy who mostly ruins the movie is Rick Jason of Combat fame,even though he was an exceptionaly goodlooking man was not a very good actor and thats why he never rose to serious leading man. In this movie two women are drooling over him ,one being the super sexy Joan Collins. The guy just could not make himself likable. He is the main character in this movie and this would be star making material for the actor but he just couldnt do it. Somehow he drags the movie down with him,even though the movie is suspenseful and the other actors make it interesting Jason just doesnt cut it and you are left with a lukewarm impession of this story.

Only Just Ho-Hum

[recluse2 · 5/10 · 1 December 2018]

It was strange how little I cared about these people. If the bridge had gone down and they'd drowned I wouldn't have batted an eyelash. Just a bunch of crude pathetic saps. There is something limited about Steinbeck's writing.

1957 was a good year for film

[jromanbaker · 8/10 · 25 July 2020]

Concentrating on America only 1957 was a good year for films that were mainstream and yet took on adult issues. ' No Down Payment ', ' The Bachelor Party ', ' Monkey on My Back ' and a ' A Hatful of Rain ' are a few well worth tracking down, and from the Sci-Fi horror movie field there were many delights, and the threat of the Atomic Bomb underlined a lot of them. It seemed like the year people expected to see issues outside the norm. ' The Wayward Bus ' almost ranks among the above mentioned. It could have gone further as the Steinbeck work does, but remains a little timid towards what it had on its hands. Despite that Jayne Mansfield shows that she could overcome being a stereotype if given the chance and Joan Collins manages to look ordinary and both act better than in other films I have seen them in. Rick Jason looked like a contender for being better known but somehow ( he had the looks ) drifted into television. Dan Daily acts the serious buffoon, and the chemistry was not quite there with Mansfield as a ' love ' partner. As for the direction it looks fairly good enhanced by sharp black and white Cinemascope and the action scenes ( especially with the bus on the collapsing bridge ) are well done. I could watch it again quite easily and I think it deserves an 8 for nearly being that adult film it should have been. But only please watch it in Cinemascope because in pan and scan it looks dull and a lot of available copies of it around are not in Cinemascope.

Good acting and relatively effective production of multi-character drama

[pacificgroove-315-494931 · 6/10 · 29 April 2023]

There's an excellent quality, high definition, wide screen version of this movie on YouTube.

It's a small scale, multi-character drama. Almost everyone in the cast turn in believable, reality grounded performances. Collins and Mansfield show that they were very good actresses, not just sex objects. Rick Jason is effective as the leading man, and Dan Daily does a very compentent turn as a supporting player (he was always a very good actor, not just a song and dance man).

Given that this was a relatively low budget production, the average special effects, and minor production faults are understandable and little noticable.

Jayne Mansfield rides a bus

[ThomasColquith · 5/10 · 3 November 2022]

I caught "The Wayward Bus" today on television. This was a new film to me and it was ok. The black and white cinematography is very nice except for a few bumpy bus scenes and the story includes a cast of characters which are slightly developed. It's not a bad drama, not a lot of action or growth or surprises, but it did hold my attention the whole time so I will rate it a 5/10. This was the first film featuring Jayne Mansfield that I have seen. I thought she was fine in a fairly straightforward role. But the main relationship between the bus driver and the diner woman just wasn't that interesting.

Good little film in basic character study

[maxi82966 · 7/10 · 23 February 2021]

First saw this film about a year ago,and it turns out i really liked it!This has the basic elements of character studies,and gives good insight into them all within the hour and a half time.You have the overworked and under appreciated bus driver,his wife,who is overworked and a depressive drinker,who works the little restaurant and bus stop.Then you have the wanna be actress and the bus driver's helper appropriately named"pimples".The blonde bombshell(Jayne Mansfield) a dancer,albeit,a stripper no less.The salesman with confidence,the over-protective parents with their daughter and finally the stern old business man who has no patience.All In all a good little movie worth the time to invest in watching it,nothing super exciting,but just a lower budget film with good but predictable script.