Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Ersatz snow
Comment: Despite the efforts of the writer, director, and producer, this movie never shucks the feeling that it is a one set stage play dressed up a little. The story is OK but not very convincing. No one could possibly be as naive as Beau, who sees a half-clad bleached blond untalented singer in a sleazy bar and thinks she is a virginal angel. Not even in 1956.
Don Murray is a little over the top, which works in a farce but not a comedy. There's a difference. But Marilyn Monroe is excellent as Cherie, and I'm no great fan of Miss M. The rest of the cast is sufficient, although I don't know why some of them were included at all, except to fill up bus seats. Still, this isn't a bad comedy romance.
Great it isn't.
Finally there is that movie snow, flakes that looks suspiciously like Rinso or maybe Duz. It doesn't melt on clothes when the people come into the warm cafe. It doesn't track in either, or soak shoes, or turn damp on faces. I see that parts of the movie were made in Idaho. Do they have different snow there?
Customer Rating: Summary: Performed With Gusto
Comment: Marilyn Monroe was nominated for the Golden Globe award for Best Actress for this 1956 film adaptation of William Inge's play. As Cherie, she is beautiful and plays a character from some small town in Arkansas where guys started pursuing her when she was 14. From a perspective 50 years later, some of the acting seems a bit over the top, but it played well in its day.
Don Murray plays the ranch hand Bo who wants to force Cherie to marry him. Murray earned his only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1956 for the role. Today, his style seems too animated to be believable. However, he certainly performs with gusto.
The supporting cast is also excellent. Robert Bray who was in "The Caine Mutiny" plays Carl the bus driver who gives Bo a licking. Arthur O'Connell who had two Oscar nominations for "Picnic" in 1955 & "Anatomy of a Murder" in 1959 does a good job as Virgil, Bo's buddy that tries to counsel him. Betty Field plays Grace, the cafe owner with a strut out of "Annie Get Your Gun." She has appeared in "Picnic," "The Great Gatsby," & "King's Row." Eileen Heckert with her deep voice plays Cherie's friend Vera. Heckert was nominated for the supporting Oscar for "The Bad Seed" in 1956 and won in 1972 for "Butterflies Are Free." She does an excellent job of grounding the film with a sense of reality. Hope Lange puts in a brief appearance as Elma Duckworth who works at the diner. She's lovely in a small role. The following year, she would get a Best Supporting Actress nomination for "Peyton Place" and go on to win hearts in the 1960s in TV's "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir."
"Bus Stop" seems a bit dated now 50+ years later. However, it is well worth viewing to watch Marilyn Monroe and the superb supporting cast. Enjoy!
Customer Rating: Summary: One of the great Marilyn Monroe films of all time!!
Comment: Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop gives one of her greatest perfomances; her comic timing is everything and she employs it to the hilt here. Also, her ususal attention to details and to gestures, is strongly in evidence.
At one point Marilyn puts on a sheep skin lined leather coat, a very worn coat, helped, and she does it in such a way that you would think it was a Black Glama ranch mink coat..perfection.
Her makeup, always here white, for "songs" in the "show." Her close ups, generously given by Joshua Logan clue us into certain moods she has about the cowboy(Don Murry) determined to marry her. There are the songs..Marilyn bought her own costumes for this film, and made sure they were from a rental agency and were very worn. Her rendition as Cheri of "Down Down I go" is not be believed..play it over and over and see what she does.
Many more details: when marilyn gets out of the cold into the Diner, watch her warming up top the stove, as if to a lover...it goes on, and it is gl;orious.
Brava Marilyn and the entire cast, and, J. Logan, the director, for yet another William Inge manifestation on the screen, that other being Picnic.
The reviews that say this is dated are unaware of the many reviavls of this play, and their dismal results. Also, see a Kate Hudson film, or Reese Witherspoon, or Sandra Bullock film for bad comic timing, terrible scripts and awful photography, and are they into thw itmnes in which we live?
Marilyn Monroe was not just an "icon" of the ages; she had an enormous talent, largely unrecognized. She knew evberything others thought of her, especially men, and she plays up to it and away from it with great skill and artistry. Bus Stop shows you this, and hjer supporting cast see it and are better for it.
