The Wayward Bus (film)

Infobox Film
name = The Wayward Bus


image_size =
caption = film poster by Tom Chantrell
director = Victor Vicas
producer = Charles Brackett
writer =
narrator =
starring = Jayne Mansfield
Joan Collins

Dan Dailey
music = Leigh Harline
cinematography = Charles G. Clarke
editing = Louis R. Loeffler
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = May 27, 1957
runtime = 87 Min.
country = flagicon|USAUSA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0051182

"The Wayward Bus" is a 1957 drama film released by 20th Century Fox.Film version of John Steinbeck's The Wayward Bus with a largely obscure cast and lackluster direction. Much of the dramatic action in Steinbeck's novel consists of internal monologue; the film version is inevitably unable to match this, and offers nothing better to replace it. The movie retains some minor interest because two actresses in the cast have modern cult followings: Jayne Mansfield (well cast as Camille Oaks) and Joan Collins (much less appropriately cast as Alice Chicoy). Any modern viewers who seek out this film, in hope of watching a bitchy confrontation between these two cult figures, will be disappointed.

The film was released in May 1957 at the height of Mansfield's popularity, at the time 20th Century Fox was spending a lot of money in order to make Mansfield a star. The studio was up in arms because their top star Marilyn Monroe, had walked out on her studio contract because she was tired of having no say in the movies she made. Marilyn in 1955 was the number 1 box office draw in the world. The studio saw a chance at having another “Monroe” and thought that it would also teach Marilyn a lesson. The only problem was that Jayne had signed a run of the "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" play contract, and with all the great box office, they didn’t want to let Jayne go. 20th Century Fox was so determined to get Jayne, they bought the rights to the play, and closed the show.

While she was waiting for "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" to be ready for the screen, the studio wanted to get her in as many movies as possible, Jayne went from one film into the next, after filming "The Girl Can't Help It" she signed for "The Wayward Bus", the film had some box office success and good notices, especially for Mansfield's performance. So with the huge success of “Girl” and the good reviews from “Bus”, Mansfield had become a big star and the studio was ready to throw her into the screen adaptation of her hit play, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?".

The film was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (lost to Sidney Lumet's "12 Angry Men").

Synopsis

Alice Chicoy (Joan Collins) is the wife of driver Johny (Rick Jason). He owns a small and run down little bus that makes side trips. Alice is also 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" her husband mid-way through his bus trip. Among the passengers, Camille Oakes (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,Ernest Horton (played by Dan Dailey). Most of the story takes place on the charter bus owned by Johny. Travelling slowly through a treacherous California mountain region, the passengers undergo a variety of life-altering experiences. The journey has its most profound effects upon the iconoclastic travelling salesman (Dan Dailey) and the lonely stripper (Jayne Mansfield). This is one instance in which the oblong CinemaScope lens is inappropriate to the intimacy of the story.

Cast