Handsome young Bus Riley (Michael Parks) returns to his small hometown after a three-year stint in the Navy. His mom is happy to see him, as is his little sister Gussie (who hero-worships Bus to the uncomfortable point of bordering on a physical crush) and his neighbor Judy (whose single mom is a closet alcoholic). Bus seems a little tense at first, not quite knowing what to do with the rest of his life. Spence, an old friend who works as an undertaker, offers to give Bus a job and pay for him to take undertaking classes, but the desperately lonely Spence seems to want a closer relationship (perhaps physical) than Bus wants. His old job as an auto mechanic is offered to him but he thinks that's beneath him. He winds up becoming a door-to-door salesman for an "atomic cleaner" (think, fancy vacuum cleaner) and discovers that lonely housewives find him quite charming. But his biggest problem is discovering that his old flame Laurel (Ann-Margret) his not only broken up with him, but married a rich older man. Unhappy, Laurel tries to start a fling with Bus. He resists at first, but one night while her husband is out of town, the two have a private little pool party and they become secret lovers. Of course, nothing good can come of all this, and something is going to have to snap to get Bus to take his future seriously.
Playwright William Inge wrote the screenplay but used a pseudonym when the studio made major alterations in the story to suit the up-and-coming Ann-Margret. You can still, however, feel the Inge influence as exemplified by PICNIC and BUS STOP: a young studly hero, occasionally shirtless, driving women crazy and exposing some unsavory doings. The tone is less strident than in PICNIC (a movie I have found to be practically unwatchable after a first viewing)—mostly light but with some tragedy-leaning melodrama. Parks holds the screen well in his first movie role. Like some other 60s male leads (Gary Lockwood in
MODEL SHOP, Peter Kastner in
YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW, George Peppard in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S), his character is mostly passive and reacts rather than initiates action. I think he's a little too rough looking to be called handsome, but he has a sly, cornfed sexual appeal here, and he and the very sexy Ann-Margret have good chemistry. Janet Margolin is the possibly troubled Judy with whom Bus almost has a fling; 70s cult actress Mimsy Farmer has the small role of a casual friend who is critical of Bus; Kim Darby is the little sister who is way too physical with her older brother; Jocelyn Brando (Marlon's older sister) is the mom; most fun of all is Match Game contestant Brett Somers who has the small but noticeable role of a spinster schoolteacher, a boarder at the Riley home, who has a hard time putting up with Bus's rowdiness (and occasional near-nudity). Though the film has its moments, it's episodic and slowly-paced, and I could only recommend it for fans of quirky 60s cinema.TCM showed this on their late-night Underground series, but I have no idea why—it's not avant-garde or naughty or trippy. I’d call its style mainstream-indie. [TCM]
Handsome young Bus Riley (Michael Parks) returns to his small hometown after a three-year stint in the Navy. His mom is happy to see him, as is his little sister Gussie (who hero-worships Bus to the uncomfortable point of bordering on a physical crush) and his neighbor Judy (whose single mom is a closet alcoholic). Bus seems a little tense at first, not quite knowing what to do with the rest of his life. Spence, an old friend who works as an undertaker, offers to give Bus a job and pay for him to take undertaking classes, but the desperately lonely Spence seems to want a closer relationship (perhaps physical) than Bus wants. His old job as an auto mechanic is offered to him but he thinks that's beneath him. He winds up becoming a door-to-door salesman for an "atomic cleaner" (think, fancy vacuum cleaner) and discovers that lonely housewives find him quite charming. But his biggest problem is discovering that his old flame Laurel (Ann-Margret) his not only broken up with him, but married a rich older man. Unhappy, Laurel tries to start a fling with Bus. He resists at first, but one night while her husband is out of town, the two have a private little pool party and they become secret lovers. Of course, nothing good can come of all this, and something is going to have to snap to get Bus to take his future seriously.
Playwright William Inge wrote the screenplay but used a pseudonym when the studio made major alterations in the story to suit the up-and-coming Ann-Margret. You can still, however, feel the Inge influence as exemplified by PICNIC and BUS STOP: a young studly hero, occasionally shirtless, driving women crazy and exposing some unsavory doings. The tone is less strident than in PICNIC (a movie I have found to be practically unwatchable after a first viewing)—mostly light but with some tragedy-leaning melodrama. Parks holds the screen well in his first movie role. Like some other 60s male leads (Gary Lockwood in MODEL SHOP, Peter Kastner in YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW, George Peppard in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S), his character is mostly passive and reacts rather than initiates action. I think he's a little too rough looking to be called handsome, but he has a sly, cornfed sexual appeal here, and he and the very sexy Ann-Margret have good chemistry. Janet Margolin is the possibly troubled Judy with whom Bus almost has a fling; 70s cult actress Mimsy Farmer has the small role of a casual friend who is critical of Bus; Kim Darby is the little sister who is way too physical with her older brother; Jocelyn Brando (Marlon's older sister) is the mom; most fun of all is Match Game contestant Brett Somers who has the small but noticeable role of a spinster schoolteacher, a boarder at the Riley home, who has a hard time putting up with Bus's rowdiness (and occasional near-nudity). Though the film has its moments, it's episodic and slowly-paced, and I could only recommend it for fans of quirky 60s cinema.TCM showed this on their late-night Underground series, but I have no idea why—it's not avant-garde or naughty or trippy. I’d call its style mainstream-indie. [TCM]
No comments:
Post a Comment