Bus Stop (1956)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Theatrical Trailer-2.35:1, 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:20) Featurette-Restoration Comparison (2:26) Gallery-Post Cards Gallery-Lobby Cards
Rating
Year Of Production	1956
Running Time	90:35
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (33:16)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joshua Logan
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Marilyn Monroe Don Murray Arthur O'Connell Betty Field Hope Lange
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	Alfred Newman Cyril J. Mockridge

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 4.0 L-C-R-S (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.55:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.55:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Italian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Spanish Swedish Turkish German Titling Italian Titling Spanish Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Bus Stop is one of the slightly later films in the filmography of Marilyn Monroe, before she became too difficult to deal with and before her untimely death six years later. So why is that of importance? Well, by this stage of her career Marilyn Monroe was supposedly exercising "artistic control" over scripts, directors and the like, which draws an interesting observation as to why, in her desire to be taken as a serious actress, she undertook a role that involved heavy use of a rather (for the time) skimpy costume. Not that I am complaining, oh no! In fact, it almost seems that the more that she does wear the better she looks and by the end of this film every young woman should be rushing off to do something about their obsession with small size bodies. I think if you look up voluptuous in the dictionary, you will find a photograph of Marilyn Monroe taken from the scene in the bus stop after which this film is named. It's pelting down with rain outside, it is as cold as the Antarctic (well at least by Perth standards) and yet watching this film ensures that you feel none of it. Cold shower anyone?

    There is nothing especially difficult about this plot. Young cowboy Beauregard "Bo" Decker (Don Murray) has emerged from the wilds of Montana to participate in the World Championship of Rodeo in Phoenix, Arizona. On the bus ride down from Montana, in the company of his friend Virge (Arthur O'Connell), we get to see that this boy ain't been out in the world much! So when talk turns to "taking a woman", he is just Cro-Magnon-like enough to take the "take" part very literally. Suffice it to say that his entire experience with women at the ripe old age of twenty one is precisely zero, which makes "taking a woman" an interesting concept. Despite his lack of experience, his desires are modest enough - he wants an angel and when he sees her, he will know she is the one. So there we are in Phoenix, Arizona (in its less sophisticated days) with Bo looking for an angel. You would not expect to find one in the Blue Dragon bar but that is where Virge has headed and that is where a bar singer known as Cherie (Marilyn Monroe) can be found. The truth is that she is not that much of a singer but in her costume she is sure guaranteed to part the cowboys from their money, which she does quite successfully it seems, at least until Bo wanders in and finds his angel. Heading backstage after the singing interlude, bumbling, besotted Bo confesses his true love for Cherie and shortly thereafter returns to the bar to announce to Virge and the world that Cherie and he are to marry on the morrow, which of course is big news to Cherie. Next day dawns and what a packed one it is to be: Bo competing in the rodeo, Bo getting married and Virge and Cherie trying to avoid the latter. When things don't quite go his way, Bo resorts to his caveman origins to secure his girl.

    Apart from the fact that she spends a fair chunk of the film in a rather skimpy outfit, what Marilyn Monroe reveals in Bus Stop is the fact that she can actually act. Whereas she was not expected to do much else than look sensational in earlier films in her career, by this stage she was seeking recognition as a genuine actress and was doing plenty to suggest it was deserved recognition. Sure it is not likely to have earned an Oscar nomination, but there was certainly some decent acting going on here, all the more noticeable as there was not much from her co-star Don Murray, billed somewhat as a new "hunk" it would seem. Sure the role was supposed to be somewhat annoying but did it have to be this annoying? Far too over-the-top for his own good, it is no surprise that his career did not amount to very much at all. More thankful was the presence of Arthur O'Connell amongst others who added a decent dollop of solid acting talent to round out what might not be a classic film but certainly a better than solid film.

    Whilst the film ends in something of a tepid manner, it is a nicely enjoyable romp that showcases an acting side of Marilyn Monroe that many still tend to ignore. I cannot say in all honesty that it is one of my favourite Monroe films, but returning to it again after some time indicates that it is better than perhaps I have in the past given it credit for. Despite the acting side of Marilyn Monroe being on show, there is still plenty of the voluptuous, sexy Marilyn Monroe on display here too!

Video

    We started out with a stunner, pulled back slightly with the next DVD on the review list and have worsened again with this release from the Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection.

    Guess what? CinemaScope again, so the theatrical aspect ratio was again 2.55:1. The transfer we have here has a measured ratio of 2.57:1, which is pretty close to being accurate. The transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    Once again the restoration has done a pretty good job of bringing the transfer back to its original glory, although this time there is much more inherent grain than we have seen in the prior two releases reviewed. The definition is generally very good throughout - not super sharp, but no tendency towards softness either. Shadow detail is good, although at times it could have been better. Some of the scenes on the bus and at the bar are somewhat wanting in this regard, but the only issue really is that grain. It is obvious from the opening shots during the credits and continues throughout most of the film to varying degrees. At no time does it really get bad but equally at no time is it completely missing from the transfer. The clarity of the transfer as a result is somewhat diminished. There are no problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    The colour here is by Deluxe and tends towards the well-saturated end of the spectrum. The red opening credits are just a whisker short of rampant oversaturation but do display some obvious colour bleed as well as some ghosting. Thankfully, this is the only real evidence of these problems and whilst the tones are well-saturated in general, they rarely get close to oversaturation. The only exception is of course during the red spotlight scene around 23:10 where the transfer does struggle a little to keep everything in check. There is obviously no issue with undersaturation and the film itself seems free from colour bleed. One thing that will take some getting used to: the skin tones. Marilyn Monroe is made up in a very pale manner whilst Don Murray is very suntanned. The difference at times is almost like a pantomime.

    There are no real indications of significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, although once or twice I was half tempted to suggest that the grain had descended into slight pixelization. I will, however, give the transfer the benefit of the doubt. The only real indication of film-to-video artefacts in the transfer was some moiré artefacting on the side of the bus at 2:52. As the restoration featurette suggests, plenty of effort has gone into cleaning up the transfer and the result is another effort with few noticeable film artefacts.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 33:16. It is in the middle of the scene but is nonetheless quite well placed since I had to watch the film twice in order to note where the change was located. It is virtually unnoticeable and completely non-disruptive to the flow of the film.

    There are twenty two subtitle options on the DVD, of which three relate to titling of the extras. I confined myself to the English for the Hearing Impaired efforts, which are yet again a little disappointing. They still seem to miss a fair bit of the dialogue at times, which impacts a bit upon the understanding of the film afforded those with hearing impairments. Annoyingly, the subtitles cannot be changed on the fly and have to be selected from the language selections menu.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are five soundtracks on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 4.0 soundtrack, a French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. I stuck with the English soundtrack, which sounds as if it has a configuration of L-C-R-S. You will note that the presentation reverts to that on How To Marry A Millionaire.

    The audio transfer is more than acceptable and does a good job of presenting the dialogue in a reasonably clear manner. There are some fluctuations in sound level though, and some of the ADR work is just a tad on the obvious side. There does not appear to be any problem with audio sync in the transfer.

    The original music once again comes from Alfred Newman, although this time in cahoots with Cyril J. Mockridge. Another decent if unspectacular effort that supports the film as well as it needs to.

    There is nothing else to report on with the soundtrack. It is obviously lacking any LFE channel activity, and equally obviously lacking anything in the way of distortion or hiss. The configuration of the sound indicates quite a frontal sound which is what we get and is altogether apt.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    A slightly less spectacular effort than The Seven Year Itch, which is a little regrettable.

Menu

    Fairly basic efforts, although still looking pretty classy and they are 16x9 enhanced.

Theatrical Trailer (2:20)

    Displaying some of the grain problems of the main feature plus the film artefacts that you would expect in a trailer of this age, it is in all respects pretty much what we would expect. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced. The sound is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Featurette - Restoration Comparison (2:26)

    Another moderately interesting look at the restoration of the film, concentrating on the opening sequence where a lot of restoration work was necessary. It is in the same form as the earlier DVDs reviewed with the self running notes about the extent of the restoration required followed by a split screen comparison. This compares the original film restoration plus the video restoration with the original film restoration alone. The extent of the improvement after restoration is fairly obvious.

Gallery - Postcards

    Blatantly false advertising! There is actually only one postcard... Not especially terrific but it is 16x9 enhanced.

Gallery - Lobby Cards

    Well, at least the plural is correct here since there are five of them. The usual stills taken from the film that you still occasionally see used around cinema lobbies today. They are 16x9 enhanced.

    As far as we can ascertain the Region 4 release misses out on:

• Additional trailers for four other Marilyn Monroe films
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack

    The Region 1 version misses out on:

• Additional language soundtracks

    In broad terms there is nothing significantly different between the two releases, so call this one even.

    If you want to see Marilyn Monroe in genuine actress mode, then Bus Stop is not a bad film to indulge in. If you want to see Marilyn Monroe in ditzy blonde sex goddess mode, then Bus Stop is not a bad film to indulge in. Whilst that might make Bus Stop sound like the perfect Marilyn Monroe film, it is a long way short of that. It is, however, a film that is growing on me and I might just sit down and watch this one again real soon. One problem I do have, though, is the fact that we have to sit through six copyright notices before we even get to the main menu. Please Fox, we know the law so it does not have to be shoved in our face every time we fire up a DVD, especially six times and especially in languages that most of us cannot understand.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall