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Created Mar 09, 2013 09:28PM PST • Edited Nov 25, 2018 09:32AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Marilyn Monroe rescues Bus Stop, as she rescued so many of her movies, her luminescent sexuality juxtaposed against an American society inchoately besotted with her. True fans can’t avert their eyes.

   To be clear, Bus Stop is a cheesy time-capsule, a Fifties classic capable of making Alan Ginsberg howl.

   Marilyn & newcomer Don Murray play a rancher & chanteuse who don’t total 200 IQ points between `em. Marilyn’s from a world we no longer know, in the movies anyway.

   Naturally I’d like to get married and have a family and all those things.

   Murray plays Bo, who just inherited a ranch and is about to win the Phoenix Rodeo for $42,000. Bo brays like a mule, fitting cause he acts like an ass. Gomer Pyle would look sophisticated next to this yahoo.

   Not one of Marilyn’s true fans? Skip Bus Stop.

   Fascinating Trivia: Don Murray was engaged to Hope Lange when they made their big screen debuts in Bus Stop. Think about it. Lange went on to become an American sweetheart after costarring with her fiance in their first movie – opposite Marilyn Monroe. Wowza. Imagine if TMZ was around back then.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Marilyn’s Cherie is a Phoenix girl who never sees the sun.

   Phoenix. Sun. Pale. One of those doesn’t go with the other two. Just saying…

   Don Murray’s long career peaked at the very beginning, with his big screen debut in Bus Stop. Not so his fiance, who also debuted in Bus Stop. (Amazingly, their relationship was unknown to Marilyn or the producers.) That would be Hope Lange, who ultimately became most famous as the star of The Ghost & Mrs. Muir TV show.

5. Male Stars OK 2.5

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars OK 2.5

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    Bus Stop’s screenplay is taken from William Inge’s Broadway drama, only it plays on-screen as half a comedy, one that hasn’t aged well.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Barely OK 2.0

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

    Marilyn Monroe at a full 2.0 on the Sex meter – titillation extraordinaire.

    Edge pattern of 2.0 Sex, 1.6 Violence & 1.8 Rudeness. IOW, Sex high. Surprised Sherlock?

17. Sex Titillating 2.0

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Salty 1.8

21. Reality

    Glib 1.4

    Hollywood America, circa 1956.

    Notably, Bus Stop is from the height of the intercity bus era, right before America began changing from an archipelago of rural outbacks and disconnected cities to a smorgasbord connected by jet airplanes.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Glib 1.4

24. Physical Glib 1.2