Bus Stop

"Give this boy enough rope and he'll land Marilyn Monroe!"

1956 1h 35m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 255

ComedyDramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Cowboys Beauregard Decker and Virgil Blessing attend a rodeo in Phoenix, where Decker falls in love with beautiful cafe singer Cherie. He wants to take Cherie back to his native Montana and marry her, but she dreams of traveling to Hollywood and becoming famous. When she resists his advances, Decker forces Cherie onto the bus back to Montana with him, but, when the bus makes an unscheduled stop due to bad weather, the tables are turned.

“Give this boy enough rope and he'll land Marilyn Monroe!”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Amazon VideoRent

Apple TV StoreRent

Google Play MoviesRent

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

Marilyn Monroe
Cherie
Don Murray
Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
Arthur O'Connell
Virgil Blessing
Betty Field
Grace
Eileen Heckart
Vera
Robert Bray
Carl
Hope Lange
Elma Duckworth
Hans Conried
Life Magazine Photographer

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joshua Logan
Writers: George Axelrod
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $7M — a 33.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

70 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Joshua Logan, shot by Milton Krasner. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alfred Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Editor William Reynolds shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray and Arthur O'Connell carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Give this boy enough rope and he'll land Marilyn Monroe!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joshua Logan directs. Milton Krasner behind the camera. Alfred Newman scores. William Reynolds cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $7M — a 33.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
370 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Directed by Joshua Logan, shot by Milton Krasner. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Alfred Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor William Reynolds shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray and Arthur O'Connell carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Give this boy enough rope and he'll land Marilyn Monroe!".
9IMDB entry: tt0049038 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 11 themes, including "rodeo", "montana", "bus", "bus ride".

The technical file

Cinematography: Milton Krasner
Original score: Alfred Newman
Editing: William Reynolds
Costume design: Travilla
Makeup / hair: Ben Nye
Runtime: 95 min · 1h 35m
Status: Released
Budget: $220,000
Box office: $7,270,000
Return: 3305% of budget
Original language: EN
IMDB: Bus Stop (1956)

Awards

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Joshua Logan

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

talisencrw2016-03-17
★ 8/10
In her prime, which because of her death at any early age was all of her cinematic life, Monroe was a gorgeous force of nature very much underappreciated in her thespianism. Once I adjusted to Logan's directional style and to the rodeo and fish-out-of-water concepts, I really laid back and enjoyed this. Though it doesn't feature Marilyn's best singing--she portrays a bad singer, at least at the start--it does have some of her best acting, as she finds out she's accepted for who she really is. Wish that had happened to her in real life. Don't get me wrong: it's not by any stretch of the imagination a great film. Yet neither is it the mediocrity other people tend to say it is.

Production companies