By Lee Pfeiffer
It was a long road for John Steinbeck's 1947 bestseller The Wayward Bus to make it on to the silver screen. The steamy novel about sexually frustrated people who find themselves on an arduous bus ride over dangerous terrain was considered too steamy to adapt to film. At various stages George Stevens and Howard Hawks were involved in film adaptations that never saw fruition. By the time censorship had been relaxed, it was the late 1950s and Fox finally decided to push the envelope by financing the film at the urging of Darryl F. Zanuck, now an independent producer. What emerged was a pale shadow of once-prestigious product. Gone were Stevens, Hawks and Marlon Brando, who was once attached to the film. Instead, an unknown director, Victor Vicas, convinced Zanuck and Fox to allow him to helm the movie. The cast is still impressive, with two of the screen's emerging sex sirens- Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield- seen in anything but exploitation roles. The story resembles a modern version of John Ford's Stagecoach, with an eclectic group of strangers tossed together on ramshackle bus owned and driven by Johnny Chicoy (Rick Jason), an Irish-Mexican who runs a small rest stop cafe with his pouting wife Alice (Collins). Johnny opts to attempt a dangerous drive over mountain terrain despite horrendous weather conditions, as some of his passengers have urgent business at the final destination. The marriage between Johnny and Alice is a contentious one, alternating between passion and turmoil. Alice is non-too happy to discover that one of Johnny's passengers is Camille Oakes (Mansfield), a busty single blonde who, it is revealed later, makes her living as a stripper and nude model. Also on the small bus: Ernest Horton (Dan Daily), a perpetually cheery salesman of cheap novelty items who immediately is smitten by Camille, though he doesn't suspect her real profession. Then there is Mildred Pritchard (Dolores Michaels), a sexually assertive young woman who is accompanied by her ultra conservative parents, both of whom want to ensure she doesn't have any dalliances along the way. Norma (Betty Lou Keim) is a star struck teenager determined to make her way to Hollywood to become an actress and "Pimples" (Dee Pollack) is a young boy trying to woo her. Then there is Van Brunt (Will Wright), a cantankerous elderly man hell bent on getting to the final destination for reasons unknown.
The journey is filled with sexual tensions throughout and the passengers and Johnny have to navigate around landslides, collapsing bridges and raging rivers. The Stagecoach connection becomes pretentiously obvious in the relationship between Camille and her naive would-be lover Ernest which greatly resembles the relationship between John Wayne's Ringo Kid and Claire Trevor's prostitute Dallas in the Western classic. Circumstances find Johnny and Mildred conveniently alone in a barn where they give in to passion- only to find a suspicious Alice now waiting for them back at the bus, having been dropped there by a helicopter used for rescue missions. Director Vicas and some of the cast members were out of their depth with heavy material that might have played much better in more experienced hands. Jason looks uncomfortable carrying the burden of leading man and Vicas's direction is competent, but relatively uninspired. The film is never boring, however, and does boast impressive performances by Collins and Mansfield (whose career would sadly be largely relegated to B sexploitation films.) The pat happy endings for the individual characters seem contrived and unconvincing but this flawed film should be regarded as a noble effort to bring a sexually driven adult storyline to the screen in an era when it was quite a challenge to do so.
Twilight Time has issued The Wayward Bus as a limited edition (3,000) units Blu-ray that boasts a terrific transfer, isolated track for Leigh Harline's impressive score and an audio commentary track with film historians Alain Silver and James Ursini. As usual, there is a most welcome illustrated booklet with incisive liner notes by Julie Kirgo. An original trailer is also included. The packaging features a photo of Joan Collins that strangely looks like an image from a silent film.
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