The Wayward Bus (1957)

The rather dashing "Johnny" (Rick Jason - he reminded me of Laurence Harvey a bit) runs his bus service/diner with help from the young "Kit" (Dee Pollack) and his dipso wife "Alice" (Joan Collins). She is jealous of just about everyone and when she slaps their waitress "Norma" (Betty Lou Keim) he has had enough. He embarks his passengers and sets off - amidst quite a thunderstorm - to San Reno. The bus has a mixture of occupants. The glamorous and savvy "Camille" (Jayne Mansfield) soon attracts the attention of travelling salesman "Horton" (Dan Dailey) and the slightly sleazy "Pritchard" (Larry Keating) who is travelling with his rather high maintenance wife "Bernice" (Kathryn Givney) and daughter "Mildred" (Dolores Michaels) and, finally, they've got the rather curmudgeonly "Van Brunt" (Will Wright). As the weather closes in and they have to take a diversion along a washboard, desert, road, the characters on the bus appear, gradually, to face the sane uncertainty in their lives as the bus does on it's increasingly perilous journey. Meantime, poor old "Alice" is stuck at home nursing a bottle, having a bath and bemoaning the absence of her husband. Can they reconcile? For the first half hour or so, this is actually not bad. Thereafter, though, it strays well over the border into soap. Mansfield has probably the strongest character and plays quite well but Collins just hasn't the skill to carry off her role with anything like a convincing performance. The last twenty minutes rob the film of what jeopardy the wet and windy journey had hitherto established and by the end you just know what is going to happen - and it's nothing special.