...board a falling-apart bus to drive into Force 10 gale to get to San Juan... "And Lordsburg!" Yes, it's Lifeboat. Or Stagecoach. Or the Shanghai Express. There are perils, there are land-slips, it rains a lot, the passengers skip across a collapsing bridge (the women all in high heels, so practical).
But it's by John Steinbeck, so you have to have your nose rubbed in the working-classness of it all, and some method acting, and some inconsequential naturalistic dialogue, and some yelling, and some slapping. I began to wish it was just a noir B picture.
But then you get interested in the characters - the boy, "Kit" Carson, chatting up Norma the waitress. "All I want is a wife and a little home" - he's going to get swept away when the bridge collapses, isn't he? Miraculously he survives, despite idiotically going back for his jacket.
Jayne Mansfield, the stripper with a snappy comeback for the salesman. How come he's so naive? She looks just like a stripper, despite pretending to be a dental nurse.
The strange trio of hovering parents and forward daughter who makes a dead set for Chicoy the bus driver. The congratulate themselves on having detached her from a basketball player. The trip to see a tedious historical monument off the beaten track is supposed to, as she says, "save her soul". The parents are well-acted, the mother quoting her daughters psychoanalyst and the father dismissing it all as tosh. He seems like a sensible chap. But he spots Jayne's picture in a "true confessions" magazine, draws conclusions and approaches the salesman for help in meeting "that kind of girl - bar girls, chorus girls". He hints he could borrow the salesman's flat in LA for a consideration.
Later, when the bus is stuck in a pond, his wife reveals that their marriage has been all-but sexless. You can understand his behaviour somewhat - and he seems to genuinely care for his wife.
While stuck in the pond, the characters emerge from the bus and find themselves in a spot of raw nature with nothing more civilised nearby but a few barns. They act as if they were on a day trip to heaven, or maybe Narnia. I admit I began to fast forward.
Mrs Chicoy hitches a lift in a helicopter and joins the party. The salesman decides, so what if Jayne is a stripper, she's a nice girl. The Chicoys - well, you can imagine.
Yes, it was a noir B picture after all! There's even a Murder She Wrote Tribute.
Jayne Mansfield is excellent as the shame-faced stripper, as is Joan Collins as the alcoholic café owner, Alice Chicoy. If she's going to get back together with her husband, she's going to need to join AA. I wish them luck.
But it's by John Steinbeck, so you have to have your nose rubbed in the working-classness of it all, and some method acting, and some inconsequential naturalistic dialogue, and some yelling, and some slapping. I began to wish it was just a noir B picture.
But then you get interested in the characters - the boy, "Kit" Carson, chatting up Norma the waitress. "All I want is a wife and a little home" - he's going to get swept away when the bridge collapses, isn't he? Miraculously he survives, despite idiotically going back for his jacket.
Jayne Mansfield, the stripper with a snappy comeback for the salesman. How come he's so naive? She looks just like a stripper, despite pretending to be a dental nurse.
The strange trio of hovering parents and forward daughter who makes a dead set for Chicoy the bus driver. The congratulate themselves on having detached her from a basketball player. The trip to see a tedious historical monument off the beaten track is supposed to, as she says, "save her soul". The parents are well-acted, the mother quoting her daughters psychoanalyst and the father dismissing it all as tosh. He seems like a sensible chap. But he spots Jayne's picture in a "true confessions" magazine, draws conclusions and approaches the salesman for help in meeting "that kind of girl - bar girls, chorus girls". He hints he could borrow the salesman's flat in LA for a consideration.
Later, when the bus is stuck in a pond, his wife reveals that their marriage has been all-but sexless. You can understand his behaviour somewhat - and he seems to genuinely care for his wife.
While stuck in the pond, the characters emerge from the bus and find themselves in a spot of raw nature with nothing more civilised nearby but a few barns. They act as if they were on a day trip to heaven, or maybe Narnia. I admit I began to fast forward.
Mrs Chicoy hitches a lift in a helicopter and joins the party. The salesman decides, so what if Jayne is a stripper, she's a nice girl. The Chicoys - well, you can imagine.
Yes, it was a noir B picture after all! There's even a Murder She Wrote Tribute.
Jayne Mansfield is excellent as the shame-faced stripper, as is Joan Collins as the alcoholic café owner, Alice Chicoy. If she's going to get back together with her husband, she's going to need to join AA. I wish them luck.