Trailer—Bus Riley's Back in Town

Bus Riley's Back in Town(480P)

source: Bus Riley's Back in Town

Though Michael Parks made his mark on the big screen about a decade after James Dean, he is sometimes compared to him. Both actors had initially garnered attention doing roles on television while in the process of transitioning to more important work in feature films. Both were method actors sporting wholesome boy-next-door looks. Yet both had a subversive quality in how they presented themselves with the characters they played. The subversiveness helps when Parks is portraying an insider-outsider like the title character in this mid-1960s offering from Universal. Plenty of pictures had sought to capture the awkward readjustment period experienced by returning veterans. Harold Russell struggles to reacquaint himself with his previous domestic life after WWII in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. We also see the adjustments that Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra face after the war in SOME CAME RUNNING. These pictures are a bit more melodramatic and daresay glamorous than what we see with BUS RILEY. Bus is coming home after what was probably the Korean War...though things seem strangely updated to the Lyndon Johnson era. Originally William Inge's screenplay, based on an early play of his, was much more brutal in its depiction of the readjustment phase. Parks' character has changed while he was away, and so has his high school sweetheart (Ann-Margret). The studio did extensive retakes before releasing the movie, to soften the harder aspects of the story, which angered Mr. Inge and annoyed Miss Margret. The actress was miffed because this was a chance to show off her acting chops alongside Parks, not to revisit the saccharine treatment she had endured in BYE BYE BIRDIE. Despite the revisions, I think we still get a sense of dysfunctional American life. It helps that much of it is shot on the Universal backlot, meaning one of the houses in town is the same structure used for the Cleaver home in Leave It to Beaver. There is a pervading sense of honest-to-goodness nuclear family values, upset by unalterable changes that our two main characters have experienced. Margret's character did not wait for Parks to get back and she married a much wealthier man. While Parks projects a clean-cut image, there is a sense that underneath the nice looking appearance lurks the soul of a scruffier guy. One gets the feeling he is somewhat uneven, wanting to let go of all the societal norms that surround him...that he'd like to escape any enforced morality and any prescribed outcome for his life. In the 1980s, Parks returned to television in a regular role on the Aaron Spelling primetime soap The Colbys. In that series Parks plays a man who comes back from the dead, after supposedly being killed in Vietnam. He learns his sweetheart (Katharine Ross) has moved on and is set to marry a very powerful man (Charlton Heston). Episodes see Parks trying to reclaim what's his.

I had this movie on a DVD and was on the shelf for a while when I decided to watch it and to my surprise I really enjoyed it.Very Interesting Sixties style film with one of the best Ann Margaret roles I have seen her in and I've been a Fan of Ann Margaret for 45 years.She glows in this film and has a look of a very young Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jeane innocents.Kim Darby and Michael Parks are great in the film and I enjoyed seeing Bret Summers from Match Game fame in this film as a uptight boarder and school teacher.Its a type of film that makes you feel good and love the old glamour of the by gone 60's that I miss so much in todays films.I am hoping they show this on TCM or out on DVD,this is the 50th Anniversary of this film and with the great Ann Margaret this would be a great year to release it.If you can find this film its a Must See!!

Dear Michael Hart, I watched this film because Ann Margaret was in it. But was pleasantly surprised to discover the guy from Kill Bill and Red State was playing the male lead. You were a pretty intense actor even back then. It is a shame you got blacklisted during your youth. The film itself is almost painfully average with no highs whatsoever. Almost as if the director wanted to make sure the film was completely shorn of any sort of entertainment. The characters are all damn boring, almost like caricatures that you see in American advertisements. It made me wonder if this was what a lot of American writers meant when they wrote about boring small towns with nothing to do. Everybody in the film does the right thing and is as sweet as candy. The premise was one I usually find interesting. An American soldier returns to his town to find that his sweetheart married a rich guy. He finds it tough to keep a job even as his former sweetheart attempts to seduce him. But he likes his sisters friend. And there is his boring family. And the solider is a really nice guy without any bad habits and does not hurt anyone. The technicolor visuals were nice to look at. I am sure some Americans might feel nostalgic about this film. Best Regards, Pimpin. (5/10)

I have watched this classic and contemporary film at least three (3) times over the past fifty-two (52) years. I will most certainly watch it again when the Criterion Collection eventually come to realize how important this film is to the North American culture of the second half of the last century. I am quite sure the Criterion Collection will eventually release this beautiful contemporary film on an extended Blu Ray format fully restored with extras that will include historical interviews with Director Harvey Hart and many of the key actors in this Peyton Place kind of small town atmosphere. Michael Parks and his chiseled good looks plays the returning home from over seas navy seaman Bus Riley. Bus displays his own unique moody yet still charming persona that emulated the likes of James Dean and a younger Marlon Brando. Bus Riley's solemn temperament matched wildly and sexually against the 24 year old married vixen Laurel played by Ann-Margret. Director Harvey Hart brings to the screen the warmth and loving charm of the three (3) family members who Bus Riley lives with who are his mother played by Jocelyn Brando (the older sister of Marlon Brando), and his two sisters the younger Gussie, (played so lovingly and filled with innocence by Kim Darby) who is filled with life and yet still empty of any jealousy towards either brother Bus or older sister Paula, played by the attractive Mimsy Farmer. There are many lonely ladies in this Peyton Place sort of town, one of which happens to be the divorced mother of Judy who who lays around on her couch watching romantic movies, and drinking herself into a state of stupor. Then one day the young and rather naive Bus Riley knocks on her door to sell her one of his new "top secret atomic" vacuum cleaner which he quickly gets her to sign a contract for in exchange for providing her a handsome young shoulder to cry on. But Bus does have a conscience and when he discovers that this lonely lady is Judy's mother who is her mothers sole caregiver and housekeeper and he recognizes Judy as his own sister Gussie's best friend, he quickly finds a way to dissolve the just signed contract and save Judy's drunkard mother from going further into debt. The film is about young love, old love, personal financial gain, parental disdain, deception, heart break, the sexual revolution, it even touches on homosexuality which was a taboo topic in 1965. The Riley family has its own share of despair as we wonder why Bus's father is not in the picture, nor present in the household. Bus just returning from a three (3) year overseas tour serving in the U.S. Navy appears to have left abruptly after breaking up with his younger seventeen (17) year old virginal girlfriend Laurel, only to discover upon his return home to find out she has married a very wealthy but much older man. There are many good actors in this film and multiple story lines. I believe that Ann-Margret's and Michael Park's performances were worthy of at least an Academy Award nomination for best actress and best actor respectively. This film moves along seamlessly from the opening scene to the last scene where the Riley's kitchen door closes behind us, the audience. It is a film filled with regrets, but more importantly it is also a film filled with compassion, awakenings, second chances and redemption. I love this picture and therefore I give Bus Riley's Back In Town a perfect 10/10 rating. I trust the Criterion Collection has this beautifully directed and acted 1965 film on their short list for a new restored release before the end of this quarter century.

This modest but cute film shows Kim Darby (Gussie) to be perhaps the most underrated actress ever. Every eye movement, every facial expression is a treasure. Her performance is simply brilliant. Why didn't she ever get more good roles? She is so natural, so believable, and has that special quality so many formula actors cannot access: the ability to make you remember and feel the real person inside yourself. Also, Janet Margolin (Judy) gives a subtle and appropriately underplayed performance, at the same time showing her serene natural beauty at its best. What a pity she died so young! What this film is really about is family; characters like Gussie & Judy. The role that Ann Margret plays is just a foil, and even the cover of the video shows that entirely too much attention has been focussed on her, detracting from the real value of the film.

I really love this movie -I saw it after Parks' series 'Then Came Bronson' which started when I was just seven years old. I honestly don't know how I remember the show. I have done some research on 'Bus Riley...' and found that the movie was significantly changed by Universal; I don't know whether it was done during shooting or after the bulk of shooting was complete but a great deal of the original story was cut with new scenes filmed to 'push' Ann Margret as a Universal Studios talent. (William) Inge's original script had Judy (Janet Margolin, an absolutely lovely woman) as Bus' girlfriend. He came back to a job at the garage -with James Doohan playing a larger role and was not satisfied, unfulfilled and fell into the relationship with Ann Margret. Michael Parks, Janet Margolin and James Doohan had diminished roles as a result of the forced changes to the movie. I cannot substantiate this version of events but have seen enough references to it to lend credence to the story -I believe it is why the AM character seems to make no sense at times. Now, having said that, I still love this movie. I find Michael Parks to be an actor of rare talent and I believe he may have been blacklisted for being difficult to work with. I do think he is a better actor than James Dean, whom he was frequently compared to.

It's amazing that Ann-Margret had any friends left in Hollywood after she was put in the forefront of "State Fair", then the producers of "Bye Bye Birdie" geared that film around her then in this film, she was given top-billing and the story was re-structured to bring out her character more than was intended or necessary! It's not to say that she didn't do a good job on these movies, it's just that more than a few people involved got their feathers ruffled along the way and she seems to be none the worse for wear from it herself! Here, it was the author of the piece (William Inge) who tried to disassociate himself from the film when the producers decided to steer the production her way. The story is supposed to be about the title character (Parks) and the events that befall him when he comes home from a three year stint in the U.S. Navy. He has trouble finding his way and interacts with various locals and family members as he searches for purpose and the security of a bright future. Standing in the way of this is old flame Margret who, when he shipped out after a break up with her, married a wealthy older man. Parks and Margret have a great push-pull, moth-to-a-flame chemistry with Parks desperately trying to avoid what he knows will be his undoing. Fans of Margret will be doing backflips when watching this film as she purrs and slithers around in her Jean Louis dresses and tosses her lionesse mane of red hair. Her character makes little or no sense half the time (partly because it has been unduly featured as a starring part when it is actually just a plot device), but her followers won't care when she's writhing around and whispering romantic dialogue in lighting that would make Lucille Ball jealous. Parks can't quite shake the James Dean label entirely and the way he acts and looks sometimes, maybe he wasn't even trying, but he does give a thoughtful, often empathetic performance. The whole film is dotted with great character actors giving little doses of themselves. Sometimes, they get short shrift or their scenes don't add up to much, but their presence is enjoyable nonetheless. Brando gets one of her better roles as Parks' worried mother. The lovely Farmer plays his tarty, blonde sister while Darby does a fantastic job as his adoring younger sister. Her performance provides the film with a great deal of heart and realism. Other enjoyable work is done by Somers (she did something before "Match Game"?!) as a fussy boarder, Martin as a slovenly neighbor, Dexter as a slick salesman, Pearce as a dotty housewife and Griffies as a cantankerous mortician. Less showy, but just as good is Margolin as Darby's troubled friend. If the parts don't all add up to a brilliant whole, at least the film is pretty to look at and mostly entertaining. The characters are interesting enough to hold the viewers attention for the bulk of the time. Amusingly, the one hot pub in town (purportedly a straight bar) plays only Petula Clark songs until Margret slips a nickel in the juke box for one of her slinky come-ons. There's also a rather forward (for its time) scene of an older man attempting to make Parks his live-in "buddy". It would be interesting to see how the film played with Inge's perspective kept intact. As is, it's still a more than passable piece of entertainment.