I re-watched THE WAYWARD BUS (1957) today, after having seen it once before many moons ago. There is currently quite a crisp print available on YouTube, especially for a movie that has been tied up in legal chaos for the past sixty years. Wasn't there a Twilight Time Blu-ray release put out one time?
First, I want to say that I've always liked movies with multiple intertwining characters and storylines, so THE WAYWARD BUS is right up my alley. Jayne plays Camille Oakes, a hard-bitten call girl fleeing California for San Juan, Mexico. I'd say this film offers one of Jayne's finest dramatic performances, especially from the peak of her career. She was touted for this movie when she first signed with Fox in May 1956, even before she made THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT. Jayne's performance received good reviews in 1957, and she won a Golden Globe Award for "New Star of the Year", beating Natalie Wood and Carroll Baker.
THE WAYWARD BUS is a steamy melodrama, chopped full of juicy storylines – well, for 1957 standards. Alice and Johnny Chicoy (Joan Collins and Rick Jason) own a bus stop, but they have a tumultuous relationship, which isn't helped by Alice's drinking and Johnny's roaming eye. I think Joan Collins is completely miscast as a pushing-forty-something-year-old alcoholic. The role would've been better filled had Fox went with Linda Darnell, a big star for the studio in the 1940s, who tested a few different times for the part. Joan is just simply too young and frankly too British to effectively play the character. On the flipside, I think Rick Jason is much better cast as the long-suffering husband who is hopelessly in love with his wife, even if he is growing tired of her behavior. I don't understand why Jason didn't do more as an actor—he was handsome, young, and talented and seems as if he could've found his place among the actors spinning around Hollywood in the late 1950s.
Also, in the ongoing story is traveling salesman Ernest Horton (Dan Dailey), who has an eye for Mansfield's Camille. I've always enjoyed Dan Dailey in the movies I've seen him in, even if I fall short of calling myself a true fan of him. The Pritchard family is also there for ride—Elliott (Larry Keating), the tired father, Bernice (Kathryn Givney), the fussy mother, and Mildred (Dolores Michaels), their man-crazy daughter, who has an eye for Johnny Chicoy. Everybody's got an eye for somebody else in this movie. Dolores Michaels has been said to have "the sexiest scene in the movie" by many critics, but I won't spoil that scene for people that have not scene the movie yet. Apparently, the scene as written wasn't approved by the censors, so director Victor Vicas shot two different versions of it. Other characters include Norma (Betty Lou Keim), a waitress, Pimples (Dee Pollock), Johnny's hired hand, and businessman Van Brunt (Will Wright).
But this is a Jayne Mansfield thread. You cannot call her the star of THE WAYWARD BUS because that just isn't how this story is structured, but she does have significant screen time. The script and her role certainly require more of her than most of her movies would throughout her career. I think it was good for Fox to push her into a more dramatic part after THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT publicized her "dumb blonde" image. The only issue was, despite her performance and good notices, Fox, or any other studio for that matter, just didn't see Jayne Mansfield as the type to carry dramatic parts. Her other four movies for Fox were comedies and played right into her light-headed sex symbol persona. But, in THE WAYWARD BUS, you don't hear any breathy talk (well, maybe just a little) and there aren't any high-pitched squeals or giggling.
Outside of Mansfield, I'd say THE WAYWARD BUS is an enjoyable little movie. It is exactly what I like, even though I can realize that it won't be to everyone's liking. But what movies are?
Go and watch it. Let me know what you think.