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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 383705" data-attributes="member: 23">Last night I watched the middle act of the Buses trilogy with... Mutiny On The Buses (1972) <img src="https://www.ewbankauctions.co.uk/catalog_images/auction//large/nr019715-18_1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Surprisingly, perhaps, I might have enjoyed this even more than the first film. Not that this means it's necessarily better than the first. But by this time I've adjusted to the tone of the films and got past the adjustment period from the series. I'm sure spending some of yesterday immersed in the audio commentary and reading up on locations for the first film helped since it gave me an appreciation for Hammer's version of this franchise. One less enjoyable aspect for me was Stan as the predator. It always feels really icky to me watching him confidently using his moves on a young clippie. A great deal has to do with his age (Reg Varney was 56 here), but it's also a character thing. Jack as the playboy may not be a pretty sight, but it fits his character. Lecherous Stan feels at odds with his character. Yes - he's portrayed this way in the series from time to time as well, but something about Reg Varney playing these scenes just makes him look like a square peg to me. The audio commentary for the first film mentioned that Chesney & Wolfe wanted to always write Stan as the one who loses out to Jack when it comes to the girls, but Reg Varney insisted on adding something to his contract to the effect that Stan, too, would get the girl. I'm not sure whether this is because he felt it important to the story or he needed it for his own vanity. I suspect the latter to be the case but, either way, I don't feel it's a good look for Stan. Once again, the thin plot is supported by (or made up of) a series of sequences reprised from the series (two-way radios ending up on police and airline frequencies, for example. Or drunk Olive getting into a fight with the tart Arthur's chatting up). It's none the worse for it and I view these films as the equivalent of a time capsule, into which the writers put all their favourite gags from the series so that they may be seen by a wider audience for generations to come. Arthur going to work on the buses is possibly a first. I think (but can't be certain) he was the only regular who didn't end up employed by the company at any point during the series, so it's nice to have that box ticked. He's a lot more productive in other areas during the films. While his infamous operation has had a few mentions, he's still managed to produce one child, with another now on the way as of the end of this film. It's funny, but my image of Olive is as a stay at home mum dealing (lazily and usually badly) with dirty nappies and with a kid hanging from her arm. All these years I'd thought this was all from glimpses of the series, but it seems I've seen more of the films than I thought. As previously mentioned, this film has my one and only specific scene memory of OTB in any medium: the lion on the bus from the Windsor Safari Park sequence. It works well, but I also found myself thinking less of Stan who could have got people killed by covering up his mishap with the emergency door (which allowed the lion entrance), but treated the whole thing like a joke which was someone else's fault. It's the nature of the beast, but I just found it an embarrassing way for a man who is nearly a sexagenarian to behave. The familiar faces are numerous once again. David Lodge is back, as is Babsalike Pat Ashton. Michael Nightingale is a very familiar face from the Carry Ons. One of this film's key appeals came from Ron Grainer's score. I enjoyed the Roaring Twenties sound that was blended in. It all felt appropriately quirky and light and, from this first proper watch of the three films at least, I found the music in this one more memorable than Max Harris's music for the first (not that I didn't enjoy the first film's score. It worked fine too). Again, I've had fun this morning looking up locations on maps and street view (the parade of shops at good old Shenley Road is back), and I really can't get enough of this little window into early Seventies Britain.</blockquote>

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