MovieChat Forums > Bus Stop (1956) Discussion > Almost an overload of eroticism!

Almost an overload of eroticism!


Okay, I'm a guy. That maybe the reason for my disturbance. But it's the scene at the end where Marilyn Monroe is at the bar of the bus stop and she has her head laying on her hands on the bar. Apparently, she had been drooling just a bit. When she raises up a string of saliva stretches from her hand to her mouth. I almost lost it!

I mean it, for me it was one of those Hitchcock moments where the camera quick close-ups in at the same time the whole thing pulls out. Man, oh, man! I actually had a physical shudder run through me. Rocked my world.

Anyone else? Doubtful.

www.joekeck.com

reply

lol i watched the movie with my mom today and she said...was she just drooling...i said nooooo she oculdnt have been...apparently she was......imeannn jeeze through the entire moviue she had something on her mind...what about when she makes the orgasm faces when he puts his coat on her when the ygo to leave a the end..

i love her so much she is my fave movie star of all time but i have to admit the girl is a freak in this movie

reply

Yes, Joanna, a freak . . . which makes her all the more sexy.

I don't know if they intended her drooling or not. Usually, if you can see something in a film, it's intended (there's a Hitchcock story about 'Psycho' that demonstrates that).

But intended or not, when I noticed it, it almost sent me into spasms! It made my mouth water immediately (being a guy, I could be more specific but I won't).

She is not my all time favorite star, but she is my all time favorite woman. There is something about her that sends her soaring far above all other women when it comes to beauty, sexiness, magnetism, and it's not just because of her beauty, sexiness, and magnetism. There's something there that goes beyond the physical and enters a realm of the mysterious. I don't know exactly what it is, but it rattles me to the bone!

Very perspicacious on your part, though, to pick up on the over all eroticism of her character as a whole, and not just the drooling scene. Keep at it.

www.joekeck.com

reply

[deleted]

The drool scene was one she fought to have kept in the film. I read somewhere (I'm a big MM fan) where she told director Josh Logan that she wanted it left in because it made her character more realistic (apparently she was studying the Method with Lee Strasberg at the time). There is also another scene in the film when she is sleeping in the nude in bed. Bo (Don Murray) busts in and almost climaxes when he's rubbing her. The actor Don Murray was so distracted he flubs his line (instead of telling her she is so "pale and white" he says "pale and scaly"). I guess an amateur can make the Freudian connection.

It doesn't detract because she was still very sexy in this movie.

reply

Lol at the Freudian thing.

Yes, right on all other counts. I don't understrand it, but her performance in that role was artistically amazing. She's done some less than adequate work in other films, but in Bus Stop she was the best that could have been. As I said, she 'retired the role.'

www.joekeck.com

reply

It was not intended as an erotic moment--tho it's cool if you want to see it that way. It is a highly emotional scene. She's weeping. Her eyemake is running. Cherie has finally met a man who doesn't look down her because of her past--the past she admitted to him, so he could get over her.

It is a great, and daring performance. She allows herself to look worn out and messy. The white makeup is not flattering, but she insisted on it.

The film hasn't aged well, and women, particularly, dislike Don Murray's agressiveness and Cherie's passivity. But those were the characters as written. Nor was Josh Logan a subtle director.

So many exquisite moments in the film, just little things she does--expressions, inflections.

And she would go on to film "The Prince and the Showgirl" immediately after, giving an entirely different style of performance--vibrant,witty, energetic. Both performances deserved more than they got from Hollywood--which was nothing. The industry stuck the knife in deeper by nominating Don Murray for an Oscar, but ignoring her.

reply

Well, denis-38, regarding the 'overload of eroticism' it's not that I want to see it that way, I'm a guy. I just see it that way. A guy thing, I guess.

As far as "The film hasn't aged well", I contend that society has grown into a putrid pool of politically correct stupidity, "The emperor's new clothes" sort of thing. Not to say that Murray's character's behavior wasn't abominable, it of course was. But it stemmed from ignorance and immaturity, not Chauvanism. So, even today, there shouldn't be an 'aging well' issue.

You say she allowed herself to look "worn out and messy" and "The white makeup is not flattering". I got to tell ya', she looked absolutely FANTASTIC in Bus Stop!!! Another guy thing, maybe.

In '56, the year Bus Stop was made, Ingrid Bergman won for "Anastasia", and these are the other nominees that year: Carroll Baker in "Baby Doll", Katharine Hepburn in "The Rainmaker", Nancy Kelly in "The Bad Seed", Deborah Kerr in "The King and I". Of all those, I only saw The Rainmaker (I saw some of the others, but I was too young to remember the performances), so I couldn't say if Monroe should have won, but she definitely should have been nominated. However, artistically speaking, the Oscars have dropped the ball many times.

Good eye on your part, though.

www.joekeck.com

reply

I don't dislike Don Murray's aggressiveness or Cherie's passivity. I think they are both frustratingly ditzy, but I'm sure that's deliberate.

reply

Marilyn is always beautiful and always sexy! What else is new? :-) It is highly admirable that she was so dedicated to acting and insisted on really studying the craft before renewing her 20th Century-Fox contract. But, I personally don't understand what she saw in this project or in this role. This was the first film from her production company.

But, I think Don Murray is really creepy, all but abusing Monroe, which even-more-creepily wins her over. Women were supposed to just succumb to types like him regardless of who he was or what he did. This movie continued that tradition.

Don Murray getting nominated for his hysterical, over-the-top performance is beyond belief for starters (must have been a slow year!). But, if he was going to get nominated, Monroe not getting nominated is all the more perplexing.

"I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! [slurp!] I DRINK IT UP!" - Daniel Plainview - "There Will Be Blood"

reply

I am watching this film right now... I just happened upon it flipping channels. I noticed Marilyn Monroe so stopped to see what the movie was about.

I am a woman and I never really get crazy over a guy on-screen (it has only happened a few times), even in his underwear or in the buff... but for some strange reason there is a scene in this movie where Don Murray is in a pair of long johns. He does sit-ups on the ground I couldn't help but notice his.... package.... and it was making me crazy.

I went online to see if anyone else talked about that scene and no one has... I guess it's just me--- Makes me feel like a pervert LOL

I found a clip of this scene on Youtube... the saturation of the colors in this clip don't show it as clear as what I saw on TV... I think the people who commented on the clip might have noticed what I did :P

In the beginning of the clip on this when he is looking at his body in the mirror I did think "wow, nice body" but I wasn't feeling "that" feeling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7oibO2YNN8

reply

Hey ameeraana, I noticed his 'package' as well. Who couldn't? It's pretty 'featured' in the sit-ups scene. But being a heterosexual guy, I just thought, Hmmm, pretty racy, but I wasn't aware it would have that effect on women.

I heard one female radio reporter say she liked the whitie-tighties because it showed the 'package' so it's apparently somewhat common. Not only that, but being a writer and a movie buff, I know that how you write/direct something makes the difference as to whether a scene is simply a bit 'interesting' or absolutely disturbing, be it in the sexual, comical, horror, category or whichever.

But it's hot that you were 'crazed' by the scene. It shows you have 'power'. Don't know how to link it, but the address below tells what I mean by power. http://joekeck.com/joekeck/lets_talk/Entries/2007/12/11_The_Beauty_(power)_Of_Women.html

I'm always interested in female sexuality, from an anthropological angle, so I thank you for being candid.

And it doesn't make you a pervert, it makes you a vibrant and sexy woman, so be happy with it.

And keep in mind, to varying degrees, we're ALL perverts.

www.joekeck.com

reply

joekeck7 thank you for your reply... I loved that linked article you game me.

I know what you mean that we are all perverts to varying degrees. I do have to admit some of my friends call me a pervert LOL. But how I am is just so normal to me that I don't feel perverted-- I rather think those friends who call me a pervert are just more shy when it comes to sex :)

It is really rare that I will see someone (like that scene in Bus Stop)and just go crazy feeling like I could jump the next guy that I see LOL

It surprised me when I felt the same while watching "Man with the Iron Fists"-- Watching Dave Bautista (Brass Body) was driving me crazy. And I am not attracted to huge muscle-y guys at all (In fact, I think RZA in the movie is hot--but he didn't give me that crazy feeling). And he played an evil, violent character too. After the movie I went to look him up online since I didn't know who he was, and found out he used to be a WWE and WWF wrester... if I had seen him on those shows i would have laughed and not even given him a second thought.











reply

Interesting, ameeraana.

A couple of things.

One, so many things affect the presentation of something like a film, a novel, or anything for that matter.

In a film, the camera angle, the lighting, the pacing, of course the directing, all of that will influence the amount of intrigue or pathos the movie has, be it sexual arousal, laughter, terror, romance, sadness, whatever the mood which is being sought after. Even a pause. Pauses are powerful tools for the director. Have one character say a line to another and lengthen the time between the response of the other character. That can determine the strength of an emotion to great effect. And again, whether sexual, horrific, romantic, comical, or whatever, all of them rely on pauses, timing, pacing, along with a whole plethora of tricks artists such as writers and directors use to create a mood..

That's what makes some artists good and others great.

Two. There was a post by a woman regarding the film Cape Fear, the old one with Robert Mitchum. She said that he scared the hell out of her in that movie. She said his character was so terrifying that she found it hard to watch him in other roles because of his performance of that one. And I agree, his performance in Cape Fear was absolutely fantastic. He was not only mean, but was terrifying on a psychotic, even subliminal level.

Robert Deniro's performance in the re-make was good, but not disturbing. He was just a real mean guy, scary one might say, but not disturbing. Mitchum's performance in the older one was indeed 'disturbing.' Such that, if you met the guy, you'd be rattled by him after only asking directions to the mall! His was an intense and deeply disturbing character that went beneath the skin. Deniro's was just a surface swelling 'bad guy.'

Interestingly though, this same woman said that while she felt such fear of Robert Mitchum's character, she was also outrageously turned on sexually by him. She didn't understand it, how there could be both great fear and great eroticism for the same character at the same time, but there it was.

There's probably many psychological implications to be drawn from that, but that is for another discussion, I suppose.

Anyway, I think we may not have control over what we find sexually arousing. What matters, as I see it, is what we do with that arousal. If a man finds rape a turn on, he deserves no condemnation as we all have our sick little secret fantasies. I know a woman who does find violent rape erotic. It is when that man ACTS on those desires that condemnation should follow.

If a mother finds she is sexually attracted to her sixteen year old son, she can chalk it up to nothing more than simply wild fancies. Unless she tries to seduce her son. Then she should be thought of with derision and taken to task for doing such a thing.

So, morality is not what thoughts pop into your head, it's really what you do with those thoughts. That is what changes you from simply someone with wild fantasies, to an actual immoral pervert, dangerous to society.

My opinion.

www.joekeck.com

reply

And by the way, thanks for reading my article, ameeraana.

www.joekeck.com

reply