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Marilyn Monroe is so good here it's startling. Her Cherie (with the accent on the first syllable, remember) is one of the most lovable characters in the history of film. That the rest of the movie is rocky-going and her co-star is no match for her is unfortunate, but not fatal.

Apparently the director, Joshua Logan, was able to create a relatively peaceful environment where Monroe could completely "let go" and allow her natural fragility and sex appeal to take over. When she's on screen it's impossible to take your eyes off her, not just because she's beautiful (what starlet from the 1950's WASN'T beautiful?) but because she's laying bare her character's soul for the camera (and in the process much of her own soul as well). She isn't just reading lines with various inflections or doing bits of business like so many actors do, she's bringing the character to life.

Unforgettable is the moment where she finds herself perched on the shoulder of the crazy, lovestruck cowboy watching a parade and she's trying to pantomime to a friend in the crowd how she wound up up there. Or the way she keeps "shushing" the loud-talking bus driver so that he won't wake up the sleeping cowboy as she's planning her escape. Or the way she can't make eye contact or get her lazy backwoods accent (that is incredibly charming) to sound firm enough when she keeps trying to tell the cowboy to get lost. Her comic timing is just sublime and unteachable.

Don Murray's performance as the cowboy, criminally and inexplicably Oscar-nominated, is cloying, two-dimensional and geared for the stage, not the intimacy of film. He needs to provide some hint of vulnerabilty before he's humbled in the fist fight with the bus driver, but he is tragically not up to the task. His Beauregard is the kind of loud-mouthed, uncouth buffoon that only a greatly skilled comic actor can make sympathetic, and Murray simply doesn't know how to finesse the comic moments and make them work.

Monroe receives fine support from Arthur O'Connell as Beau's older, wiser friend Virgil Blessing, but this is her show all the way. She makes it a good movie, but one can't help imagining how much better it could have been had it been directed by someone like Kazan and co-starred possibly Rock Hudson.

"Bus Stop" is named for the setting of the last half-hour of this film, the bus stop in the snow, somewhere in Wyoming, where Beau finally gets his 'comeuppance', right before he and Cherie reconcile. If this movie had not been made in 1956, but instead in modern times, it would have received a very laughable reception. As it is, I consider it a cult classic in the genre of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", so horrible and fake are the characters and the dialog.

However, Marilyn Monroe, in her 26th film, playing a simple showgirl from Arkansas, does very well with her role. Don Murray as "Beau", in his very first film, is so obnoxious that by the time he apologises for his bad behavior, we no longer care about him, and "Cherie's" accepting him just doesn't make sense. Hope Lange has a small part as "Elma" on the bus, in this her first film. She and Murray married afterward in real life, but it didn't last. Murray made a number of other films, including the father in "Quarterback Princess" in 1983 with Helen Hunt.

The reason to see this film is Marilyn Monroe in her prime, almost 30, and only 6 years from her death. The story, of the possessive cowboy who decides to marry Cherie and haul her away to his ranch in Montana, is pretty simple and pretty implausible. The scene in the bus stop, where he finally kisses her "for serious", was also featured in an episode of Northern Exposure, with Chris playing Beau and Maggie playing Cherie, for a community theater production they were rehearsing for.

Bus Stop has been rightly hailed as Marilyn Monroe's breakthrough performance in a movie as a serious dramatic actress. She is absolutely superb here, ditching the breathless dumb blonde of earlier roles and playing a hardened, Southern chanteuse in search of true love. She manages to convey a whole range of emotions which is testament to her time spent at Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio in New York. As usual she sparkles and it's difficult to take your eyes off her, but there is a depth and sympathy to her playing that makes you take note of the performance and not simply the curves.

However, Bus Stop is a relatively simple picture of unrequited then requited love. The comedy moments don't often work that well and Don Murray's Beau has to be one of the most irritating characters I have ever seen in a film. Him and Cherie coming together at the end of the picture is unbelievable and spoiled the movie for me...I always wanted her to get away!

Bus Stop is more enjoyable from the Monroe point of view as her playing is spellbinding and marked a turning point in her career.

If you like young men with the social skills of a five year old, and young women with low self esteem, watch this film. The only relief is when the bus driver beats the cowboy up to stop him from pestering the poor young woman any further.

There are some comic moments in the film, but it's too frustrating watching Monroe's character treated like an animal. This is not the mood of the 1990s.

If you want to enjoy Marilyn Monroe, watch "Some Like It Hot". At least her character in that film has self-respect, even if she's no more than a likeable bimbo.

To the naysayers I say "you missed it" but I guess people either like MM or they do not. I was braced for the 50s-style corn, but not for the underlying sadness of Cherie, as rendered by Monroe, and in the end feel she did an incredibly good job with the role--not a false note anywhere.

An extra star (or two) for that very special performance.