Busses Roar

Probably the most racial and gender stereotypes per foot of film than any other film. Something to offend everyone. Even making allowances for the early WWII hysteria it comes across poorly. One feels that the film makers weren't taking themselves seriously. There is a really gross jumpcut in one scene. Rather than try to hide it, the composer actually put a music sting on it. Maybe everyone thought they needed to do the film for the war effort.

Except for the stereotypical portrayal that Willie Best does in Buses Roar of the misspelled title, the film is a typical wartime propaganda film, just some fodder for the homefront morale. This concerns a rather inept bunch of saboteurs, a joint German-Japanese operation to blow up a bus.

This is not a terrorist act per se, the idea is to plant a bomb on a bus and detonate when it's near some undisclosed valuable wartime site. The passengers would be considered collateral damage in today's terms.

The film marked Eleanor Parker's feature film debut though she's billed fourth in the cast as a bus ticket agent who has a couple of drivers panting hot and heavy for her. The real stars are Richard Travis and Julie Bishop as a marine on leave and a woman who's hoping to charm the price of a ticket out of San Diego.

The saboteurs who are led by Peter Whitney make three different attempts to get the bomb on the bus. Law enforcement isn't to swift either in this comedy of errors.

Still the film has a certain charm to it, sad it had to include Willie Best at his worst.

A group of international saboteurs is planning to bomb an oil facility. They settle on bombing a bus on its way to the location. They hope the explosion will light the way for a Japanese submarine to bombard the important targets. Reba Richards (Julie Bishop) gets tricked into carrying the suitcase bomb. Marine Sergeant Ryan (Richard Travis) is another passenger on the bus.

The comedic music cues are weird. Comedic tones just don't work with this material. This needs to be a tense thriller. Of course, that goes for Willie Best as well. I don't get the premise of making this a comedy in any way. It's odd to try and the comedy is so broad especially from Willie. It's telling that IMDB doesn't classify this as a comedy.

(How could they get this all the way out without someone realizing they had misspelled "Buses"?)

I loved this movie. You need to remember that in 1942, panic and hysteria were the order of the day along the West Coast, and in fact a Japanese submarine surfaced and shelled the Ellwood Oil Field off Santa Barbara on the night of 23 February. The next night, there was a mysterious episode in which gunners fired antiaircraft guns into the skies over LA, thinking there were unseen Japanese aircraft attacking them.

Even tho there were none, this came to be called The Battle of Los Angeles. Given the times, this movie is perfect.

"Busses (sic) Roar" is richly laced with fascinating characters, and as the movie unfolds, you begin to wonder where they are all going to come together.

The film succeeds in loading the bus with believable, identifiable people, and when peril ensues, you fear for them.

I caught this on TCM on 03 June 2013, and if it comes on again, I'll make it a point to watch.

This is a most enjoyable movie,catching the spirit of the enemy as depicted by Hollywood in early WWII. Such a movie would be "politically incorrect" these days, as would "Outrages of the Orient" which I recently purchased. I remembered it from childhood, but found it now to be trashy compared to "Buses Roar".