The Big Bus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Big Bus

Directed by	James Frawley
Produced by	Lawrence J. Cohen Fred Freeman
Written by	Lawrence J. Cohen Fred Freeman
Starring	Joseph Bologna Stockard Channing John Beck Rene Auberjonois
Music by	David Shire
Cinematography	Harry Stradling Jr.
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	June 23, 1976
Running time	88 min.
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Big Bus is a 1976 James Frawley comedy starring Stockard Channing as Kitty Baxter and Joe Bologna as controversial driver ("Eat one lousy foot and they call you a cannibal") Dan Torrance. A spoof of most disaster movies up until that time, it follows the maiden cross-country trip of a nuclear powered bus named Cyclops that's equipped with a bowling alley, swimming pool and piano bar. A bomb planted by a saboteur damages the bus' reactor, preventing the bus from stopping.

A high point is when they try to balance the bus, which is teetering on the brink of cliff, by flooding the galley with soft drinks from the fountain. Of course Stockard/Kitty is in there about to drown in soda pop, and Joe/Dan has to rescue her. "All those years, why did you have to bed all those other girls?", she asks him. "I bedded them so I could think of you,", he says, "but from now on I'm only going to bed you, and think of them." "You're a strange one, Dan.", she replies.

Actor John Beck plays the co-driver "Shoulders" O'Brien, a nickname he acquired because he has narcolepsy and often falls asleep and drives on the shoulders of the road.

A big-budget film notorious for its mostly lethal reviews and disastrous performance at the box office.