The White Bus is a 1967 short film by British director Lindsay Anderson. The screenplay was jointly adapted[1] with Shelagh Delaney from a short story in her 1963 collection Sweetly Sings the Donkey.[2]
It was originally commissioned by producer Oscar Lewenstein as one third of a 'portmanteau' feature entitled Red White and Zero, with the other sections supplied by Anderson's Free Cinema collaborators Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz.[3] In the event, the third section was directed by Peter Brook rather than Reisz.
Anderson began shooting on 18 October 1965, with film newcomer Patricia Healey supported by Arthur Lowe, John Sharp and, in smaller roles, Anthony Hopkins, Stephen Moore, Barry Evans and others. Locations included Manchester City Centre, predominantly around Manchester Town Hall, Central Library and Piccadilly Gardens, although Cross Street is featured in one shot. Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Central Stations are also shown. The 'model estate' of high-rise flats was shot on the Kersal Flats estate, home to the notorious Moors murderers, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, while the factory sequences were shot in Trafford Park, notably in the Metropolitan Vickers works. It also featured scenes on Cheetham Hill Road and inside Cheetham College (now demolished).
Both the exterior and interior shots of the school were taken in the former Pendleton High School for Girls - now mainly demolished, but with the original Victorian building converted to a retirement home. Using local people, Anderson also staged parodies of paintings by Manet, Fragonard and Goya in Buile Hill Park in Salford.
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