The White Bus
The White Bus is a 1967 British short drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson. The screenplay was jointly adapted[1] with Shelagh Delaney from a short story in her collection Sweetly Sings the Donkey (1963).[2] The White Bus was also the film debut of Anthony Hopkins.[3]
| The White Bus | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Lindsay Anderson |
| Screenplay by | Shelagh Delaney |
| Based on | a short story by Shelagh Delaney |
| Produced by | Lindsay Anderson |
| Starring | Patricia Healey |
| Cinematography | Miroslav Ondříček |
| Edited by | Kevin Brownlow |
| Music by | Misha Donat |
Production companies | Woodfall Film Productions Holly Productions |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 46 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Plot
The main character, only referred to as 'the girl' (Patricia Healey) leaves London, goes north on a train full of football fans and takes a trip in a white double-decker bus around an unnamed city she is visiting, although it is clearly based on Manchester; Delaney was born and grew up in nearby Salford. The Mayor (Arthur Lowe), a local businessman, and the council's ceremonial macebearer (John Sharp) happen also to be taking the trip while they show the city to visiting foreigners.
Cast
- Patricia Healey as The Girl
- Arthur Lowe as The Mayor
- John Sharp as The Macebearer
- Julie Perry as Conductress
- Stephen Moore as Young Man
- Victor Henry as Transistorite
- John Savident, Fanny Carby, Malcolm Taylor, Alan O'Keeffe as Supporters
- Anthony Hopkins as Brechtian
- Jeanne Watts, Eddie King as Fish Shop Couple
- Barry Evans as Boy
- Penny Ryder as Girl
- Dennis Alaba Peters as Mr Wombe
History and production
The film was originally commissioned by producer Oscar Lewenstein, then a director of Woodfall, 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[4] from the other short stories by Shelagh Delaney.
The "first real day's shooting" was on 19 October 1965, and took about a month to complete.[5]
The two other planned sections of the film developed into what became Richardson's Red and Blue and Peter Brook's Ride of the Valkyrie (1967), Reisz having dropped out, both of which are unrelated to Delaney's work. Of these, only The White Bus received a theatrical release in the UK.[6]
Notes
- Hedling, E: "Lindsay Anderson: Maverick Film-Maker", Cassell, 1998, p.62
- Shelagh Delaney "Sweetly Sings the Donkey", New York: GP Putnam, 1963; London: Methuen, 1964
- "Sir Anthony Hopkins – Welsh actor".
- Lindsay Anderson, Paul Ryan (ed) "Never Apologise: The Collected Writings", Plexus, 2004, p.105
- Sutton, p.140-41
- Sutton, p.146