Extreme fog shuts down London’s airport—and most forms of transportation—a fact that isn’t going to stop overbearing Miss Benton (Margaret Rutherford) from getting to Dublin. She insists that a bus be supplied, and to avoid trouble, it is, along with inept driver, Percy Lamb (Frankie Howerd), and put upon stewardess Lee, Nicholls (Petula Clark). They are joined by four travelers: beautiful and cheerful horror fan Janie Grey (Belinda Lee), submissive seed salesman Henry Waterman (Toke Townley), standard businessman-type Ernest Schroeder (George Coulouris), and off-duty pilot Peter Jones (Terence Alexander). Within minutes of leaving the airport, they are hopelessly lost, and also unaware that there has been a gold robbery, and the stolen bullion is in the bus, with the criminal mastermind, no doubt, one of the passengers.
The Runaway Bus fits comfortably between the ‘30s and ‘40s old house mysteries and the Post-War British Comedies. Like the first, it has a group of weird characters, many of whom are not who they claim to be, cut off from civilization and soaked in crime and mystery. Like the latter, it is very British, leaning on wit, is a light comedy, and includes Margaret Rutherford. It is also closely connected to its age. The massive fog that sets up the movie was a meteorological phenomenon that occurred in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s in England, and was familiar to the inhabitants. Placing it even more firmly in its time period is the technology. This story wouldn’t work in an era of cell phones or GPS devices, or even fog headlights. It requires a time when maps, even of areas close to major population centers, might be missing roads and towns. But cars and busses had to be the norm, while not being overly plentiful. Lighting needed to be on the slim side (a line of street lights would negate the entire plot). Air travel had to be easy for the common man, but could be completely shut down by something less than a hurricane or snow storm. Finally, the War is briefly alluded to, as it was a background for normal life in England for a good many years to come. No doubt, we are in the early ‘50s.
The film does shift away from Ealing-type comedies and pull in that other branch of British humor, the music halls, with Frankie Howerd. Howerd is more or less the star in the ensemble, and stands out for seemingly being in a different film. While the others drift into farce, he starts at farce and stumbles into slapstick. He climbs a painted sign pole (a joke stolen from I Was a Male War Bride made five years earlier), falls into a creek, climbs through windows, walks in circles in the fog, and can’t find his own bus. His gags work, though they haven’t aged as well as the more restrained comedy of the rest of the crew and rarely have anything to do with the story.
Margaret Rutherford doesn’t care that she isn’t the lead and does what she always does—steal every scene. She’s always good, and is so here, whether it is haranguing the overworked airport staff or putting the moves on poor Mr. Waterman. Petula Clark, remembered mainly as a musician, was a fine actress, and perfectly fits one half of the assumed romantic couple. Her job is to be reasonable, the one we will identify with, and it works. Terence Alexander comes off a bit skeevy, which was the point. The others stand out a bit less, having little to do. Belinda Lee is there mainly to be beautiful. She had a similar purpose in The Belles of St. Trinians as the vivacious 6th form girl.
What doesn’t work is the red herrings. We know that at least one of the passengers is a criminal, and others are likely to be not what they claim to be, so the film sets out to make us doubt each character, except for the stewardess. It does this by having multiple characters do things that appear to be sinister. The problem is that those sinister behaviors are things that someone would do only if they were actually sinister. They are not actions that could just be misconstrued. They are nonsensical except for a villain. Their actions don’t derive from their characters, but from the scripts need for us to doubt them. This wouldn’t be a big problem if it only came up in the end reveal, but as soon as two people start acting in bizarre ways yet are not working together, it’s clear that at least one of them makes no sense. And this is clear for half the movie.
Ah well, this is a comedy, so reasonable characters don’t make or break it. And overall the rest works. It’s not a classic, but it is a comfortable, snuggle down on the sofa on a raining evening film.
Margaret Rutherford also starred in the genre films Passport to Pimlico (1949), The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), Miss Robin Hood (1952), Innocents in Paris (1953), Trouble in Store (1953), The Smallest Show on Earth (1957), I’m All Right Jack (1959)