A gold bullion heist from a bonded storeroom at London’s Heathrow Airport is timed for when a heavy fog is in the area. The fog is part of the crooks' cover. The fog also causes a cascading problem for airports all over the area. Flights out are cancelled and flights in are diverted to other airports.
Cynthia Beeston (Margaret Rutherford) is an outspoken passenger who is determined to get to her destination, Dublin. She creates a scene at the check-in station and garners a little support from a few others who also need to get to Ireland. The harassed airport employee calls the transportation area to get an emergency bus to take several passengers to another airport where the fog is reported to be not as heavy. Hopefully they will be able to get a flight to their actual destination.
An emergency relief driver is called in to drive the bus. Percy Lamb (Frankie Howerd) is told to take bus 13 to Blackbush Airport. Regulations require that a flight attendant accompany the bus and passengers. Lee Nicholls (Petula Clark) is assigned to the task. Her first job is to make a passenger list. The people that board the bus are Miss Beeston, Edward Schroeder (George Coulouris), mild mannered Henry Waterman (Toke Toenley), Janie Grey (Belinda Lee) and at the last minute first officer Peter Jones (Terence Alexander) hitches a ride.
The mastermind for the gang of crooks is only known as "The Banker". Two of the gang are captured by police and are questioned by Inspector Henley (John Horsley). Under pressure they admit their part of the heist but they don’t know who the Banker is. They also tell the Inspector that the gold was hidden in the luggage compartment of one of the airport’s busses. Bus 13.
Airport security contacts Bus 13. Inspector Henley tells Percy about the heist and the gold and that the person who stole it may just be one of his passengers. Unfortunately the fog has not lessened and the bus, with its passengers, is totally lost. Percy tries to keep going but runs off the road. The busload of passengers ends up at a deserted town in the middle of what appears to be a mine field. And at least one of them is a wanted criminal and very dangerous.
“The Runaway Bus” was released in 1954 and was written, produced and directed by Val Guest. It is a British Comedy, Crime Mystery. Val Guest has written and/or directed some of my favorite movies. “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” 1970, “The Abominable Snowman” 1957 and a couple of the Quatermass films just to name a few.
“The Runaway Bus” is one of his lesser known films. It’s an odd little film. But for some reason I liked it. At least most of it. I had my doubts at first when the main character was the annoying Frankie Howerd. Val Guest may have like him, but I wasn’t impressed.
Everything else about the movie I really did like. It was humorous and the characters were larger than life. Each one had their own style. Some were eccentric and some were down to earth but they were individuals. The situation these characters were in was absurd. That was part of the fun. The film went from the absurd to the ridiculous. That was good too.
“The Runaway Bus” is supposedly a remake of “The Ghost Train” 1941. “The Runaway Bus” is more on the comedy side of the spectrum and “The Ghost Train” on the spookier side. Both had obnoxious leading characters but otherwise both were great movies.
Petula Clark plays the flight attendant. She was an actor and singer for years. She was a child star and sang on BBC radio for the troops during WWII. If you remember her from her “Downtown” days you wouldn’t recognize her in the film. At 22 and with a forties hair style she looks like any fresh faced actress of that era.