Праздник на автобусах 1973

Stan and Jack, are struggling for work after one too many accidents in and out of the depot. The pair manage to land a job on a Holiday park, only to find Blakey’s there as the head of Security and is romantically involved with the Nurse (not a nice Thought, that) Stans invite’s the family up for a holiday and everything that can go wrong does. Their clothes are ruined, their toilet explodes, little Arthur redecorates the Apartment, etc.

For Fans of the On the buses Series, this is great fun, it keeps the original cast and is full of cheap innuendo and cheap laughs.

8/10 for fans only

If you were growing up in Britain in the 1970s or early 80s, then Holiday On The Buses will provide you with a very potent hit of nostalgia that will doubtless get you talking about «the good old days». It’s nobody’s idea of sophisticated, and the arthouse crowd should avoid it like the plague, but if you approach it with an open mind you’ll probably have a good time.

It’s all very predictable, of course, but it fits in nicely with a sub-genre of British comedy best described as «everything goes wrong» where it sits alongside Fawlty Towers and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em. There are plenty of minor stars on display soon, such as Grange Hill’s Mr Bronson, regular Benny Hill sidekick Henry McGee, Joan from Love Thy Neighbour and the inimitable Arthur Mullard.

It’s not quite Carry On, but it passes the time painlessly.

‘The Radio Times’ gave this film a one-star rating ( meaning ‘poor’ ) while in the same issue awarding six stars ( meaning ‘excellent’ ) to the atrocious ‘Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who S#####d Me’. The third and last cinematic outing for Stan Butler and co. appeared months after the television series ended. The first two films had come out in the summer, while the third was a Christmas release. The advertising campaign was not as aggressive as the others, which might go some way to explaining its disappointing box office performance. Plans for a fourth picture — ‘Still At It On The Buses’ — were dropped.

Stan and Jack are ( finally ) dismissed from the bus depot and finish up at a surprisingly sunny looking holiday camp in North Wales. As was the case with ‘Mutiny’, there’s a fair amount of product placement, in fact the ‘Pontins’ name is visible in every other shot. In a mind-bending coincidence, Blakey is there too, as Security Inspector. Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts play ‘Wally’ and ‘Lil Briggs’, their characters from Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney’s other hit L.W.T. sitcom ‘Romany Jones’. Wilfred ‘Steptoe’ Brambell crops up as a randy pensioner ( look out for the moment when he slips on the dance floor. Looks accidental to me ).

As you’d expect from a film of this type, subtlety is virtually non-existent; the script contains almost every seaside postcard joke written. ‘Little Arthur’ has aged considerably since his last appearance, meaning we are thankfully spared all those ‘potty’ gags. I wonder if Sir Fred Pontin was happy to see the name of his business linked to exploding toilets, bare bottoms and randy nurses. If nothing else. ‘Holiday’ reminds one how poorer the television series was when Reg Varney and Michael Robbins left. It was good to see the cast back for one final romp.

Don’t watch if you want great comedy, but if you want a good dirty laugh, by all means tune in. Funniest moment — Stan driving under a low bridge, terrifying everyone on the upper deck! Second funniest moment — Stan blowing up the drains with a cigarette end!

‘Holiday On the Buses’ has got to be the epitome of British comedy of the ’70s. It has all the ingredients: sexual innuendo, outrageous mis-understandings and a little slapstick thrown in for good measure.

The film itself is the third ‘Buses’ film, and generally is no better or worse than its predecessors. People tend to either love it or hate it. It is worth noting that most sitcoms don’t usually translate to the big screen, this is one of the few exceptions.

The premise of the film is simple: A bus driver and conductor (Stan and Jack) are sacked, but find employment at a holiday camp as the crew of the camp bus. The film has no plot as such, but generally consists of Stan And Jack getting into a series of scrapes with the help of Stan’s family who are holidaying at the camp.Add their old adversary, in the shape of Blakey (their ex-inspector, and now in charge of camp security) and the picture is complete.

There are many funny moments in the film, including the ‘detour’, as well as the paint and the excellent exploding toilet!!

the film never really manages to get out of third gear, but is an interesting look at holiday camp life as it never really was!!! Overall 6 /10

Sacked for writing off two buses, Jack and Stan land a job driving at a holiday camp, there’s one snag, Blakey’s got a new job too.

The TV series was definitely coming to an abrupt end, with both Varney and Robbins leaving, so this final film feels like the last hurrah for the whole cast.

I quite like the plot, and it’s nice that they managed to devise something to put everyone together for one last time.

If you’re a fan of 70’s British humour, you’ll probably enjoy this, I love the series, and there’s enough content here to laugh at. It’s bawdy, it’s raucous, it’s wonderfully over the top, but it’s still funny.

It is insane to think that Jack and Stan would pull the number of gorgeous girls that they did, talk about hard to swallow.

Sitcoms didn’t have a good track record of translating well to the big screen, Are you being served and rising damp were poor, I can only think of Steptoe and son that worked, and on The Buses.

Credit to them for providing original content, and not just rehashing old material, there are plenty of well known comedy faces to recognise too, look out for Wilfrid Brambell, Queenie Watts and Arthur Mullard.

Can you imagine going on holiday, to Pontins, getting off the coach, and being met by Blakey, stood there dressed as an undertaker’s assistant.

Good fun, 7/10.

Four years before Robin Asquith got up to saucy antics in Confessions from a Holiday Camp, Reg Varney and his On the Buses pals caused chaos at Pontins, Prestatyn. Having been given the sack from the bus depot, Stan and Jack (Varney and Bob Grant) find work as tour bus operators at the Welsh holiday camp only to find that their nemesis and ex-boss Blakey (Stephen Lewis) is now working there as head of camp security. Also arriving at the holiday destination are Stan’s family — his mum (Doris Hare), sister Olive (Anna Karen) and brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins), and their troublesome son little Arthur (Adam Rhodes).

Opening with a busty brunette babe baring her breasts as she runs for a bus, Holiday On The Buses looks set to be racier than its predecessors, but turns out to be much the same as before, with no more nudity, but plenty of titillation and innuendo. Despite clearly in his late ’50s, Stan still manages to pull tasty birds half his age, as does Jack (they both have what I call ‘the Sid James effect’). The lads’ conquests include sexy holiday-maker Mavis (Maureen Sweeney), Italian waitress Maria (Gigi Gatti), the camp nurse Joan (Kate Williams), and a pair of pretty new arrivals. None seem to mind Stan’s greased back old man’s hair or Jack’s tombstone teeth.

This time around, the silliness involves Stan taking a short-cut in his open-top bus (passengers narrowly being killed by a low bridge), Stan’s mum being romanced by a dirty old man (Wilfrid Brambell, THE dirty old man), Little Arthur creating havoc with an ink-filled water pistol, and Olive getting into the wrong bed. If you enjoyed the previous films in the series, then this one should prove entertaining enough as well, although it must be said that the formula has worn almost as thin as Robbins’ hair and Varney is far too old to be playing a womaniser — probably for the best that they ended it here.

Busmen Stan Butler, Jack Carter and Inspector Blake, a.k.a ‘Blakey’, (played by Reg Varney, Bob Grant and Stephen Lewis) are sacked from the bus company after writing off two buses and damaging the boss’s car. They find work at a Welsh holiday camp and when Stan’s family, Mum, Arthur and Olive (played by Doris Hare, Anna Karen and Michael Robbins) and their young son, Little Arthur, arrive for a holiday, chaos ensues…

Third and final spin-off from the popular ITV sitcom On The Buses. By now producing comedies based on popular TV shows was more profitable for Hammer than the traditional horror films they were renowned for. As another imdb user pointed out, you either love these films or you hate them. I personally love them, partly because I’m a fan of the series, having collected a number of episodes on video (and later DVD) and because the charm is still there. This is thanks largely to all the series regulars being present and the guest players, including Queenie Watts, Arthur Mullard and Wilfred Brambell ensure that there are some laughs to be had from the usual old jokes and comedy routines.

HOLIDAY ON THE BUSES was the last of the Hammer-produced film trilogy, following on from ON THE BUSES and MUTINY ON THE BUSES. Sadly, the law of decreasing returns is much in evidence for this lacklustre conclusion to the series, which relocates the action to a Pontins holiday camp in a bid to mix things up a bit.

It doesn’t work. The humour here is even weaker than before, with Stan and Jack getting into the usual round of difficulties while chasing a bit of skirt, and finding themselves up against the stalwart villain of the series, Stephen Lewis’s Inspector Blake. Comic veterans Wilfrid Brambell and Kate Williams are brought in to add some comedy value, but it all feels too little, too late.

Indeed, much of the running time is filled with obvious gags and some lamentable slapstick humour, all of it obvious and well signposted. There’s also far too much reliance on Lewis’s mugging for effect, and by now it’s becoming irritating. The film isn’t actually THAT bad — it’s comparable to contemporary CARRY ON films of the period — but there’s an undeniable feeling that the joke was wearing thin by this stage and it’s no surprise that no more films followed.

In the 1970s, lots of movie spin-offs of popular British sitcoms were produced. Most of them turned out to be total disasters and were produced solely as lame attempts by ailing film companies, often working in a different genre (Hammer for example), to stop themselves from going under following the withdrawal of American financial investment. Having said that, ON THE BUSES was one of the few sitcoms that actually made a successful transfer to the big screen. Three movies were produced, more than any other sitcom managed to spawn.

The movies are actually better than the TV series in some respects. For one, the daily goings-on at the bus depot receive a lot more focus. And they also use the medium of film to showcase some excellent outdoor scenes that were not possible in the series (due to both lack of budget and the fact that videotape equipment was much heavier to carry thus making location work very difficult without using very grainy film stock).

The movies also capture the heart of the TV series, which is probably the biggest factor behind their amazing commercial success. All of the characters from the series are here and are played by the same actors. They behave the same as they would in any given episode, with Stan and Jack making fun of the inspector, Arthur insulting Olive and so on.

This particular spin-off sees Stan, Jack and Blakey losing their jobs at the bus depot after Stan’s bus ends up in a collision with that from another company. This is basically the set-up for the rest of the movie, which sees all three of them working at Pontins holiday camp at Prestatyn, Wales. Stan invites the rest of the family there for a holiday. That’s basically the whole plot of the movie. The gang all go about their usual stuff. But, there are a few differences compared to the two previous movies:

• Stan and Jack cop off with more young women than usual and go through more comical escapades (like having to find ways to get the women by themselves, something that wasn’t a problem in the previous movies or the TV series);

• Blakey has a love interest for the first time;

• A lot more outdoor scenes are used here and surprisingly the weather’s decent with the movie obviously having been filmed in the summer compared to the previous ones that were filmed in the winter;

• And the movie benefits much more from a strong supporting cast, with first-rate talent involved in the form of Wilfrid Brambell, Kate Williams, Arthur Mullard, Queenie Watts and Henry McGee (all of whom were well known to British audiences at the time).

It’s all very dated and politically incorrect and could never be produced today due to fear of being branded with some undesirable label such as «sexist». But it is harmless fun and does never descend into vulgarity. There is very little, if any, swearing at all and sexual situations and gags are handled through innuendo. This movie goes a step further than the previous two by including a brief flash of bare breasts. But it’s otherwise more of the same innocent fare.

As usual, the main cast do a great job and are backed up by a strong supporting cast as mentioned earlier. The late Bob Grant stands out more in this one than usual and his performance is a true testament of his ability as a fine comic actor. May he rest in peace knowing he managed to bring such joy to the world.

The one thing I find very puzzling about this movie is its low rating on the IMDb — 2.8 out of 10 at the time of writing this comment. What’s going on there? It’s really no worse than the first two movies yet for some reason it has a much lower rating that puts it in danger of being in the bottom 100.

I wasn’t alive in the 1970s so I am not able to say whether or not it truly reflects what Britain was like back then. But I can certainly say that the society expressed in this movie is far more pleasant than the one I live in today. The 1970s is portrayed as a simpler time when teenage pregnancies, family breakdown, and alcohol and drug-fuelled violence were problems that did not exist (at least not on the scale we have now anyway). In other words, it shows a society that wasn’t broken, unlike the one that Britain has today.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this if you’re a fan of the TV series or have seen either of the other two movies. For those who haven’t seen the series, I would recommend the movie if you are a fan of either the CARRY ON movies or Benny Hill-style humour.

New York, 1973. Unknown film student Martin Scorcese was sitting in a darkened Manhattan cinema. He was watching Brian Izzard’s Holiday On The Buses. It was this experience that made him the filmmaker that he became.

Scorcese was devastated at the beauty of Izzard’s vision, his glorious understanding of photographing a scene, his eye for detail, his ability to coax incredible performances from Reg Varney and Bob Grant. Scorcese was wildly impressed at Izzard’s ability to put on film a coherent, realistic portrayal of an underclass struggling amidst poverty and work pressures. This was one of Scorcese’s favourite themes.

Indeed, Scorcese immediately ran home and penned Mean Streets as a response to Holiday On The Buses. His Mean Streets script originally included a character called Blakey but Scorcese edited it at the last moment to avoid plagiarism. Indeed, Scorcese’s Taxi Driver was initially to be called Bus Driver, with it’s central character of Stan Bickle spiralling into insanity amid a sea of bare breasts and exploding toilets.

Scorcese did try to secure Varney for the role of Bickle but Varney turned him down, citing that if Scorcese wanted him he would have to come to the UK to film Bus Driver.

This film had a profound effect on Scorcese. Holiday On The Buses deserves a 10/10 and I shall give it a 10/10.

Months after the final ‘On The Buses’ series ended on television, the cast, including Michael Robbins ( who had left the series in 1972 ), were all reunited for one last cinematic outing — ‘Holiday On The Buses’ — which went out on release in December 1973. It did not do the same big business as the first two films, partly because of its lack of advertising, but was popular all the same. A new director, Bryan Izzard, who had also worked on the series, was brought in.

It had to happen. Stan and Jack end up being sacked from the bus depot following Stan’s negligent driving. A visit to the local labour exchange yields nothing. However, after responding to an advertisement requesting an experienced bus crew for a tour bus at Pontins holiday camp, North Wales, Stan and Jack’s troubles look to be over. Well, not quite, as Blakey is working there too, as a security guard! And as if that is not bad enough, Stan’s family arrive at the camp on holiday.

Predictable mishaps ensue — Olive falls into the pool and loses the bottom half of her bathing costume ( was I the only one who thought she had a nice bum? ), Stan and Arthur have to redecorate the chalet after little Arthur coats the walls in Olive’s make-up, Olive and Arthur join a ballroom dancing contest at the entertainment complex and make a right chump of themselves and Stan tries to seduce a sexy young woman on board a ferry and ends up coming down with seasickness. Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts appear here as Wally and Lil Briggs, the same characters who appeared in Wolfe & Chesney’s ‘Romany Jones’ and later its sequel ‘Yus, My Dear’. Kate Williams from ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ plays a sexy nurse who Blakey is besotted with while Wilfrid Brambell ( Albert Steptoe from ‘Steptoe & Son’ ) appears as a randy Irish pensioner, who ends up having a fling with Mrs. Butler. Henry McGee, who graced ‘The Benny Hill Show’ for many years, appears here as the camp site manager.

‘Holiday On The Buses’ could easily have been a ‘Carry On’ film. Overall, it was good-natured saucy fun. Denis King provided a bouncy theme tune which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on one of Peter Rodgers’ aforementioned films. Unfortunately, as was the case with the film’s predecessor ‘Mutiny On The Buses’, interest starts to wane towards the end ( it does for me anyway ). The scene where Stan is roughed up in the canteen kitchen does not work at all and the moment where the bus is submerged in the sand when the tide comes in is just plain unfunny. A year and a half after this went on release, Stephen Lewis’ Blakey appeared in his own show — ‘Don’t Drink The Water’ — in which he and his sister retired to Spain, but it never caught on in the way that ‘On The Buses’ had done.

Definitely not a great example of the series but a good enough film to round off the trilogy. A fourth film ‘Still At It On The Buses’ ( in which Stan and co went on holiday abroad ) was planned but did not get made, probably not a bad thing to be honest.

Funniest bit? Stan throwing his cigarette end down the toilet, unaware that Olive has poured petrol down it, cue massive explosion!

Yet another example of how ‘low’ the British film industry became in the 1970s spewing out endless television sitcom film adaptations, ever decreasing quality ‘Carry On’ films and then the sex comedies arrived! However they hold some charm. This film was the third film derived from ‘On The Buses’ a very popular television comedy in the early 1970s in the U. K. following the sex starved (but not as adult themed as the Confession or Adventures films that followed) adventures of a bus driver, his ‘clippy’, his inspector and mad family!

This entry has a slight variation to the two that preceded it in that most of the action takes place at a Pontins Holiday Camp in Prestatyn, Wales. Quelle some new scenes of harmless comedy that seem to upset the more intellectual film reviewers it seems!

Bring it on, ninety minutes of harmless fun with excellent performances from the cast and variation in the location setting. All produced by Hammer films better known for their horror output?

All in all, a cheap, bawdy but harmless, escapist film. Just don’t take it to seriously and you might reconsider it.

This film should be remembered for Blakeys echoing demented laugh, Olives derriere rising from the deep (inspiration for Spielberg perhaps) but most of all, for the towering achievement that is Bob Grants performance.

Never as somebody truly personified a hackneyed stereotype in a hackneyed stereotypical film from a place and era of such monumental badness (eg — early 70’s British films), that the result is so memorable!

This performance is a rough diamond at the bottom of a very deep pit. But at least it is there and I hope that others begin to pick up on a film that is so bad that it is timeless.

Viva Bob say I!!

I guess this third ‘on the buses’ movie is a typical case of you either love this movie or you totally hate it. The humor is typical British, far from subtle, very sexist and incredibly simple and predictable. If you’re into this sort of early ’70’s British humor, this movie will be a simple pleasure to watch. Everyone else is probably better off avoiding this movie.

I for one found the humor enjoyable but really, it really is purely a matter of taste, more than anything else. To me it the humor is comedy in its purest form, from the early decades of the 20th century, when film was a new medium, only set in a ’70’s time-frame. The situations are all very simple and predictable. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong. The story is non-present, or at least not the most important element of the movie. This is comedy in its most simple and perhaps also purest form. But no, that of course does not guarantee a good movie as well. «Holiday on the Buses» its simple humor certainly entertained me and kept sure that I was enjoying the movie but with my brains switched off, obviously.

This movie really doesn’t have the most subtle or well thought out humor in it. The movie has a very overly present sexist undertone, in which all the woman are basically portrayed as lust-objects. The sort of Benny Hill kind of humor. All of the moments are also terribly simple and predictable but yet you still laugh at them since it simply is too ridicules and over-the-top all to not to do so.

Still «Holiday on the Buses» still work completely successful as a comedy since it lacks one important fundamental thing; Good main characters. The main characters in this movie are dirty, not so good looking old men. How are we supposed to like or feel for any of them or even sympathize for them? Because of this, the movie often falls flat as a comedy. It makes the movie its humor even more cruel and perhaps even offensive by todays standards. No way a movie like this could or would be made this present day.

Only for the most hardened fans of British humor. Everyone else, just skip it.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

When a woman’s breasts pop out of her top running for the bus, it distracts driver Stan who crashes into several cars and a bus. As a result Stan, Jack and Blakey find themselves on the dole queue. Jack and Stan find a job driving buses as part of a holiday camp and are only slightly put off when they find that Blakey has also managed to get himself a job there too.

As somebody who spent too many childhood holidays in Butlins-style parks and various caravan sites, I must agree that the horrors of the average holiday camp are ripe for a bit of mocking – a fact that makes it all the worse that the film completely misses the chance to make fun of it. In fact the film just accepts the holiday camps for what they are and sets about with a plot that just seems the characters chasing a series of girls. If you are familiar with the On The Buses series then there will be no surprises to you as it is all the usual stuff just transposed to the holiday camp. If you enjoy the TV series then you’ll like this, but if you dislike the very basic sexist humour of the 1970’s then you’ll more than dislike this film. It’s not particularly funny and I found it poor from start to finish. The few years since ‘Mutiny on The Buses’ meant that the film had become more daring and it opens with a flash of boobs that the previous film had only implied – if this plus sexist humour is what you are after then you’ll be at home here, but my tastes are a bit above the poor British sex ‘comedies’ from the 1970’s.

The original cast all return and it helps the film keep the standard of the TV series (if only that was a good thing!). The only downside of this is that all the cast are pretty old and it’s all a bit tasteless to see them chasing girls clearly in their twenties! Varney and Grant do their usual lecherous stuff and they are just what the material deserves – and I don’t mean that in a good way. Lewis is easily the best character as his jokes are more physical than sexual and are at least a little funny. Robbins and Karen play the sort of British people that I would cross a country to avoid, never mind the street! Wilfred Brambell hasn’t got much to do but his presence at least is something different to distract from the poor material all round.

Overall this is a pretty poor film and the fact that it was produced by Hammer just makes it all the more amusing that it turned out to be a really dated horror. The gags are poor, the material very thin and it does nothing that makes it stand out from the hoards of crude sex comedies that the UK pushed out in the 1970’s. Fans of the series will enjoy it but the rest of us will just be grateful that they don’t make them like this anymore (well, not very often anyway!).

Stan and Jack, are struggling for work after one too many accidents in and out of the depot. The pair manage to land a job on a Holiday park, only to find Blakey’s there as the head of Security and is romantically involved with the Nurse (not a nice Thought, that) Stans invite’s the family up for a holiday and everything that can go wrong does. Their clothes are ruined, their toilet explodes, little Arthur redecorates the Apartment, etc.

For Fans of the On the buses Series, this is great fun, it keeps the original cast and is full of cheap innuendo and cheap laughs.

8/10 for fans only

If you were growing up in Britain in the 1970s or early 80s, then Holiday On The Buses will provide you with a very potent hit of nostalgia that will doubtless get you talking about «the good old days». It’s nobody’s idea of sophisticated, and the arthouse crowd should avoid it like the plague, but if you approach it with an open mind you’ll probably have a good time.

It’s all very predictable, of course, but it fits in nicely with a sub-genre of British comedy best described as «everything goes wrong» where it sits alongside Fawlty Towers and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em. There are plenty of minor stars on display soon, such as Grange Hill’s Mr Bronson, regular Benny Hill sidekick Henry McGee, Joan from Love Thy Neighbour and the inimitable Arthur Mullard.

It’s not quite Carry On, but it passes the time painlessly.

‘The Radio Times’ gave this film a one-star rating ( meaning ‘poor’ ) while in the same issue awarding six stars ( meaning ‘excellent’ ) to the atrocious ‘Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who S#####d Me’. The third and last cinematic outing for Stan Butler and co. appeared months after the television series ended. The first two films had come out in the summer, while the third was a Christmas release. The advertising campaign was not as aggressive as the others, which might go some way to explaining its disappointing box office performance. Plans for a fourth picture — ‘Still At It On The Buses’ — were dropped.

Stan and Jack are ( finally ) dismissed from the bus depot and finish up at a surprisingly sunny looking holiday camp in North Wales. As was the case with ‘Mutiny’, there’s a fair amount of product placement, in fact the ‘Pontins’ name is visible in every other shot. In a mind-bending coincidence, Blakey is there too, as Security Inspector. Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts play ‘Wally’ and ‘Lil Briggs’, their characters from Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney’s other hit L.W.T. sitcom ‘Romany Jones’. Wilfred ‘Steptoe’ Brambell crops up as a randy pensioner ( look out for the moment when he slips on the dance floor. Looks accidental to me ).

As you’d expect from a film of this type, subtlety is virtually non-existent; the script contains almost every seaside postcard joke written. ‘Little Arthur’ has aged considerably since his last appearance, meaning we are thankfully spared all those ‘potty’ gags. I wonder if Sir Fred Pontin was happy to see the name of his business linked to exploding toilets, bare bottoms and randy nurses. If nothing else. ‘Holiday’ reminds one how poorer the television series was when Reg Varney and Michael Robbins left. It was good to see the cast back for one final romp.

Don’t watch if you want great comedy, but if you want a good dirty laugh, by all means tune in. Funniest moment — Stan driving under a low bridge, terrifying everyone on the upper deck! Second funniest moment — Stan blowing up the drains with a cigarette end!

‘Holiday On the Buses’ has got to be the epitome of British comedy of the ’70s. It has all the ingredients: sexual innuendo, outrageous mis-understandings and a little slapstick thrown in for good measure.

The film itself is the third ‘Buses’ film, and generally is no better or worse than its predecessors. People tend to either love it or hate it. It is worth noting that most sitcoms don’t usually translate to the big screen, this is one of the few exceptions.

The premise of the film is simple: A bus driver and conductor (Stan and Jack) are sacked, but find employment at a holiday camp as the crew of the camp bus. The film has no plot as such, but generally consists of Stan And Jack getting into a series of scrapes with the help of Stan’s family who are holidaying at the camp.Add their old adversary, in the shape of Blakey (their ex-inspector, and now in charge of camp security) and the picture is complete.

There are many funny moments in the film, including the ‘detour’, as well as the paint and the excellent exploding toilet!!

the film never really manages to get out of third gear, but is an interesting look at holiday camp life as it never really was!!! Overall 6 /10

Sacked for writing off two buses, Jack and Stan land a job driving at a holiday camp, there’s one snag, Blakey’s got a new job too.

The TV series was definitely coming to an abrupt end, with both Varney and Robbins leaving, so this final film feels like the last hurrah for the whole cast.

I quite like the plot, and it’s nice that they managed to devise something to put everyone together for one last time.

If you’re a fan of 70’s British humour, you’ll probably enjoy this, I love the series, and there’s enough content here to laugh at. It’s bawdy, it’s raucous, it’s wonderfully over the top, but it’s still funny.

It is insane to think that Jack and Stan would pull the number of gorgeous girls that they did, talk about hard to swallow.

Sitcoms didn’t have a good track record of translating well to the big screen, Are you being served and rising damp were poor, I can only think of Steptoe and son that worked, and on The Buses.

Credit to them for providing original content, and not just rehashing old material, there are plenty of well known comedy faces to recognise too, look out for Wilfrid Brambell, Queenie Watts and Arthur Mullard.

Can you imagine going on holiday, to Pontins, getting off the coach, and being met by Blakey, stood there dressed as an undertaker’s assistant.

Good fun, 7/10.

Four years before Robin Asquith got up to saucy antics in Confessions from a Holiday Camp, Reg Varney and his On the Buses pals caused chaos at Pontins, Prestatyn. Having been given the sack from the bus depot, Stan and Jack (Varney and Bob Grant) find work as tour bus operators at the Welsh holiday camp only to find that their nemesis and ex-boss Blakey (Stephen Lewis) is now working there as head of camp security. Also arriving at the holiday destination are Stan’s family — his mum (Doris Hare), sister Olive (Anna Karen) and brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins), and their troublesome son little Arthur (Adam Rhodes).

Opening with a busty brunette babe baring her breasts as she runs for a bus, Holiday On The Buses looks set to be racier than its predecessors, but turns out to be much the same as before, with no more nudity, but plenty of titillation and innuendo. Despite clearly in his late ’50s, Stan still manages to pull tasty birds half his age, as does Jack (they both have what I call ‘the Sid James effect’). The lads’ conquests include sexy holiday-maker Mavis (Maureen Sweeney), Italian waitress Maria (Gigi Gatti), the camp nurse Joan (Kate Williams), and a pair of pretty new arrivals. None seem to mind Stan’s greased back old man’s hair or Jack’s tombstone teeth.

This time around, the silliness involves Stan taking a short-cut in his open-top bus (passengers narrowly being killed by a low bridge), Stan’s mum being romanced by a dirty old man (Wilfrid Brambell, THE dirty old man), Little Arthur creating havoc with an ink-filled water pistol, and Olive getting into the wrong bed. If you enjoyed the previous films in the series, then this one should prove entertaining enough as well, although it must be said that the formula has worn almost as thin as Robbins’ hair and Varney is far too old to be playing a womaniser — probably for the best that they ended it here.

Busmen Stan Butler, Jack Carter and Inspector Blake, a.k.a ‘Blakey’, (played by Reg Varney, Bob Grant and Stephen Lewis) are sacked from the bus company after writing off two buses and damaging the boss’s car. They find work at a Welsh holiday camp and when Stan’s family, Mum, Arthur and Olive (played by Doris Hare, Anna Karen and Michael Robbins) and their young son, Little Arthur, arrive for a holiday, chaos ensues…

Third and final spin-off from the popular ITV sitcom On The Buses. By now producing comedies based on popular TV shows was more profitable for Hammer than the traditional horror films they were renowned for. As another imdb user pointed out, you either love these films or you hate them. I personally love them, partly because I’m a fan of the series, having collected a number of episodes on video (and later DVD) and because the charm is still there. This is thanks largely to all the series regulars being present and the guest players, including Queenie Watts, Arthur Mullard and Wilfred Brambell ensure that there are some laughs to be had from the usual old jokes and comedy routines.

HOLIDAY ON THE BUSES was the last of the Hammer-produced film trilogy, following on from ON THE BUSES and MUTINY ON THE BUSES. Sadly, the law of decreasing returns is much in evidence for this lacklustre conclusion to the series, which relocates the action to a Pontins holiday camp in a bid to mix things up a bit.

It doesn’t work. The humour here is even weaker than before, with Stan and Jack getting into the usual round of difficulties while chasing a bit of skirt, and finding themselves up against the stalwart villain of the series, Stephen Lewis’s Inspector Blake. Comic veterans Wilfrid Brambell and Kate Williams are brought in to add some comedy value, but it all feels too little, too late.

Indeed, much of the running time is filled with obvious gags and some lamentable slapstick humour, all of it obvious and well signposted. There’s also far too much reliance on Lewis’s mugging for effect, and by now it’s becoming irritating. The film isn’t actually THAT bad — it’s comparable to contemporary CARRY ON films of the period — but there’s an undeniable feeling that the joke was wearing thin by this stage and it’s no surprise that no more films followed.

In the 1970s, lots of movie spin-offs of popular British sitcoms were produced. Most of them turned out to be total disasters and were produced solely as lame attempts by ailing film companies, often working in a different genre (Hammer for example), to stop themselves from going under following the withdrawal of American financial investment. Having said that, ON THE BUSES was one of the few sitcoms that actually made a successful transfer to the big screen. Three movies were produced, more than any other sitcom managed to spawn.

The movies are actually better than the TV series in some respects. For one, the daily goings-on at the bus depot receive a lot more focus. And they also use the medium of film to showcase some excellent outdoor scenes that were not possible in the series (due to both lack of budget and the fact that videotape equipment was much heavier to carry thus making location work very difficult without using very grainy film stock).

The movies also capture the heart of the TV series, which is probably the biggest factor behind their amazing commercial success. All of the characters from the series are here and are played by the same actors. They behave the same as they would in any given episode, with Stan and Jack making fun of the inspector, Arthur insulting Olive and so on.

This particular spin-off sees Stan, Jack and Blakey losing their jobs at the bus depot after Stan’s bus ends up in a collision with that from another company. This is basically the set-up for the rest of the movie, which sees all three of them working at Pontins holiday camp at Prestatyn, Wales. Stan invites the rest of the family there for a holiday. That’s basically the whole plot of the movie. The gang all go about their usual stuff. But, there are a few differences compared to the two previous movies:

• Stan and Jack cop off with more young women than usual and go through more comical escapades (like having to find ways to get the women by themselves, something that wasn’t a problem in the previous movies or the TV series);

• Blakey has a love interest for the first time;

• A lot more outdoor scenes are used here and surprisingly the weather’s decent with the movie obviously having been filmed in the summer compared to the previous ones that were filmed in the winter;

• And the movie benefits much more from a strong supporting cast, with first-rate talent involved in the form of Wilfrid Brambell, Kate Williams, Arthur Mullard, Queenie Watts and Henry McGee (all of whom were well known to British audiences at the time).

It’s all very dated and politically incorrect and could never be produced today due to fear of being branded with some undesirable label such as «sexist». But it is harmless fun and does never descend into vulgarity. There is very little, if any, swearing at all and sexual situations and gags are handled through innuendo. This movie goes a step further than the previous two by including a brief flash of bare breasts. But it’s otherwise more of the same innocent fare.

As usual, the main cast do a great job and are backed up by a strong supporting cast as mentioned earlier. The late Bob Grant stands out more in this one than usual and his performance is a true testament of his ability as a fine comic actor. May he rest in peace knowing he managed to bring such joy to the world.

The one thing I find very puzzling about this movie is its low rating on the IMDb — 2.8 out of 10 at the time of writing this comment. What’s going on there? It’s really no worse than the first two movies yet for some reason it has a much lower rating that puts it in danger of being in the bottom 100.

I wasn’t alive in the 1970s so I am not able to say whether or not it truly reflects what Britain was like back then. But I can certainly say that the society expressed in this movie is far more pleasant than the one I live in today. The 1970s is portrayed as a simpler time when teenage pregnancies, family breakdown, and alcohol and drug-fuelled violence were problems that did not exist (at least not on the scale we have now anyway). In other words, it shows a society that wasn’t broken, unlike the one that Britain has today.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this if you’re a fan of the TV series or have seen either of the other two movies. For those who haven’t seen the series, I would recommend the movie if you are a fan of either the CARRY ON movies or Benny Hill-style humour.

New York, 1973. Unknown film student Martin Scorcese was sitting in a darkened Manhattan cinema. He was watching Brian Izzard’s Holiday On The Buses. It was this experience that made him the filmmaker that he became.

Scorcese was devastated at the beauty of Izzard’s vision, his glorious understanding of photographing a scene, his eye for detail, his ability to coax incredible performances from Reg Varney and Bob Grant. Scorcese was wildly impressed at Izzard’s ability to put on film a coherent, realistic portrayal of an underclass struggling amidst poverty and work pressures. This was one of Scorcese’s favourite themes.

Indeed, Scorcese immediately ran home and penned Mean Streets as a response to Holiday On The Buses. His Mean Streets script originally included a character called Blakey but Scorcese edited it at the last moment to avoid plagiarism. Indeed, Scorcese’s Taxi Driver was initially to be called Bus Driver, with it’s central character of Stan Bickle spiralling into insanity amid a sea of bare breasts and exploding toilets.

Scorcese did try to secure Varney for the role of Bickle but Varney turned him down, citing that if Scorcese wanted him he would have to come to the UK to film Bus Driver.

This film had a profound effect on Scorcese. Holiday On The Buses deserves a 10/10 and I shall give it a 10/10.

Months after the final ‘On The Buses’ series ended on television, the cast, including Michael Robbins ( who had left the series in 1972 ), were all reunited for one last cinematic outing — ‘Holiday On The Buses’ — which went out on release in December 1973. It did not do the same big business as the first two films, partly because of its lack of advertising, but was popular all the same. A new director, Bryan Izzard, who had also worked on the series, was brought in.

It had to happen. Stan and Jack end up being sacked from the bus depot following Stan’s negligent driving. A visit to the local labour exchange yields nothing. However, after responding to an advertisement requesting an experienced bus crew for a tour bus at Pontins holiday camp, North Wales, Stan and Jack’s troubles look to be over. Well, not quite, as Blakey is working there too, as a security guard! And as if that is not bad enough, Stan’s family arrive at the camp on holiday.

Predictable mishaps ensue — Olive falls into the pool and loses the bottom half of her bathing costume ( was I the only one who thought she had a nice bum? ), Stan and Arthur have to redecorate the chalet after little Arthur coats the walls in Olive’s make-up, Olive and Arthur join a ballroom dancing contest at the entertainment complex and make a right chump of themselves and Stan tries to seduce a sexy young woman on board a ferry and ends up coming down with seasickness. Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts appear here as Wally and Lil Briggs, the same characters who appeared in Wolfe & Chesney’s ‘Romany Jones’ and later its sequel ‘Yus, My Dear’. Kate Williams from ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ plays a sexy nurse who Blakey is besotted with while Wilfrid Brambell ( Albert Steptoe from ‘Steptoe & Son’ ) appears as a randy Irish pensioner, who ends up having a fling with Mrs. Butler. Henry McGee, who graced ‘The Benny Hill Show’ for many years, appears here as the camp site manager.

‘Holiday On The Buses’ could easily have been a ‘Carry On’ film. Overall, it was good-natured saucy fun. Denis King provided a bouncy theme tune which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on one of Peter Rodgers’ aforementioned films. Unfortunately, as was the case with the film’s predecessor ‘Mutiny On The Buses’, interest starts to wane towards the end ( it does for me anyway ). The scene where Stan is roughed up in the canteen kitchen does not work at all and the moment where the bus is submerged in the sand when the tide comes in is just plain unfunny. A year and a half after this went on release, Stephen Lewis’ Blakey appeared in his own show — ‘Don’t Drink The Water’ — in which he and his sister retired to Spain, but it never caught on in the way that ‘On The Buses’ had done.

Definitely not a great example of the series but a good enough film to round off the trilogy. A fourth film ‘Still At It On The Buses’ ( in which Stan and co went on holiday abroad ) was planned but did not get made, probably not a bad thing to be honest.

Funniest bit? Stan throwing his cigarette end down the toilet, unaware that Olive has poured petrol down it, cue massive explosion!

Yet another example of how ‘low’ the British film industry became in the 1970s spewing out endless television sitcom film adaptations, ever decreasing quality ‘Carry On’ films and then the sex comedies arrived! However they hold some charm. This film was the third film derived from ‘On The Buses’ a very popular television comedy in the early 1970s in the U. K. following the sex starved (but not as adult themed as the Confession or Adventures films that followed) adventures of a bus driver, his ‘clippy’, his inspector and mad family!

This entry has a slight variation to the two that preceded it in that most of the action takes place at a Pontins Holiday Camp in Prestatyn, Wales. Quelle some new scenes of harmless comedy that seem to upset the more intellectual film reviewers it seems!

Bring it on, ninety minutes of harmless fun with excellent performances from the cast and variation in the location setting. All produced by Hammer films better known for their horror output?

All in all, a cheap, bawdy but harmless, escapist film. Just don’t take it to seriously and you might reconsider it.

This film should be remembered for Blakeys echoing demented laugh, Olives derriere rising from the deep (inspiration for Spielberg perhaps) but most of all, for the towering achievement that is Bob Grants performance.

Never as somebody truly personified a hackneyed stereotype in a hackneyed stereotypical film from a place and era of such monumental badness (eg — early 70’s British films), that the result is so memorable!

This performance is a rough diamond at the bottom of a very deep pit. But at least it is there and I hope that others begin to pick up on a film that is so bad that it is timeless.

Viva Bob say I!!

I guess this third ‘on the buses’ movie is a typical case of you either love this movie or you totally hate it. The humor is typical British, far from subtle, very sexist and incredibly simple and predictable. If you’re into this sort of early ’70’s British humor, this movie will be a simple pleasure to watch. Everyone else is probably better off avoiding this movie.

I for one found the humor enjoyable but really, it really is purely a matter of taste, more than anything else. To me it the humor is comedy in its purest form, from the early decades of the 20th century, when film was a new medium, only set in a ’70’s time-frame. The situations are all very simple and predictable. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong. The story is non-present, or at least not the most important element of the movie. This is comedy in its most simple and perhaps also purest form. But no, that of course does not guarantee a good movie as well. «Holiday on the Buses» its simple humor certainly entertained me and kept sure that I was enjoying the movie but with my brains switched off, obviously.

This movie really doesn’t have the most subtle or well thought out humor in it. The movie has a very overly present sexist undertone, in which all the woman are basically portrayed as lust-objects. The sort of Benny Hill kind of humor. All of the moments are also terribly simple and predictable but yet you still laugh at them since it simply is too ridicules and over-the-top all to not to do so.

Still «Holiday on the Buses» still work completely successful as a comedy since it lacks one important fundamental thing; Good main characters. The main characters in this movie are dirty, not so good looking old men. How are we supposed to like or feel for any of them or even sympathize for them? Because of this, the movie often falls flat as a comedy. It makes the movie its humor even more cruel and perhaps even offensive by todays standards. No way a movie like this could or would be made this present day.

Only for the most hardened fans of British humor. Everyone else, just skip it.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

When a woman’s breasts pop out of her top running for the bus, it distracts driver Stan who crashes into several cars and a bus. As a result Stan, Jack and Blakey find themselves on the dole queue. Jack and Stan find a job driving buses as part of a holiday camp and are only slightly put off when they find that Blakey has also managed to get himself a job there too.

As somebody who spent too many childhood holidays in Butlins-style parks and various caravan sites, I must agree that the horrors of the average holiday camp are ripe for a bit of mocking – a fact that makes it all the worse that the film completely misses the chance to make fun of it. In fact the film just accepts the holiday camps for what they are and sets about with a plot that just seems the characters chasing a series of girls. If you are familiar with the On The Buses series then there will be no surprises to you as it is all the usual stuff just transposed to the holiday camp. If you enjoy the TV series then you’ll like this, but if you dislike the very basic sexist humour of the 1970’s then you’ll more than dislike this film. It’s not particularly funny and I found it poor from start to finish. The few years since ‘Mutiny on The Buses’ meant that the film had become more daring and it opens with a flash of boobs that the previous film had only implied – if this plus sexist humour is what you are after then you’ll be at home here, but my tastes are a bit above the poor British sex ‘comedies’ from the 1970’s.

The original cast all return and it helps the film keep the standard of the TV series (if only that was a good thing!). The only downside of this is that all the cast are pretty old and it’s all a bit tasteless to see them chasing girls clearly in their twenties! Varney and Grant do their usual lecherous stuff and they are just what the material deserves – and I don’t mean that in a good way. Lewis is easily the best character as his jokes are more physical than sexual and are at least a little funny. Robbins and Karen play the sort of British people that I would cross a country to avoid, never mind the street! Wilfred Brambell hasn’t got much to do but his presence at least is something different to distract from the poor material all round.

Overall this is a pretty poor film and the fact that it was produced by Hammer just makes it all the more amusing that it turned out to be a really dated horror. The gags are poor, the material very thin and it does nothing that makes it stand out from the hoards of crude sex comedies that the UK pushed out in the 1970’s. Fans of the series will enjoy it but the rest of us will just be grateful that they don’t make them like this anymore (well, not very often anyway!).