“Bus Riley” and William Inge: or When Playwrights Are Wronged
By Joel Shatzky
Bus Riley’s Back in Town is a 1965 Universal production that is vaguely based on a play written by William Inge (1913-1973) in the early1950’s bearing the same title. Because of the rewriting of the script and plot by the studio so that the story could be more of a vehicle for Ann-Margaret, Inge removed his name from the credits and not even the fact that the title was from an Inge play was mentioned. It is one of the few times, I believe, that a prominent playwright had his credits removed from a script that was based on his own play. Even Tennessee Williams, who had every good reason to remove his name from the credits of A Streetcar Named Desire due to the distorted ending, abstained from such a temptation.Read More »
