Bus Stop (1956)

In Joshua Logan's romantic comedy:

• would-be saloon singer (or chanteuse) Cherie's (pronounced Cherry) (Marilyn Monroe) singing of an off-key, inept, but innocently sensual rendition of "That Old Black Magic" in the Blue Dragon Club - a run-down honky-tonk night-club in Phoenix; she was from the Ozarks in Arkansas, bound for Hollywood; at the end of the number, she turned a red spotlight on herself to look "aflame."

"That Old Black Magic"

• Cherie's first introduction to naive yet stubborn love-struck cowboy Beauregard 'Bo' Decker (Don Murray) from a ranch in Montana, and in the Phoenix area for a rodeo, who tried to win her over with a memorized speech describing his intention to find an "angel" to marry: ("My name is Beauregard Decker, Ma'am. I'm 21 years old and I own my own ranch up in Timber Hill, Montana, where I got a fine herd of Hereford cattle, a dozen horses and the finest sheep and hogs and chickens in the country. Now I come down for the rodeo tomorrow with the idea in mind of findin' me an angel and you're it. Now I don't have a whole lot of time for sweet talkin' around the bush so I would be much obliged if you would just step outside with me into the fresh air"); she politely declined his invitation: ("We're not allowed to go out with the customers, but you could buy me a drink if you wanted. I'm so dry I'm spittin' cotton"); he immediately imagined that they were engaged
• the scene where Bo, who thought it was their wedding day, cluelessly recited or quoted the Gettysburg Address to impress Cherie, as she was lying in bed in her boardinghouse bedroom - apparently naked beneath her sheets; they were interrupted by the landlady entering through the door with an announcement: "If you go any further, Mr. Lincoln, you're gonna miss the parade"
• the amazing scene of Cherie telling Bo that she couldn't marry him: "I just can't lie to you and I can't marry ya, and I ain't goin' to Montana with you. And good-bye forever"; and then, she became angered when he tore off her costume's tail - and hysterically screamed at him: "You ain't got the manners they give a monkey! I hate you! And I despise you! And give me back my tail!"
• Cherie's conversation with fellow bus traveler Elma Duckworth (Hope Lange) , a diner waitress, when Bo literally roped her and dragged her onto a bus to Montana; confessing that she had been "abducted," she spoke about her beliefs concerning love and the kind of man she was looking for: ("Maybe I don't know what love is...I want a guy I can look up to, and admire. But I don't want him to browbeat me. I want a guy who'll be sweet with me, but I don't want him to baby me either...")
• Bo's sincere profession of love and marriage to Cherie in the film's conclusion, when he asserted that he loved her just the way she was: "Well, I've been thinkin' about them other fellas, Cherry. And well, what I mean is, I like you the way you are, so what do I care how you got that way?"; she gave a heartwarming, kind reply when touched by his sweetness: "Bo, that's the sweetest, tenderest thing anyone ever said to me" - and threw away her road-map to Hollywood