Buses on Screen - Films D-Dl

Daikyoju Gappa AKA Gappa, the Triphibian Monsters (1967)

Carlos Wallberg notes "A 1960s Japanese movie about a trio of monsters named Gappa. In an early scene, a japanese tram and a bus can be seen, supposedly in Tokyo, they are liveried gray with a red band. There are aircraft to be seen too, in the shape of miniature F104, balloons, a F-27 and another in the airport."

Dance Hall (1950, Bonar Colleano, Donald Houston, Petula Clark, Diana Dors)

Features London Transport RT318 (HLX135), and a distant view of a trolleybus. (+Colin Read)

Dancing at Lughnasa (1998, Michael Gambon, Meryl Streep)

Irish-set movie opens with Gambon's arrival aboard Great Northern Railway 389, a 1951 GNR with Park Royal/GNR body, registration IY7383, although in this scene it carries IH3607:

The Dancing Masters (1943, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy)

Towards the end of the film the duo ride on top of a double deck bus.

The lady driver is frightened by an apparently rabid dog.

Actually, it's eaten one of her cream cakes and got cream around its mouth, but driver, conductress and passengers all jump off, except for Ollie and Stan.

Noticing the erratic progress of the bus, Stan ventures downstairs and takes the wheel - upstairs to Ollie when it comes off in his hands.

Stan eventually falls off, but Ollie is still trapped aboard when the bus ends up riding The Cyclone Racer, a rollercoaster ride in Longbeach, California, then flying through the air.

The Cyclone Racer was one of the most famous rides of its time, and also featured in 'Strike Me Pink' (Eddie Cantor) and 'Abbott and Costello in Hollywood'.

Dangerous Afternoon (1961, Ruth Dunning)

Anachronistically, an ST and STL of London Transport are seen in service in London's Fleet Street. (+Colin Read)

Dangerous Minds (1995, Michelle Pfeiffer)

Set in Pasadena, California; Denise Annells reports a green Gillig and several school buses at the beginning of the movie. Any more information?

Danny the Champion of the World (1989, Jeremy Irons, Robbie Coltrane et al)

Features preserved London Transport AEC Regal IV/Metro-Cammell RF10 (LUC 210). (thanks Richard Haughey)

Dans La Ville Blanche AKA In the White City (1983, Bruno Ganz)

Views of trams and double deck buses in Lisbon, Portugal. (+Colin Read)

Dante's Peak (1997, Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton)

Early in the climactic scene of this volcano-erupting movie a yellow International school bus is crushed.

Darby's Rangers (1958, James Garner)

Opens in Washington during World War Two:

The action soon switches to a Hollywood version of Britain. As London is bombed by the Luftwaffe, a US Ranger befriends a London bus conductress. It's clear as the bus arrives that it's not a London bus! But what is it?

The interior shots don't exactly convince either......

The last footage of the bus shows the pronounced snout and odd proportions....

....but this view showing fleet number N214 confirms it as the same bus used in the Danny Kaye musical Merry Andrew also in 1958.

Darling (1965, Julie Christie, Laurence Harvey, Dirk Bogarde)

Passing buses, including a Routemaster and an RT, in the London street scenes provide a backdrop for Julie Christie:

.......and a Southdown Leyland Tiger Cub crosses in front of the camera:

The Dark Man (1951, Maxwell Reed)

Shot on the South East coast of England; reportedly features a Bristol singledecker and a Hastings trolleybus. (+Colin Read)

Date With A Dream (1948, Terry-Thomas)

"About 20 minutes in, the scene with the market barrow has (in the background) a half-cab coach, followed by a Green Line TF (rare) and 3 STLs which pass in both directions" (thanks Colin Read). The TF class was based on the then-revolutionary Leyland Tiger FEC, an underfloor engined variant of the Tiger. The coach is from Western Scottish:

It's passed by the TF:

...then we see the STLs:

The Da Vinci Code (2006, Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou)

David Frazer provides these photographs and reports: "I was up in London one Sunday in September, and by chance came across 'The Da Vinci Code' filming outside the Temple Church in Fleet Street. Watched by several dozen onlookers, the crew filmed Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou run a few metres down the street and hide behind the corner of a building, over and over again.
The production had a convoy of background vehicles that would drive east down Fleet Street, turn around and drive back the other way to appear in the shot. One of them was an East Thames Buses Volvo, fleet number VWL1, with fake blinds for route 11 pasted on."

It's a Wright-bodied Volvo B7TL; David adds: "The fake blinds, which are not in the correct New Johnson typeface, are particularly obvious in this photo." In the movie Hanks and Tatou travel on VWL1.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004, Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal)

A New York GMC RTS is wrecked when the storm hits New York, then crushed under the bow of a Russian ship.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961, Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern)

"Two of the leads are in Battersea park and they see this mist cloud coming down the Thames. They manage to get out the park and go upstairs on a London Transport RT (as the mist cloud only covers the lower deck) I think there are also general London street scenes as well." (thanks Bob Wingrove)
Peter Burton comments: "Further vehicles can be seen in the film, including a Brighton Hove & District convertible Bristol K, from an aerial shot of Brighton Palace Pier. The vehicle they board is an RTL, if you're quick you might get its rear registration no and engine fleet number plate, but it's a quick view and it's foggy. Plenty of RT family vehicles in background shots, as well as a LT trolleybus front wheel area (I think!), an RF, a full fronted coach, and a foreign tram."
Colin Read identifies the RTL as RTL362 (KGU438), which also appears in The Sandwich Man (1966).
Seen on the front of a copy of the Daily Express newspaper is a photograph of an RTL pushed over by high winds on Westminster Bridge.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, Michael Rennie)

"There is a brief shot of what purports to be a London bus. My guess would be that it was in fact one of the double-deck vehicles run by the Third Avenue Coach Company in New York City. These buses were, I think,in use until the late 1940s or early 1950s. I believe that similar vehicles were also used in other US cities, though, including Chicago and St Louis. In a book I have on St Louis streetcars there is a photo of a similar bus.
In the same film there is also a brief shot of Westminster Bridge in London on which several trams are visible. There is also a brief shot of a PCC tram in Washington DC at the beginning of the film, just before the spaceship lands." (thanks Alan Sinclair)
Colin Read notes Washington PCC cars 1256 and 1467.

The Day of the Jackal (1973, Edward Fox)

"There are glimpses of a traditional rear-platform Paris Renault bus and a more modern Paris bus." (thanks Alan Sinclair) Briefly features a 3-axle trolleybus in Genoa, Italy (+Colin Read)

D-Day Minus One (1945, produced by the USAF)

A 16 minute record of the operations of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the 1944 invasion of France, has scenes of the troops being ferried to their camps in England in buses, at least two of them from Barton Transport. The screen captures are from the public domain copy downloadable from http://www.archive.org - the original film would no doubt be clearer. This may have fleet number 331. D-Day Minus One

This Barton Leyland (is this 252, reg BVO452?) is the most clearly seen D-Day Minus One

Dead Alive AKA Brain Dead (1992, dir Peter Jackson)

Features Wellington trams. (+Colin Read)

The Deadly Affair (1966, James Mason, Simone Signoret, Maximillan Schell

Has an appearance by London Transport RTL1050 (LLU829). (Thanks David Thrower)

Dead Men are Dangerous (1939, Robert Newton

Reportedly features London Transport LT-type AEC Renowns. (+Colin Read)

Dead of Night (1945, Mervyn Johns)

A collection of ghost stories, one of which involves a bus crash, using models, but possibly also the real thing. (+Colin Read)

Dead Poets' Society (1989, Robin Williams)

Features a couple of Flxible Clippers (thanks Carlos Wallberg)

Dead Ringer (1964, Bette Davis )

"Davis rides a Los Angeles old look GM to a funeral as the film opens. You don't see her riding the bus, but it pulls up, stops, and as it pulls away you see Davis walking to the cemetery." (thanks Bruce Korusek)

Death Wish (1974, Charles Bronson, Hope Lange)

Alan Aaron notes: "Death Wish takes place in New York City. While much of it was filmed in the subways, there is one brief moment when he steps off of a GMC New Look Bus. What is unique about this is that the bus is equipped with outside advertising signs from the Bus-O-Rama Corporation. These signs have been known as Bus-O-Ramas, Bat-Wings or Elephant Ears."

Death Wish II (1982, Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland)

Alan Aaron observes "Death Wish II takes place in Los Angeles. In one scene he is in a public square with Jill Ireland and his daughter. He goes to get ice cream and some one takes his money. Bronson starts chasing him and in the background is an MCI-8." Also seen are an AM General, fleet number 8027, and a GMC RTS of SCRTD.

The Deep End (2001, Tilda Swinton)

Set in Lake Tahoe, California, the youngest boy in the family arrives home in school bus number 45.

Derby Day AKA Four Against Fate (1952, Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding et al

A collection of stories around characters on their way to the Epsom Derby; includes a brief shot of London's Fleet Street, featuring London Transport RTW326 (KXW426) on service 6.

Desperate Moment (1953, Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling)

Two views of Berlin front engined doubledeckers, probably Bussing. (+Colin Read)

Detour to Terror (1980, OJ Simpson)

Filmed in New Mexico; OJ Simpson plays the driver of a bus threatened by local hoodlums. The film starts with a GMC 4107 or 08 going through a bus wash. Apart from the bus driven by Simpson there is bus station footage with Greyhound MC-6, MC-7 and MC-8 motorcoaches. (information drawn from the Yahoo groups)

Dial 1119 (1950, Marshall Thompson)

"Thompson rides a Greyhound Silversides bus. At a rest stop he apparently takes the driver's gun which he spots in the front of the bus. At the end of the trip the driver asks him about the gun and is shot." (thanks Bruce Korusek)

Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (1973, Jim Dale, Spike Milligan)

"Features a red London Transport RT in a street scene shot round Elstree/Borehamwood" (thanks Jon Price)

Dilemma (1962, Ingrid Hafner, Peter Halliday)

Little-known B-movie has a view of a London Transport RTL on route 88:

(thanks Bob Wingrove)

Dirty Harry (1971, Clint Eastwood)

Harry Callahan boards PCC streetcar 1169 of the San Francisco Municipal Railway while chasing a villain. The car is boarded in one of the stations in the long tunnel section in the SF suburbs. (thanks Alan Sinclair)

Later in the movie a San Francisco Ford B series school bus (carrying the fleetname Dechsel Charter Service) is hijacked. Callahan jumps on the roof:

Disclosure (1994, Demi Moore, Michael Douglas)

Features Seattle trolleybuses.

The Divorce of Lady X (1936, Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier)

"Opens with shots of Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square showing lots of London STLs." (thanks Jon Price)

Divorzio all'italiana AKA Divorce - Italian Style (1961, Marcello Mastroianni)

Brief footage of a trolleybus in Cagliari, Italy. (+Colin Read)

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