Buses on Screen - Films Gm-Gz

Go For A Take AKA Double Take (1972, Reg Varney, Norman Rossington et al)

Director Harry Booth recreated the scrapyard set complete with bus used by the Double Deckers TV show (which he directed) and had Double Deckers star Debbie Russ appear in a cameo role as Tiger. Many other actors from the Double Deckers series appear in the film. David Noades has more information on the Official Double Deckers Fan Club website.

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000, Nicholas Cage)

Collision between a transit bus and a police car. more details needed

Goodbye Pork Pie (1981, Tony Barry, Kelly Johnson)

"The movie is a chase from one end of New Zealand to the other featuring plenty of buses - Leylands & AECs predominate with some newer European buses appearing." (thanks Bryce Pender). Jon Price comments: "Features Auckland Bus/Coach Station at the begining together with Leopards/AEC with, I presume, NZMB bodies at Wellington Railway Station and a Bedford SB bus at Invercargill." Bryce further advises the red/white Leopards at Wellington are PSU3E/2R with Hawke bodywork.

The Good Companions (1933, Jessie Matthews, Edmund Gwenn)

A street scene features London General NS-types. (+Colin Read)

The Good Die Young (1954, Stanley Baker, Laurence Harvey, Richard Basehart, John Ireland)

British 'film noir' about a Post Office van raid includes footage of Stanley Baker alighting from RTL1175 (LYF116) on route 170 whilst another RTL passes opposite.

(thanks Colin Read)

The Good German (2006, George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey McGuire)

Set in postwar Berlin but filmed in California, this movie improbably features an AEC Routemaster - can anyone suggest an id? Chris hough notes the bus appears in two scenes.

Goodnight Mr Tom (1998, John Thaw)

Mr Tom (John Thaw) looks after a boy evacuee from London in his Norfolk home during the Second World War. Both he and the boy return to London at separate times on a Great Western Railway train (thanks Terry Browne). On arrival they both jump on an early postwar AEC Regent IIIRT. (thanks John Newton and Alan Sinclair)
Leon Daniels confirms the RT seen in this movie as RT190 (HLW177) "which is restored to as new condition and so has restricted blinds, plain headlamps, etc."

Gorgo (1961, Bill Travers)

"Travers plays an underwater treasure hunter who captures the eponymous monster off the coast of Ireland. Rejecting the offers of Irish scientists he sells the beast to a circus and transports it to London.
There are at least 3 different shots of RT/RTL/RTW class buses with circus (and of course film pre-release) 'See Gorgo' ads on the sides - the first shot looks to be in an LT garage with 3 buses pulling out in succession, then general handheld shots in the streets of London ending with one being filmed racing through Trafalgar Square. Three others (the same three?) feature at the climax of the film (static) as Gorgo devastates Central London.
Also many model shots as Gorgo trashes Picadilly Circus and one reversed shot showing an RT-type advertising "XULUD" paint with an OFFSIDE staircase. Two brief shots also show a maroon/white utility looking double decker in the background near the end - most certainly not LT liveried!" (thanks Scot Fergie) The front two of the LT garage sequence are RTLs for route 88, the middle one is RTL741 (KXW91). This is apparently Stockwell garage, since the buses all have SW garage plates:

The filmmakers evidently were so excited by their monster that they did indeed include one piece of film reversed:

The maroon/white utility 'decker is not well seen, any suggestions as to identity are welcomed:

Go To Blazes (1962, Dave King, Robert Morley)

Features London Transport RTWs (thanks Bob Wingrove). Colin Read also notes a Country Area RT, but notes some screenings have the bus material cut out. any more information?
John Hewitt recalls "the fire station scenes were shot at the former Watford Fire Station which was then located in the High Street so green LT buses in the background would have passed this site. I recall (if my memory serves me correctly) that some of the escape/chase scenes were on the A1 - some near the one-time 'Stone House' road house at Hatfield (Herts), and again just south of what is now the Brent Cross fly-over."

Go With Matt Monro (1966, Matt Monro, Roy Castle, Marian Montgomery)

Colin Read recalls this musical short featuring lots of London buses with singing star and former bus driver Matt Monro. Can anyone add to this?

The Graduate (1967, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross)

Two bus trips are featured. Bruce Korusek identifies the bus in the first scene (Ross rides, Hoffman runs after it and eventually gets on) as an AC Transit GM New Look bus.

At the end of the film, Hoffman and Ross ride off on a GM old look bus.
Saul Daniels pointed me to some useful information on the bus used at the end of the movie. What is seen on screen is a yellow 1956 GMC TDH4512 fleet number 4522 in the livery of 'Santa Barbara Municipal Bus Line'.

The bus line is fictional, the bus was actually a Santa Monica Municipal Bus Line vehicle repainted for the movie. Although the movie was shot in 1966, it was released in 1967, by which time the bus had been sold to Campus Bus Service, Kent State University. When its identity was discovered, the bus, numbered 2345 with CBS, was christened 'The Graduate', and after retirement from active service was preserved by Bill Schloman.

Le Grand Chemin (1987, Anémone, Richard Bohringer, Antoine Hubert)

Features this Chausson APH:

The Grass is Greener (1960, Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmonds)

Earl and Lady Rhyall (Grant and Kerr) have a stately home which is visited by tourists in three coaches:

The lead vehicle appears to be Duple bodied, the second may be Plaxton, but the third has a Yeates Europa body.

Great Balls of Fire (1989, Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder)

Has an appearance by an ACF Brill in Greyhound livery - I believe this to be the example preserved in the Greyhound Museum.

The Great Escape (1963, Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Donald Pleasance et al)

After the escape, Richard Attenborough and Gordon Jackson attempt to get away in civilian clothes in a German cream/blue Mercedes-Benz O-3500 saloon. They are discovered as they try to board. (from observation by myself and Alan Sinclair) Tony Perodeau speculates that this may be a postwar bus.

The Great Ice Rip-Off (1974, Lee J Cobb)

Murder mystery that takes place on a bus going the scenic route from Seattle to San Diego. (thanks Arthur Tashiro) Partly filmed in the Los Angeles bus terminal or in a parking lot across the street. Featured an MCI MC-7, although the script refers to it as an Eagle!

The Great Muppet Caper (1981, The Muppets, Diana Rigg, Charles Grodin et al)

As noted by Sammy Chadwick, much-filmed London Transport RTW75 was used:

Leon Daniels recalls:"Simon Kaye did the driving for us on the moving Great Muppet Caper scenes. We made some RT seat frames with backs but no cushions for the puppeteers to work underneath......I ended up in that scene with Kermit and Miss Piggy on bikes (Battersea Park) - look carefully in the background for some poor person in a rowing boat. Every time we went back to our marks the 'cherry picker' just moved Kermit and Miss Piggy in a couple of minutes. I had to row the boat at full speed back and turn around!!"
Not so easy to identify is this beast, registration NAR216L, a sort-of doubledecker with a trailer:

The Great St Trinians Train Robbery (1966, Frankie Howerd, George Cole, et al)

Features a Bedford VAL14/Duple of Altonian Coaches, Alton, Hampshire:

A pair of Plaxton-bodied Bedford SBs are seen near London's Buckingham Palace:

The Green Cockatoo (1937, John Mills, Rene Ray)

"Many shots of STLs and a view of an E1-type tram" (+Colin Read)

The Guardian (2006, Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher)

Well-made, well acted but horribly formulaic movie has a US Coastguard Bluebird early on.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn)

There is a rear end shot of a Marmon-Herrington trolleybus in San Francisco. (thanks Richard DeArmond)

Gumshoe (1971, Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw)

London scenes feature passing AEC Routemasters, at least one of which is a stretched RML-class:

Liverpool sequence features 1962 Liverpool Corporation Leyland Atlantean/Metro-Cammell L501 (501KD):

Finney's character travels on a Liverpool Corporation rear entrance 'decker, which will have to remain unidentified:

(screencaps by stronghold)

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