Buses on Screen - Films L-Ll

LA Confidential (1997, Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce et al)

Richard DeArmond notes this "contains a shot of the movie 'Roman Holiday' which some of the characters in the movie were watching. In it is a quick shot of some Rome overhead and a three-axle Fiat."

The very last scene in the movie includes this distant transit bus:

Ladies Who Do (1963, Harry H Corbett, Peggy Mount)

Comedy opens with two short views of London Transport AEC Regent III RT315 (HLX132) blinded for route 12, although seen in London Wall and therefore somewhat off route. (+Colin Read)

(with thanks to Bob Wingrove)

Ladri di biciclette AKA The Bicycle Thief AKA The Bicycle Thieves (1948, Lamberto Maggiorani)

Features trams and lots of three-axle Fiat trolleybuses in Rome, including one boarded by the star (+Colin Read.) A clip from this movie is seen briefly in The Player (1992).

The Ladykillers (1955, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom)

"There were a couple of shots of London Trolleybuses and other LT vehicles of the period. The film was shot in the Kings Cross area of London." (thanks Dave Martin)
The rear of a London Transport 2RT2 AEC Regent III RT is seen in King's Cross (screencap courtesy of Neil Fraser):

The Lady Vanishes (1979, Elliott Gould, Cybill Shepherd)

I believe the bus seen here is preserved London Transport STL441 (AXM693), a 1934 AEC Regent I with London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) body.

A Lamb's Tale

This film made by students at Salford University features the SELNEC Preservation Society's former Greater Manchester 8001 (XBU1S), a Leyland Fleetline/Northern Counties.

The Last Bus Home (1997, dir Johnny Gogan)

Irish movie about the Pope's 1979 visit to Dublin features CIE D44 (VZI44) and D415 (415ZD), both Leyland Atlantean PDR1A/1s with CIE/MSL bodies. There are many interior scenes; D415 is the star of the show (thanks Gary Manahan):

The Last Detail (1973, Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid)

A prisoner is escorted from Norfolk, Virginia on a Greyhound Scenicruiser.

The Last of the High Kings (1996, Gabriel Byrne, Christina Ricci)

Set in 1977 Dublin, features CIE D44 (VZI44), a Leyland Atlantean PDR1A/1 with CIE/MSL body. (thanks Gary Manahan)

Last Orders (2001, Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins)

"At one point in the film, Helen Mirren boards a red RM to go and visit her daughter in a mental hospital. By the time she arrives at her destination, the bus has miraculously transformed itself into a red MCW Metrobus!!! " noted by Steve Phillips, but a review of the film shows the director intended to show two bus trips.
Firstly Mirren boards RM1280 (280CLT) - when filmed this bus was in preservation:

She's seen sitting aboard the RM, and then another bus.....

....which turns out to be MCW Metrobus M176 in London General livery, although it appears to have been sold by London General before filming:

The Last Page AKA Man Bait (1952, George Brent)

Has a good rear view of London Transport AEC Regent III RT3097 (KXW206)on route 1. (+Colin Read)

The Laughing Policeman (1973, Bruce Dern, Walter Matthau)

"Dern and Matthau search for a mass murderer who shot up a San Francisco MUNI Mack. This event occurs near the beginning of the film. At the end Dern is driving a car trying to find the Mack bus that Matthau is on...along with the killer. Several MUNI Macks appear before Dern saves the day just in time." (thanks Bruce Korusek)

Laughter in Paradise (1951, Alastair Sim, Fay Compton)

One scene has a back-projected scene of Piccadilly Circus; seen are London Transport RTs, both prewar and postwar, also the odd STL. (+Colin Read)

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951, Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway)

Has views early on of London Transport RT-family buses, many with restricted destination displays, at the Bank (also RTLs and STLs glimpsed) and crossing London Bridge. (+Colin Read)

The League of Gentlemen (1960, Jack Hawkins et al)

Partly filmed in London and has several street scenes including RT family buses. Most clearly seen is the AEC RT on route 53 outside the Cafe Royale:

A League of Their Own (1992, Geena Davis, Madonna, Tom Hanks )

The Georgia Peaches' team bus, a GMC 3751 'Silversides' was supplied by bus collector and restorer Chet Furmanek; he played the bus driver. An MCI MC-9 was also used.

Lease of Life (1954, Robert Donat, Kay Walsh)

Donat plays a dying country vicar; there are two outside shots of Bedford OWB CDT673 linked by an interior shot of the conductress. Earlier there is a glimpse of what may be East Yorkshire 'Beverley Bar' type double deckers. (+Colin Read)
Mark Evans elucidates:
"The film's cathedral city location of Gilchester is in fact Beverley, where I went to school in the 1960s. Pupils from my old school were used as extras in some of the scenes.
There is a brief glimpse, as Colin Read noticed, of a pair of East Yorkshire Motor Services' Beverley Bar-bodied double deckers. They are on the bus stand at Beverley's Wednesday Market and are Roe-bodied Leyland PD1s, which were the backbone of the EYMS fleet for many years.
Bedford OWB CDT673 is in the cream and black livery of Cherry's Coaches, who ran a Beverley town service until selling out to EYMS in the 1990s. Indeed, a profile shot of the Bedford shows the fleetname to be covered over. The Doncaster registration is a wartime issue, thus the bus is indeed an OWB, but it carries a postwar Duple bus body. Some views purporting to be of the interior of this bus are in fact studio shots, the give-away being the London Transport-style moquette seats as found on the RT family."

The Leather Boys (1963, Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell, Dudley Sutton)

"Unidentified RT used as the wedding transport."[roofbox on route 49]

Lovely shot of Southdown Leyland Titan PD2 turning outside Butlins at Bognor Regis:

....rear view of Edinburgh Corporation Tiger Cub:

.....and various background shots of RT, RM and a Duple Donington coach."

(thanks Jon Price)

Let Him Have It (1991, Christopher Eccleston, Tom Courtenay, Eileen Atkins)

Shot in Liverpool but set in Croydon, this movie features four preserved ex-London Transport buses: Roofbox prewar RT44 (FXT219)

Similar RT54 (FXT229) in wartime livery is seen behind RTL1163 (LYF104)

.....and this is RTL1348 (MXX71)

Life (1999, Eddie Murphy)

Has a scene at a Greyhound bus terminal with an MCI MC-7 parked alongside a much older coach.

Letter to Brezhnev (1985, Peter Firth, Alexandra Pigg, Margi Clarke, Alfred Molina)

Set in Liverpool and opens with an aerial sweep across the Pier Head bus station in the dark. As the movie gets going we see Merseyside PTE 1026 (A106KLV), a 1984 Leyland Atlantean AN68D/Alexander.

We also see the central characters aboard Merseyside 1010 (A330GLV), a 1983 Leyland Atlantean AN68D/Alexander.

There's a brief aerial shot of a Crosville Bristol VRT, but later we get to see Crosville DVL410 (ODM410V - Bristol VRTSL3-501/Eastern Coachworks) in traffic with Merseyside 1407 (EKD407L - Leyland Atlantean AN68/East Lancs)

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943, Roger Livesey)

Chris Hough notes this features a shot with an STL in the background, unfortunately the destination is unclear.

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004, Geoffrey Rush, Charlize Theron)

Colin Read notes "Some transport content. Quick (2-second) glimpse of London trolleybus in colour - archive film. Some computer-generated Routemasters appear in one scene (they aren't quite right) and in the limo scene in Whitehall there are what appear to be some reverse-image(!) RT family buses."

Libel (1959, Dirk Bogarde)

Bogarde is nearly run down by London Transport RT720 (JXC83) on service 12 with destination South Croydon Garage (correct for that time) (+Colin Read)

Lightning Conductor (1938, Gordon Harker)

Gordon Harker plays Albert Rughouse, cockney conductor of a bus on the Victoria Station-Epping Forest service, which is commandeered by foreign spies. A sequence on London Transport's Chiswick skidpan has a continuity error: London Transport Bluebird AEC Renown LT1277 (GX5213) becomes AEC Regent STL1364 (CLX592) on the move (shedding an axle in the process?) then reverts to LT1277 when stationary. The interior of the STL's cab is obviously mocked up (check the wobbly wheel). Also seen is AEC Regent STL10 (JJ4361). (thanks to Bob Wingrove and Colin Read)

The Likely Lads (1976, James Bolam, Rodney Bewes)

Opens with a distant shot of a Northern General singledecker: More identifiable is a Daimler Fleetline from the same company with Alexander W body seen from behind:

As Terry Collier (James Bolam) drives his Bedford van, a Tyne and Wear PTE Leyland Atlantean/Alexander passes; in the next shot it's metamorphosed into a Northern General Atlantean/Park Royal:

A Northern General AEC Renown/Park Royal (ex East Yorkshire) passes on the dual carriageway when we see an outside shot of Terry's block of flats:

Also glimpsed on the Tyne Bridge are two more Northern General buses, a Leyland-National and an unidentified red doubledecker.

This Atlantean/Alexander creeps into another shot of Terry's van

In the next shot Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes) has a bunch of flowers jammed in the entrance doors of Tyne and Wear PTE 678, a Scania Metropolitan/MCW:

(thanks Jon Price, Alan Sinclair and Chris Hough)

Lisbon Story (1994, Rüdiger Vogler, Patrick Bauchau)

Ricardo Figueiredo reports many Carris buses and trams appear in this film!

The Liquidator (1966, Rod Taylor, Jill St John, Trevor Howard)

Strange Bond-esque comedy thriller which even has a Shirley Bassey theme song. Taylor and St John are seen flying back into London Airport by BEA; as they leave by car past three BEA RF coaches are seen clearly, and three more in the distance. Of more interest is the climax of the film aboard a white Vickers Valiant V-bomber. These aircraft were withdrawn from service in January 1965, and this one is only seen taxiing. A mix of footage depicts it taking off, flying and landing - one clip shows a silver Valiant, possibly from an air show!

A Little of What You Fancy (1968)

Musical documentary tracing the history of London's Music Halls. There are general shots of LT Routemasters in Trafalgar Square and the Strand, and stills of horse buses, but more interesting is a brief glimpse of a private hire AEC Regal IV/Eastern Coachworks RFW-class coach new to London Transport but by then in use with St Thomas's Hospital. This would be either RFW1 (LUC376) or RFW6 (LUC381). (+Colin Read)

Live and Let Die (1973, Roger Moore)

A former London Transport AEC Regent III RT loses its roof. Two RTs were used in the film, RT246 and RT2513.

"RT246 had its upper deck removed and refitted on rollers to facilitate its easier deroofing for the bridge scene. Incidentally this part of the film was shot in Jamaica for which RT246 left Pinewood for Liverpool Docks on 19 September 1972 en route out there. The upper deck of RT2513 was taken as a spare in case of a second take! A wooden mock up of the roof was used for the scene when it was on top of the chasing police car. I saw a single deck RT2513 left at the Studios which I assumed was later scrapped." (thanks Maurice Bateman)

The Lives of the Saints (2006, dir Chris Cottam)

Largely set in North london, and has several appearances by local buses, Wright-bodied Arriva Volvo B7TLs on route 141 and First London Dennis Tridents/Plaxton President on 79 and 341.

This however is neither:

(screencaps by stronghold)

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue AKA Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti et al (1974, Christine Galbo, Ray Lovelock, Arthur Kennedy)

Spanish-Italian horror film with some Manchester footage of SELNEC PTE buses. These are 1971 Daimler Fleetlines with 'Mancunian' style bodywork by MCW:

SELNEC 7031 (VNB131L), a 1972 Leyland Atlantean AN68/1R with Park Royal body:

SELNEC 5817 (BJA917B), a 1964 Leyland PD2 with East Lancs body, new as Stockport Corporation 17. I have two conflicting records, one shows it as a PD2/37, the other as a PD2/40.

SELNEC 3036 (WRJ185) was a 1963 Leyland Titan PD2/40 with MCW body new as Salford Corporation 185

Was this ERF a SELNEC recovery wagon?

(screencaps by stronghold)

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