Howard Thomson’s New York Times review, Apin fact, makes Inge’s decision seem all the more puzzling:īus Riley’s Back in Town, which opened yesterday at the Palace and other houses, already – has become a minor, backstage cause célèbre.

Actor/playwright Robert Shaw did the same when his stage play, The Man in the Glass Booth, was turned into a film produced by Eli Landau for the American Film Theatre series in the early 1970’s, but it was indeed a rare occurrence for a playwright to have his name removed from a screen version of one of his works. Having read the original play script and then seen the movie, I can say that I can well understand why Inge would make such a decision to cut any connection with the film. Bus Riley, unfortunately, proved to be quite a different experience for Inge.

His own screenplay for Splendor in the Grass (1961), with Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood, earned Inge an Oscar, and the adoption of A Loss of Roses (1959) was successfully made into The Stripper (1963), with Joanne Woodward. All four of his major plays were made into successful films: Come Back, Little Sheba(1952), with Shirley Booth and Burt Lancaster garnered a best actress Oscar for Booth Picnic (1955) featured Kim Novak’s screen debut Bus Stop (1956) starred Marilyn Monroe and featured the film debut of Don Murray and Dark at the Stop of the Stairs (1960) with Dorothy McGuire and Robert Preston: all were produced apparently in accordance with Inge’s wishes. Inge had no reason, from past experience, to feel that he would have trouble with a film treatment of one of his works. 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.

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. 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. “Bus Riley” and William Inge: or When Playwrights Are Wrongedīus 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.

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