The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)

Undescribable Perfection

Such a frustrating disappointment

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Shortly before "Anne Get Your Gun" was released, this film, which I dub "Betty, Get Your Gun" was released, as an often raucous western comedy, starring Betty Grable and Cesar Romero. But, sometimes the duo of Sterling Holloway and Dan Jackson, as the demented Basserman boys, take center stage. They have a penchant for spying on Betty, and acting up in her class or elsewhere. Porter Hall is perfect as the harried Judge O'Toole: the unlucky recipient of 3 bullets from Betty's gun, in a running gag sequence, that lodge in the least damaging place: his buttocks. Hugh Herbert is perfect as the eccentric doctor who pulls these slugs out. Rudy Vallee plays a dapper wealthy bachelor, who owns a gold mine, and competes with Cesar for Betty's heart. Cesar is a handsome rogue who has a love-hate relationship with Betty. .......During the credits, and at the end, the peppy title song is sung. Rather early on, onstage, Betty sings the melodious "Every Time I meet You", accompanied by a barbershop quartet. This was composed by Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon. Later, in a private setting, Rude Vallee, along with Betty, sing the standard "In the Gloming"......The silliness occasionally gets out of hand, but on the whole I liked it. See this short second feature film at YouTube.

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend is directed by Preston Sturges who also produces and co-writes the screenplay with Earl Felton. It stars Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, Olga San Juan, Porter Hall and Hugh Herbert. Music is by Cyril Mockridge and cinematography by Harry Jackson.When she accidentally shoots a judge in the posterior, sharpshooting dance hall gal Freddie Jones (Grable) escapes the city of Rimpau and ends up in Snake City disguised as a schoolmarm.In his own words, Preston Sturges would call The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend an unfortunate hodgepodge. Who are we to disagree? From the off nothing sat right for the great writer and director as regards the film, already smarting from the financial disaster that was Unfaithfully Yours, Sturges would end up making a film that wasn't a Sturges movie! Unlike Unfaithfully Yours, which at least received favourable critical notices, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend was savaged by the critics and lost a fortune at the box office. It signalled the death knell for Sturges' career whilst also becoming the first flop of Grable's starring output at this juncture.Would the film have had a better reception were it not attached to Preston Sturges? Well it's possible since lesser expectation levels and less attention to the cost of making it would surely have had people view it purely as a Grable starring piece, but quite simply it's just not a good movie, it's uninspiring on the page to begin with, as Sturges' coarse scripting doesn't sit right in the froth, and then the humour falls decidedly flat once the central premise runs out of ideas. Add in some poorly structured characters, such as the moronic Basserman brothers, and the film irritates instead of bringing joy.Technical attributes do stop it from being an utter waste of time. The Technicolor photography is stunning, the costuming is right out of the top draw, and Grable, who is clearly too good for this sort of stuff, is great value with her effervescence energy and of course those legs! We can also give a modicum of support to the nutty shoot-out that greets the patient amongst us in the finale. Played for scatter shot farce, there is chuckles to be had as Snake City becomes divided and go at it gun for gun. But ultimately these things can't lift the film above the mediocrity that hangs over it during the course of its running time. 5/10

Well, as far as I can see, there are only three things wrong with this movie, compared with the rest of the director's output:1) It doesn't have Bill Demarest in it.2) It doesn't have Jimmy Conlin in it.3) It isn't funny.

Zany, scattered and at times downright demented, it is perhaps not so terribly surprising this was considered such a disaster when it came out that it instantly vaporized Preston Sturges' Hollywood career. I guess this sort of loose, free wheeling parody (and at times it has a Coen Brothers inspired kookiness about it) just wasn't the sort of thing audiences took to in 1949.That very looseness, that daffy unrehearsed quality can give one the impression that the film is simply not as good as it could've been, but my God it isn't THAT bad. There are sparks of originality throughout and while it may never quite catch fire, this is still Sturges and still superior to a good number of tame, vanilla comedies that came out around this time.It may not have been the case but it certainly looks like many of the actors were having a ball during filming, particularly Cesar Romero. Watch the one scene where he is quizzing some hayseed local about his sweetheart's (Betty Grable) whereabouts. He can barely keep a straight face and happily lets this character actor steal the scene with a funny, one man "who's on first?" routine. I thought Grable did a fine job as well and showed pretty fair comic timing, though I wonder if Sturges really wanted that other Betty (Hutton) for the role and couldn't get her for some reason. Sturges may have allowed those two freaky brothers (one of whom is played by Sterling Holloway) to take things too far; I'm sure audiences at the time watched their crazed antics with stone faces. In fact, they're not even recognizably human which may have been the point. I'm not sure.An odd, not terribly satisfying movie, but watchable, never boring and with spurts of that famous snappy Sturges dialogue.