The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)

Director:

Preston Sturges

Writers:

Earl Felton (screenplay)
Earl Felton (story)

Release Date:

27 May 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Western

Tagline:

She had the biggest Six-Shooters in the West!

Plot:

Saloon-bar singer Freddie gets very angry whenever boyfriend Blackie seems to be playing around. She always packs a six-shooter...

Plot Keywords:

Judge | Singing | Hit On The Head | Hanging | Courtroom Scene

Cast

Betty Grable	...	Winifred Jones
Cesar Romero	...	Blackie Jobero
Rudy Vallee	...	Charles Hingleman
Olga San Juan	...	Conchita
Porter Hall	...	Judge Alfalfa J. O'Toole
Hugh Herbert	...	Doctor
Al Bridge	...	Sheriff Ambrose (as Alan Bridge)
El Brendel	...	Mr. Jorgensen
Sterling Holloway	...	Basserman Boy
Dan Jackson	...	Basserman Boy (as Danny Jackson)
Emory Parnell	...	Mr. Julius Hingleman
Pati Behrs	...	Roulette

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Sweden:15

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Goofs:

Continuity: Despite being a Technicolor film, this picture contains process and insert shots which are in black-and-white. In particular, though Charles and Winifred are photographed in color on their buggy ride to the church, the background and the church exterior itself are in black-and-white.

Quotes:

Grandpa: Never wait too long between shots or your finger may change its mind.

Soundtrack:

Frankie and Johnny

As Famous Flops Go, Not Bad

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.