Review of The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949) by Kevin N — 19 Sep 2011

An underrated oddity made toward the end of Preston Sturges' career, this is an unabashed, unrestrained farce with a whole lot of things going for it. Betty Grable fits the part perfectly; she is smart and sexy, a dangerous and unpredictable presence who controls every scene and keeps the film sharp.

She is backed by a fine cast of oddballs and misfits, the most enjoyable being Rudy Vallee, an actor who made a number of memorable movies with Sturges. Part of what makes the film so charming is its total lack of pretension; it is what it is and it knows it, a wild and carefree comedy heavy on the slapstick and without any manners whatsoever.

It dashes from one scenario to the next without worrying about the logistics of its story and delivers a thick dose of laughs for a fleeting seventy-one minutes. It's a film that works on far more levels than just as a Sturges curio, one that has been mostly forgotten but is very much worth digging up.