The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend

Oh, Preston Sturges, I know this movie isn’t anywhere near the same league as Sullivan’s Travels, The Lady Eve or Unfaithfully Yours, but I see what you were trying to accomplish here. If only the Production Code, Betty Grable and everything else about this film’s path to the screen hadn’t been a giant obstacle course. That the film came out even remotely entertaining is a testament to your talents as a writer, producer and director.

In trying to create a rowdy good time, he got the perfect actress to play someone sexy and always looking for a good time, but Betty Grable didn’t want to expand herself as an actress or change up her persona too much. And Sturges clearly wanted her to expand beyond her normal persona (notice that her legs are covered up for most of the film) and prove her worth; or, he wanted a completely different actress for the part. The truth is probably somewhere in-between.

And while writing the film, it’s clear that most of the salacious stuff has been exercised out. This leaves behind several supporting characters that don’t do much, drift in and out, and give the film a weak support structure to build itself off of. And many of the gags are cheaper than what you’d find mixed in with his more well-known films.

But, if only, he hadn’t encountered any of these problems. I’m not saying it would of turned out as fabulous as The Lady Eve, but it would have been better than this amiable, enormously flawed film. This didn’t deserve to kill his directorial career, not by a long shot. Other directors made far worse films but keep cranking them out. But such is the unfairness of life.