THE BEAUTIFUL BLONDE FROM BASHFUL BEND

US, 1949, 77 minutes, Colour.
Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, Olga San Juan.
Directed by Preston Sturges.

One of Preston Sturges' last successful films. Starting as a writer in the thirties, he emerged as a very talented comic writer-director in 1940 with The Great McGinty?. He had great success with such films as The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero.

This comedy western is rather slight. On the surface it looks like a typical Betty Grable vehicle. She was very popular at 20th Century Fox at the time after her success with the troops in World War Two. The supporting cast are comics and appeared in several of Sturges' other films. The film parodies the west - a bit in the vein of Cat Ballou or Support Your Local Sheriff and was probably a bit ahead of its time. The running time is short, many of the situations too obviously contrived. However, there is a sardonic look at the west and its traditions and the film provides a smile throughout - a gentle criticism of the American heritage.

1. The tone of the title, the song? The humorous lyrics? A Betty Grable vehicle and audience expectations at the time? How much a Betty Grable vehicle? How much a Preston Sturges vehicle?

2. Colour photography, the studio presentation of the west? The bar rooms, jails, courts, school-rooms, the barns? The music and songs? The special effects - especially for comedy? The traditional look of the western - and gentle parody?

3. How effective was the parody? Audience acceptance of this at the time? In the light of subsequent western parodies? The humour of the vigorous heroine, the weak heroes? The various types of the west? The various cliche situations - the shooting and the running out of town, the escapes and the disguises? rhe school-madam and her toughness? The various types in the town? The show-down and the fight? The court case? The tongue-in-cheek tone and audience appreciation of it?

4. The implausibility of the plot for parody purposes? How credible the characters? The blend of realism and contrivance?

5. Betty Grable's style as heroine? her masculine name? The variation on the western hero? The opening with her grandfather teaching her how to shoot and then allowing her to play with dolls? her being in prison and the flashbacks? Songstress, tempter, the shooting of the judge twice after persuading him to forgive her? Hostility towards Blackie? the escape with Conchita and the train trip? The reception as the school-marm? The infatuation with Charlie - and his mime and music? The poking fun at the romantic sequences especially with the two hill-billy types? The encounter with Blackie and the shooting? her control of the class? The build-up to the battle and her participation in it? The court sequence and the possibility of marrying Blackie? the corny ending? A strong heroine aping the masculine heroism of the west?

6. The contrast with the men - Blackie as the smiling villain, shooting, hanging, proposing? Charlie and his spectacles, being made fun of, playing the organ, owning the mine, hanging?

7. Conchita as a strong supporting woman? In the bar? Stealing the clothes, pretending to be an Indian - and the derogatory remarks about Indians (and tongue-in-cheek critique of Americans)? her participation in everything?

8. The judge and his wife? The humour of the situation, the treatment by the blind doctor? His forgiving Freddie and then being shot again? His doing the same during the court case? The satire in his nagging wife?

9. The people in the town: the humour of the reception, the Swedish people and their accents, the hill-billy types and Freddie's control of them with the gun, their hitting Blackie with the rock, their seeming to be dead? The battle in the town and people shooting and throwing crockery? The humour of a west where bullets didn't kill anyone?

10. How enjoyable the contrived situations? For a laugh? For a parody of the west and a humorous jolt to American understanding of the West and its heritage?