If I hadn't just seen his double-threat credit moments before this movie started I would have been hard put to identify it as the work of Preston Sturges. Adrift from both his home studio, Paramount, and his repertory company of actors he is indeed a shadow of his former self. True, they gave him the reigning (still just about) Queen of the Fox lot, Betty Grable, and solid support Cesar Romero, but it wasn't really enough and it's not hard to see why this effort did for his Hollywood career. There are touches of the old talent and it's possible that those who claim it a satirical triumph years ahead of its time may just have something of a point but it's equally easy to dismiss this one-trick pony of sharpshooter Grable missing intended target Romero - the boyfriend who done her wrong - and putting a slug in Porte Hall where it will do the most good as a wild turkey.

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend is the last of Preston Sturges's American-made movies. It is also the wackiest of them all. It makes no sense and even the transitions from scene to scene have no flow whatsoever. Let me just post another user's review here and be done with it: -----------------------------------Author: didi-5 from United Kingdom 14 October 2009 When you hear the name Preston Sturges you expect great things, but this isn't one of his best efforts. Yes, for the gentlemen viewer it has Betty Grable in a range of corsets playing a pseudo Annie Oakley, and for the ladies it has Rudy Vallee (admittedly rather past his prime). For comedy value it has the peerless Sterling Holloway, but this isn't his finest hour.------------------------Plotwise there isn't much here. Grable has an on-off relationship with Cesar Romero which sometimes causes her to go off toting a gun. Twice in a row Porter Hall's judge is in the way, and off she goes on the run with her Mexican friend to impersonate a schoolteacher. And that's it. There's a couple of songs, but Grable and Vallee's musical talents are wasted and the only real pull of this film is the fact it is in Technicolor. Given the number of second-rate features which were at the time this was made, that's no draw. And even Grable misses her target here.Wait, there is one thing that was sort of funny: Grable's (and sometimes Romero's) girlfriend in the movie is a girl named Conchita (Olga San Juan) who—due to her dark complexion—plays a Mexican who is often mistaken as an American Indian. She didn't seem to mind which ethnic group people mistook her for, she would just go along with it: She was willing to wear a feather in her hair or argue with Romero in Spanish— whatever.....(this is the sort of slap-stick barnyard humor so prevalent in this movie)

On its own The Beautiful Blond From Bashful Bend is an OK amusing sort of comedy. Why it has inspired a cult status is beyond me. How often can Porter Hall get shot in the hind quarters and have it still be funny is carrying a joke too far.Betty Grable raised out on the frontier by her grandfather was taught to be a dead shot at an early age, the better to take care of herself when Gramps played by Russell Simpson is no longer around. She gets real good at it. When she's older and a saloon entertainer she's lost her heart to a no good gambling man played by Cesar Romero.When she finds Romero dallying with Pati Behrs, she goes hunting for him six gun in hand. Only Betty doesn't check her target and it's the local circuit judge Porter Hall who is getting a little quiet time in one of the upstairs rooms that gets it in the rear. If you were married to Margaret Hamilton you might look for some quiet time also.Before justice can be served, Betty flees with her sidekick Olga San Juan disguised as a schoolteacher and her Indian maid. But Romero goes after her and all of them get embroiled in a town feud where Betty gets a few time to display her shooting skills. They have to deal with such town folk as Rudy Vallee, El Brendel, Georgia Caine, Emory Parnell, and a pair of oafish juveniles in Sterling Holloway and Dan Jackson.According to Tom McGee's biography on Betty Grable she was involved in a three way tug of war over the film with director Preston Sturges and studio head Darryl Zanuck. It was not a happy shoot for her though her exuberant performance would not let you think so. The Beautiful Blond From Bashful Bend is minor league Sturges when you compare it to the hits he cranked out at Paramount like The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, Hail The Conquering Hero,and Miracle Of Morgan's Creek.

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.