MovieChat Forums > The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend Discussion > The Morgans Creek girls grown up and a c...

The Morgans Creek girls grown up and a challenge

posted 15 years ago by NewtonFigg
2 replies | jump to latest

In an alternate universe, Trudy Kockenlocker did not have children. She and her little sister Emily grew up and got jobs as saloon girls. Conchita is exactly what you would expect Emily to turn into and, like Emily in Morgans Creek, Conchita gets some of the best lines in Bashful Bend. My favorite: to avoid the law, she is disguised as an Indian. A lady asks her "Are you pure Indian". Conchita lowers her eyes demurely and says "No, I am not pure."

I don't understand the comments posted about this movie. For example, it is suggested that the audience of the day was turned off by the depiction of the Basserman boys as sub-human yokels. Gimme a break. This movie was made at the height (more accurately the depth) of popularity of the Ma and Pa Kettles movies.

And Hugh Herbert was a hoot as a nearsighted doctor. This movie may not rank with the best of Sturges, but I'd give it a 7.5.

Name a 1949 comedy that is better.

[–] freudified_n_funkified 15 years ago

I'm not sure Grable as Freddie was quite as willfully flighty as Hutton as Trudy Kockenlocker. Sturges seemed to affectionately condemn Trudy and put her through the wringer - and while she's not as sharp a character as Fredde she's sketched with far more grace and dimension, as is Emmy in Morgan's Creek. It's true that Sturges definitely had certain character rhythms he returned to multiple times, and the relationship here between the two women has a similar function, in theory, but has little of the spark the sister dynamic in Miracle of Morgan's Creek had. Beautiful Blond just isn't as good a movie.

As for the Basserman boys - inspired lunacy. They start out kind of annoying, but as it goes they become the best, weirdest and most unique part of the picture. I think I could have watched and enjoyed an entire feature with just them and Grable interacting.

Minor Sturges, kind of undercooked, but not a bad movie in the least. Lots of nice stuff in there.

[–] VPaterno 13 years ago

Saw it yesterday on Fox Movie Channel and was pleasantly surprised; it's hardly a great movie, or prime Sturges, but it's better than its mediocre reputation. It doesn't quite fit the Grable formula in that her character has a harder edge than what we expect to see from her, but one senses she enjoys the challenge of portraying someone who has to hide her toughness behind a veil of femininity.

Another thing that worked against the film is that it came out a few months after "The Paleface," another western comedy, and Grable in effect is cast against Jane Russell's character. "Bashful Bend" isn't quite the low-comedy lampoon of "Paleface," and audiences of the time better accepted the imposing Russell as a sexy gunslinger than the more delicate Grable.

Carole Lombard fans, visit
http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/