The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend (1949 Preston Sturges & scr, prod)

Why only now? Preston's short swansong is bouncy, full of gags you have to pay attention for and joyful -- and it's in color! In Color? Or Colour. Whatever. Anyway. Yes it is, and the Fox Cinema Archives edition is very good. Particularly like Porter Hall's emission when shot in the arse - "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Betty Grable (and Olga San Juan) are fleeing Cesar Romero and a court case, end up in Snake City, where Rudy Vallee unsuccessfully tries to woo her, gets mixed up with crazy brothers Sterling Holloway and Dan Jackson. With Porter Hall, Hugh Hebert, Al Bridge, Marie Windsor.

It sort of runs out of plot... Sturges himself said it "got no critical acclaim and lost a fortune. The critics didn't care for it any more than I did, and the picture served only to prove that Betty Grable is a splendid actress, capable of any role. I wish the story, an unfortunate hodgepodge, were one-tenth as good as she is."