Neive Bellamy
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Kaelan Mccaffrey
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
writers_reign
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.
museumofdave
I came onto this film as one of a large purchased collection, and after reading a batch of reviews on various film sites didn't expect much from it; there were numerous citings that it was perhaps Grable's worst film, that it wasn't vintage Sturges, that it was loud farce devoid of virtues except for an expert use of full Technicolor. And color it has, And it is a loud farce. But although it completely lacks the soft focus turn of the century costumer that Grable so often appeared it, and barely gives the viewer time to absorb the nutty humor, Beautiful Blonde, from it's initial scenes with Grandpa Russell Simpson teaching his little curly-haired granddaughter to reduce bottles to smithereens with a careful aim to the last mad gunfight, a loud and vulgar and often screamingly funny parody of dozens of final shoot-outs in hundreds of western hero epics, this film exudes a sense of madness, of a cast nearly out of control in the spirit of farce. One critic mentions how often Olga San Juan as "Conchita" the dark- skinned servant, is insulted—but failed to remark on her hilarious comebacks, a few surely cut off mid-sentence by censorship concerns. If a careful viewer listens carefully (often hard to do in this raucous unendingly noisy film), there are ample double-entendres as well as the beginnings of a limerick that rhymes with "Nantucket." Surely most alert viewers will fill in the blank. This film demands your attention, and if you do not have the patience for noise and chaos as part of your experience, you may actively dislike it. Grable seems to be having a great time, especially as the substitute teacher with a golden gun, confronted by a pair of demented youths out of some clueless Beavis-world, one an off-the-wall Sterling Holloway. And the film is certainly worth watching just to see so many familiar character actors taking full advantage of their few lines—whether it's Margaret Hamilton, Hugh Herbert or for a brief moment, Marie Windsor in full-on scarlet feather drag—the film is so short, so fast-paced, that co-star Cesar Romero almost seems insignificant, and seems to be plot window-dressing. Which he is!Of course this is no Palm Beach Story, that brilliant farce about romance and love and money: nor has it the zany coherence of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. But it reflects the scattershot, nutty world that Sturges created so often, and seems like his final party before the silence descended--and you are invited.
alexandre michel liberman (tmwest)
Seeing this film's title might bring to mind all those unfunny western spoofs which used to show up once in a while. But here they hit the bull's eye. This film is great fun from beginning to end. It starts with a young Freddie (Betty Grable) being taught how to shoot by her grandfather. She becomes a dead shot. Next she is singing in a saloon a nice melody "Every Time I Meet You". Problem is, she is carrying a gun with the intention of getting even with her boyfriend Blackie (Cesar Romero) who is betraying her. She shoots the wrong person and has to flee the town. She becomes a school teacher and has the most terrible pair of pupils, the Basserman Boys. Those boys are just as terrible as they are funny. There is a final shootout where at a certain point there is no reason for fighting. I always thought Preston Sturges was ahead of his times, but if you want to have fun with a great comedy, the time is perfect now.
lora64
Have seen the movie on video only once and doubt I'd want to see it again. It's just too painfully farcical at times for my liking. As someone says, those freaky brothers are a bit much to see, that's why I wouldn't want to endure the movie again.Bette Grable is always beautiful, no faulting there.I rather felt Rudy Vallee got some rough treatment in this movie and didn't have not enough opportunity to shine with his usual suavity as in other films.Glad I saw it once but that's about it. I really prefer any other Betty G. movies than this one, sorry to say. Most are super.