Blondie in Society
Director: Frank Strayer
Year: 1941
Rating:
6.0
The 9th
in the 28-film series of the Bumstead's frantic life. I am not sure if the
films are getting better or I have just gotten used to them. The first few
I watched had me wondering how people in the 1940's could find them funny.
But they have grown on me like moss. In a sense they are a telescope into
the past concerns of people back then - children, status, work, neighbors,
marriage and being a paycheck or two away from being broke. So not so different
than today for many. Every film is near total chaos - they remind me of that
old vaudeville act when someone would twirl tea cups on a stick with his
hands and feet and you just waited for them to crash. They never do and neither
do the Bumstead's. They come awfully close in every film but through luck
and love they manage to keep going and as in the American dream they add
possessions to their home. In this one a washing machine. Consumerism is
the American dream.
Dagwood comes home from work to find the police and the bank manager in his
living room. Blondie says someone forged Dagwood's name on a $50 check. Dagwood
slowly explains that the check is his and he lent the money to an old friend.
"Without asking me!". It turns into a huge fracas - $50! I was going to buy
a washing machine, a bicycle and get a perm with that money. "Get that money
back". Dagwood is getting no nookie until he does. Instead, he comes back
with a giant Great Dane that eats everything in sight all over the neighborhood.
It all escalates step by step and is fairly amusing. You would be surprising
how funny just watching the Great Dane chase their small dog around and around
the house is. The usual cast of Arthur Lake, Penny Singleton (who sings two
songs with her terrific voice), Jonathan Hale as Dithers with two guests
William Frawley (I Love Lucy) and Edgar Kennedy famous for his slow burn
to anger. 76 minutes and directed as usual by Frank Strayer.
