A rather unassuming start for the Blondie Cinematic Universe. A major part of the plot involves Dagwood Bumstead and another guy tinkering with a vacuum cleaner. Somehow this spawned 27 sequels.

The movie mostly consists of proto-sitcom* domestic hijinks: Job-like figure Dagwood is besieged by a never-ending barrage of awkward circumstances, misunderstandings, and poor financial decisions, landing him in hot water with his boss, JC Dithers, and wife Blondie. True to the source material, there's also a lot of cutesy shit with their dog Daisy and son Baby Dumpling. Very dull, although one bit I liked is that for Dagwood and his co-workers, carrying a packed lunch from home, thereby saving $3 a week during THE GREAT DEPRESSION, is considered shameful, a nice period detail about the petty pride of the middle class.

*Ironically, Blondie was never successful as a sitcom. There were two attempts, both of which were cancelled after one season.

If nothing else, the highlight of the film is the lead performance. I had never before in my life contemplated what a Real Life Dagwood Bumstead would be like and didn't know what to expect, but Arthur Lake absolutely kills it. His performance as a high-strung, put-upon beta male reminds me of Crispin Glover as George McFly and totally alters how I view the comics character. His counterpart Peggy Singleton does what she can with the material, which mostly relegates her to the role of nagging housewife.

It's interesting to see how comics and movies intersect during this period. Blondie creator Chic Young's name is fairly prominent on a lot of the posters, which seems unthinkable by today's standards. There's a surprising bit of cross-media continuity with the comic strip: Dagwood and Blondie wed in the funny pages in 1933, and now in 1938 they're celebrating their fifth anniversary. However, there is no mention of Dagwood's past as a wealthy heir to the Bumstead railroad fortune, which he forsook in order to marry Blondie over his parents' objections (conveniently giving the comic a chance to pivot from its origins as a "pretty girl strip" to a more relatable domestic setting). Perhaps future installments will dig deeper into Blondie lore, but I doubt it. Although, come to think of it… Dagwood mentions that he's never driven a car before, which I assumed was just an aspect of the setting, but could be a coy reference to his upbringing where he was undoubtedly chauffeured everywhere…

At some point, Dagwood's former romantic rival Chester casually shows up and it seemed to me like the audience was expected to already be familiar with him from the comic, but as far as I can tell he's an invention for the screen.

According to Wikipedia, the screenwriters set out to incorporate a lot of the recurring gags from the strip, and sure enough there's a scene where Dagwood eats a sandwich in bed that honestly reads as indulgent fanservice, slop for all the hardcore Dagheads in the audience. I was curious about this and did a little research: Chic Young's son claims sandwiches were introduced to the strip in 1936, so I looked through newspaper archives for 1936-1937 (I assume this movie was written early 1938) and it seems there's only a handful of instances where Dagwood makes a weird, relatively normal-sized sandwich. Here's an example:

Enough to be a recurring gag, but not yet established as a major component of the strip the way it is now. Is it possible the movies helped elevate it into the defining aspect of the Blondie franchise?

Also of note: the Bumsteads sleep in separate twin beds, which is a departure from the strip (Young "steadfastly refuses to be bullied into getting them twin beds… [h]e is very stubborn about this") but perhaps a concession to film censors.

Dagwood Bumstead loses his job after trying to stand up for his rights, and when his wife Blondie meets with his boss Mr. Dithers to get it back, he gives her the job instead. Frustrated with being a stay-at-home dad for about 10 minutes, Dagwood agrees to go on a fishing trip with his neighbor, Marvin, and abandons his child. Unbeknownst to him, the trip is a pretext for Marvin to carry on an affair with his mistress, and he is pressured into doing the same with her friend.

Much better than the first movie. I got a genuine laugh from Dagwood punching a salesman who mistook him for a housewife. They're playing to their strengths with more physical comedy. Unfortunately, they also doubled down on giving Baby Dumpling more dialogue, recited in the most irritating monotone possible. It also seems like "Blondie thinks Dagwood is having an affair" is going to be a recurring thing in these movies, although this time she has evidence instead of just gossip. There's a cute gag where she's the one who runs into the mailman, but for a movie titled Blondie Meets the Boss there's surprisingly little of Blondie in the workplace, which I kinda would've liked to see explored more (the film seems quietly progressive on that front). I agree that Dagwood in an apron, who absentmindedly starts referring to himself with feminine pronouns, is more entertaining, though.

• What kind of world is this where a couple going on vacation makes the front page? Did the newspaper have to push back news of Kristallnacht to page 2?
• Part of the plot features Blondie's college-age sister Dot (Dorothy Moore reprising a non-comic-canon character from the first film who's apparently never mentioned again after this), breaking into their house, thinking they're on vacation, so she and her male partner Freddie have a place to stay during the State Jitterbug Championship, which seems slightly insane.
• Freddie, fed up with having to babysit, calls Dot something that is bleeped out and I really want to know what it was.
• Dagwood, played by Arthur Lake, is pressured into kissing Francis Rogers, played by Dorothy Comigore. Comigore would later appear in Citizen Kane, a movie inspired by William Randolph Hearst, founder of Blondie publisher King Features Syndicate, as Kane's second wife Susan Alexander, a role inspired by Marion Davies, who may or may not have been Lake's mother-in-law.
• I was not expecting a movie based on Blondie to be such a hotbed for extramarital temptation. I think they should bring this into the comics, maybe have a big story arc where Blondie kicks Dagwood out of the house because she thinks he's having an affair with Fritzi Ritz (rivals since their flapper days), and he commiserates with Leroy Lockhorn and Andy Capp.

Sandwich Watch: The first mention of sandwiches occurs 35 minutes in and they seem to have gained an extra layer. "I wonder how Daddy gets these things into his mouth," ponders Baby Dumpling.

Continuity Corner: Prior to the reveal that he's a philanderer, I assumed Marvin was there because neighbor Herb Woodley hadn't been created yet, but it turns out he had been, and Blondie even mentions a Mrs. Woodley later in the film. Apparently Herb was originally named Bill, and they had an infant son named Alex. Interesting because the Woodleys are childless today and Baby Dumpling's real name is Alexander. Did Blondie and Dagwood steal their neighbor's baby?

Continuing directly from the previous movie, the Bumsteads finally take their postponed vacation to Lake... Kenobi? Canobie? Whatever. Aboard the train, they have a run-in with a guy named Marton who's mildly rude to them. His rudeness seems justified: he gets yelled at for not apologizing hard enough after accidentally stepping on a hat Dagwood clumsily dropped. Then the family has the audacity to poorly smuggle their dog Daisy in the passenger car, and he's the bad guy for informing the conductor. Marton just so happens to be the owner of a hotel they were going to stay at, and he refuses to give them a room. The Bumsteads instead stay at a nearby run-down hotel run by an overly maudlin elderly couple, who confess they're about to lose the place to Marton, somehow, unless they can prove to the bank they're a thriving business. Oh, and they have 24 hours.

Blondie and Dagwood take pity on the couple and decide to help them out. Dismal comic antics ensue as Dagwood attempts to become a repairman. Daisy chases a skunk into the air vents of Marton's hotel and the stench leads all the guests to flee to the run-down hotel. Upon learning his hotel will have to be closed for an extended period of time, Marton grabs the insurance forms from a safe and burns it down, which is witnessed by Baby Dumpling and Daisy, who are saved by a benevolent arsonist the family befriended earlier.

A chore to watch but I'm determined to stick it out. Everything moves at such a languid pace. The movie starts off with Blondie throwing a fit because Dagwood inadvertently disparaged her new hat (women, am I right folks?) and it drags on forever.

• There's a pattern of Baby Dumpling's friend Alvin showing up in the early part of the movie to say a few lines in that awful kid monotone, this time trying to sell Dagwood on the MGTOW mindset. Maybe someday he'll factor into the main plot.
• Dagwood and Blondie talk about getting old, blissfully unaware that in about 15 years or so their comics counterparts will cease aging altogether as the strip drops the "real time"aspect.

Animal Antics: They're getting really ambitious with Daisy. Previously they'd have the occasional puppet arm, now there's thought bubbles, there's pain stars, the dog is doing crazy flips. I wonder if she'll eventually start talking.

Sandwich Watch: Surprisingly, no sandwiches in this installment.

Five year old Baby Dumpling Bumstead, who "knows the alphabet from A to B," is enrolled in school after an encyclopedia salesman convinces his parents, Dagwood and Blondie, that he's a genius. However, he has trouble adjusting and comes home with a black eye. His woes are made worse when his beloved dog Daisy is snatched away by dogcatchers.

So I wouldn't, like, recommend these movies, but this is one of the more enjoyable ones so far, although it's still too mawkish and all the problems are solved way too conveniently. The characters seem much better defined in this installment. Blondie, played by Penny Singleton, isn't quite the nagging, suspicious housewife of the previous films or the unfazed straight man of the modern comic strip; here she's depicted as just as much a simpleton as her husband, which makes for more fertile comedic territory. Neither know what an IQ is and are terrified when they learn their son has an IQ of 168, she struggles to open a door she doesn't realize is locked, and can barely contain her hostility towards the neighbor boy. That boy, Alvin, is given a little more characterization as a slightly older boy who's kind of a smartass. Baby Dumpling's sadness feels genuine, perhaps child actor Larry Simms was given a bit of direction for the first time. Mr. Dithers, the archetypical cantankerous boss, is shown to have a heart of gold and is played with a lot more charm than his depiction in the comic strip would suggest. Even the mailman is given a moment of pathos: he knows he can never escape his fate of getting run into, but gosh darn it he's got to try.

The biggest laugh for me is a sharp cut to Dagwood in the process of tearing up a bunch of books, just sort of ferally angry at the concept of books, unaware that his wife just spent $80 on them from the salesman.

• The version on Amazon's Freevee starts with 2 minutes of scenes from later in the movie, as a trailer of sorts, which confused me at first.
• Interestingly, we never actually see Baby Dumpling in school or interacting with his schoolmates. There seems to be a strict rule that no more than two children can be onscreen at the same time.
• It's mentioned that Alvin's unseen father is named Fred Fuddle, which is an absolutely delightful comic strip name. Mrs. Fuddle, who does appear, does not get a name.
• There's a schmaltzy ending where Baby Dumpling encourages a sickly rich girl in a wheelchair to walk again, which is supposed to tug at your heartstrings, but it comes off like he doesn't understand her situation at all and is just being an asshole.

Animal Antics: There's a special effect where Daisy is crying and there's a comical amount of tears flowing from her face. I feel bad for this poor dog having to get hooked up to some kind of crazy contraption.

Continuity Corner: According to Dagwood, Baby Dumpling's real name is also Dagwood, which COMPLETELY CONTRADICTS the comic strip where it's Alexander Hamilton Bumstead. A striking blow to Bumsteadheads everywhere.

Sandwich Watch: For the second movie in a row, no sandwiches. I really thought this was going to be a big thing throughout the series.

Deathly dull with languid pacing. After a two-film respite, we're back to "Blondie suspects Dagwood is cheating on her" stories. Up-and-coming Columbia player Rita Hayworth guest stars as Dagwood's rich and independent ex-girlfriend. If this was a modern comic movie, the character would be Fritzi Ritz and she'd mention her niece a few times to foreshadow the imminent Nancy movie. Alas.

Most of the comedy comes from Dagwood's discomfort being seen in public with a woman who isn't his wife, the nightmare of Mike Pence and Tyler "Ninja" Blevins. For a moment I thought they might use Hayworth's character to explore Dagwood's comic strip past as a wealthy playboy in the big city, but she drives him to their old makeout spot located in whatever unnamed town the Bumsteads reside in, which would seemingly rule out that whole backstory. I get it, they want Dagwood to be a relatable everyman, but I think it would add a little more depth to Blondie's fears of inadequacy beyond "women be paranoid."

Dagwood's neighbor (and now apparently best friend) Marvin is back, with more advice on how to lie to your wife. There's a scene I kinda like where he can perfectly mimic Dagwood's voice and nearly fools Blondie over the phone trying to give his buddy Dag an alibi. Also, Alvin's dad makes his first appearance, but this time he's called Ed which isn't as funny a name as Fred Fuddle.

"Servant trouble" is putting it lightly… Blondie almost gets murdered!!! After accidentally kicking him in the rear, Dagwood asks his boss Mr. Dithers for a raise because Blondie's been nagging him for a maid. Dithers offers the Bumsteads a stay in the supposedly vacant mansion of a deceased magician that is rumored to be haunted. There, they befriend the cowardly Horatio Jones (the first Black character in the series to be given a name), who happens to be spending the night as part of a lodge initiation, and encounter a murderous couple posing as servants.

The haunted mansion, with its rotating walls, secret passageways, and assorted magic props, feels like a conscious effort to take the Bumsteads out of their usual milieu and throw them into Three Stooges territory. I don't think it works, things never feel as madcap as they should, and Arthur Lake is the embodiment of "we have Buster Keaton at home." Even though the runtime is only a nice 69 minutes, some bits go on too long: Dagwood's befuddlement over a rotating closet, and a dinner scene where the dog unknowingly buzzes for the phony servants repeatedly to their irritation.

There's one gag that feels inspired: the villain stealthily enters the room through a rotating wall that had a mirror on one side, Horatio looks at him and remarks "I don't even look like myself" and doesn't realize it's not a reflection until noticing only one of them is holding a knife.

• Whilst trying to find this goddamn movie, I came across the original titles, apparently replaced for TV syndication along with those of the other films. It's a shame - I like any time credits are physically written on something, and it bugs me that I'm not viewing the films as they were originally presented.
• This is the sixth Blondie film and I'm picking up on a pattern: Dagwood ends up in jail, marriage crisis, the Bumsteads go somewhere. I wonder if this cycle will continue.
• The Bumsteads have always lived in a heightened reality, particularly when the dog is involved, but this entry knocks things up a notch. In one scene, Dagwood and Horatio descend a staircase, Dagwood picks up a white sheet, Horatio turns around, thinks it's a ghost and screams in horror, then the camera pans to reveal Dagwood is somehow back at the top of the stairs, apparently unaware of what just transpired. There is never a rational explanation for this.

Continuity Corner: Mrs. Fuddle addresses the mailman as Mr. Crumb, NOT Mr. Beasley as it is in the comic strip. This 1936 strip is the earliest mention I could find:

Animal Antics: According to a news article from the time, the dog playing Daisy received an electric shock from sitting on uninsulated wires during the dinner scene. "His instant reaction was to fly five feet through the air emitting a yelp of anguish. Director Frank Strayer was delighted to catch the action, but it took Daisy's trainer a full half hour to persuade the pet to repeat the milder action called for."

Don't be fooled by the title... you might assume this is a Valentine's Day movie, but it's actually about the 4th of July, released the week of Halloween 1940. After discovering her husband Dagwood's secret stash of illegal fireworks, Blondie Bumstead has the family spend a safe holiday weekend visiting her Aunt Hannah in the country, where they get caught up in the troubles of an eloping couple (Glenn Ford plays the nondescript groom).

There's a few gags I liked, particularly 6-year-old Baby Dumpling driving a car and nearly running over his dad with very fake-looking rear projection. Also noteworthy is how cavalier they are with violence in this installment; there's firecrackers and shotguns abound, and the movie ends with (SPOILER ALERT) Dagwood accidentally setting his family on fire, landing them all in the hospital.

What drags it down, again, is the pacing. This working title for this movie was "Blondie Goes to the Country," but the Bumsteads don't arrive in the country until 35 minutes in, just slightly over half the movie's total runtime. I think part of the reason they're able to pump out three of these a year is that the first act of every Blondie movie rigidly adheres to a pattern with minor variations: we join the Bumsteads at breakfast, the dog does a trick, Blondie and Dagwood have an argument, Alvin comes over and says a few lines, Dagwood realizes he's late for work and runs into the mailman on the way to the bus stop, his co-workers play a prank on him, he has a meeting with his boss Mr. Dithers. All of this is usually pretty dull and very leisurely paced, which consequently leaves the rest of the movie feeling fairly rushed and underdeveloped.

Continuity Corner: Blondie's Aunt Hannah is another screen invention. In the comic strip, she has mentioned an Aunt Emma, an Aunt Carrie, an Aunt Effie, and an Aunt Gussie. There are probably more, but I got tired of searching.

The Bumsteads are invited on a luxury cruise to South America with Dagwood's boss Mr. Dithers. Just as they're boarding, an urgent telegram arrives, and Dagwood is forced to stay behind to handle an important business deal (is there no one else at the office who can do it?). Due to circumstances he's unable to get off the boat, decides to hide this from his wife and boss, and ends up becoming the drummer for a big band.

A surprisingly strong installment. They do a good job with the screwball antics: characters running in and out of staterooms, just missing each other; Dagwood pretending to be at home while calling from the next room as the dog runs back and forth between the rooms. However, there's way too much singing and dancing for my taste; the Brothers Marx at least had the good sense to limit Harpo's extended harp solos to one per film.

• After getting knocked down, the mailman puts his hat on Dagwood and tries to run into him, but misses him and crashes into a taxicab, knocking it on its side. Clearly, he would be the tank in a Blondie RPG.
• "How very generous of my boss, who purposely didn't invite his own wife, to let my wife stay in his adjourning stateroom on a luxury cruise while I'm conveniently called away back to work" - Dagwood, apparently.
• Shots of telegrams are cut off at the sides, I suspect some cropping occurred when they repackaged these movies for TV syndication.
• Baby Dumpling encounters a girl his age playing the piano and sings a duet with her about hating music lessons, which is pretty much the full extent of his presence in this movie. Also, the girl has a doll with moving eyes that appears to be alive?
• The female singer of the band puts Dagwood in a dress as a disguise, which isn't particularly funny and is more a contrivance for Blondie to catch him undressed with a strange woman. I suppose it's funnier when he puts on a frilly apron in Blondie Meets the Boss because he does it of his own volition and there's no real reason for him to do so.

Comics Corner: When Dagwood is initially called away, I thought for a moment we'd be seeing the "Dagwood goes feral" story arc realized for the screen:

Sandwich Watch: Making their grand return after a five-movie absence, Blondie realizes her husband is still on the ship when she sees a steward carrying one of his trademark giant sandwiches back to the kitchen. Enraged, her mind becomes filled with newsreel footage of war, a recurring gag in the series. Judging by the year, I assume this is the last time they can do that gag.

Dagwood Bumstead once again finds himself in the doghouse - literally!!! - as Blondie spiritually crosses over with Marmaduke, a comic strip that won't exist for another 13 years.

Blondie is incensed after Dagwood loans $50 to a childhood friend and orders him to get the money back. The borrower instead offers Dagwood a Great Dane named "Chin Up White Tie for Dinner" (???), who immediately wreaks havoc in the neighborhood. Everyone has their own designs for the dog and the plot gets hard to follow. As best I can understand: Dagwood and his boss Dithers are lying to Blondie, a rich guy is lying to Dagwood, Dithers is in cahoots with the rich guy and lying to Dagwood, and Blondie is lying to everyone else. Anyway, Chin Up is entered into a dog show and [SPOILER] wins for the great trick of "standing up" when Blondie sings to him, which is absolutely pathetic compared to all the shit Daisy can do:

Didn't care for the wacky dog antics or incomprehensible layers of subterfuge, but I did like the gag where Blondie crashes a bicycle through a door that's being repaired and hits the mailman. In the commotion, the bicycle loses a wheel and becomes a unicycle, which she continues to ride down the street. Blondie is still written as a nag (she once again threatens divorce for what I think is the sixth or seventh time in this series), but it's nice that she gets to partake in the physical comedy.

• There's a subplot where Baby Dumpling and Alvin use slang terms like "toots" and "okey dokey" to trick Blondie into letting them join the Boy Rangers as a means of curbing their bad behavior, which reminded me of this Nick at Nite promo.
• Every establishing shot of Dagwood's office features the secretary saying the name of the company into the phone. It's been nine movies, I think we know where Dagwood works!
• Kudos to character actor Edgar Kennedy as the veterinarian, who really gave his all to such a minor role.

Sandwich Watch: After Chin Up eats the stew Blondie was cooking for dinner, Dagwood begins to make himself a classic Dagwood sandwich, but Chin Up eats the meat before he finishes and starts burping.

Crossover Corner: Daisy and Marmaduke appeared together in a 1980 TV special, barking at Garfield with Snoopy and Fred Basset. In the comics, Marmaduke attended Dagwood and Blondie's 75th anniversary (to Blondie's left, behind Mallard Fillmore and in front of Luann):

Dagwood and Blondie are mistaken for college students at a football game, which gives Dagwood the idea to enroll for real. Blondie tries to get Mr. Dithers to talk him out of it, but he surprisingly encourages both of them to give the ol' college a try. After dumping their son off at a military school, they try to rent a room at a nearby boarding house, but the rules force them to keep their marriage a secret. Once they're on campus, Blondie is immediately pursued by football star Rusty Bryant and placed into a sorority, while Dagwood finds himself under the thumb of rich girl Laura Wadsworth and pursues the athletic career he never had.

It's a weird but fertile premise: a couple in their ninth year of marriage try to recapture their lost youth by engaging in some extended roleplay with the tantalizing prospect of some cuckoldry, in a fantastical world where people could just go to college without worrying about incurring debt. The setting feels remarkably fresh, and there's some decent screwball antics with the couples going on a double date, and Dagwood failing spectacularly at sports. I wish the story could've progressed in a more natural way, but Mr. Dithers decides to put an end to the charade early in a somewhat convoluted and unfunny third act that ends up with Dagwood being accused of kidnapping his own son.

• Budding fascist Baby Dumpling excels at military school, rising to the rank of sergeant and barking orders at other kids. This is the most I've ever liked the character.
• Mr. Dithers once again fires Dagwood, only to immediately backpedal once he learns Dagwood has made a connection with Laura's father, a huge potential client. Why does he keep doing this? He's practically a surrogate father to the Bumsteads; Blondie even confides in him that she's pregnant before telling her own husband.

War Report: When Rusty first sees Blondie looking around for someone, he approaches her and goes "Didn't you hear? He got drafted," a pickup line of questionable smoothness and seemingly the first direct indication that the country is at war.

Sandwich Watch: Not only are there no sandwiches, for the first time in the series nobody crashes into the mailman.

Continuity Corner: Blondie and Dagwood went to college in the comic strip, which was part of a story arc where Dagwood's rich parents tried to get him to marry her homely roommate Irma:

Mystery Musings: In the first movie, Blondie's maiden name is "Miller." In this one, she says it's "Smith." Most sources, including King Features Syndicate, say it's "Boopadoop" in the comics, reflecting her origins as a flapper. However, I did some investigation and while it's been used in official promotional material from 1930 onwards, I haven't been able to find it used in an actual strip. So we don't know what her canonical maiden name was, and a 2013 strip casts doubt on whether "Blondie" is her actual name:

Just who is this woman???

The Blondie movies have long been their own thing, with zero involvement from mangaka Chic Young, but here we see them shift to incorporate two recent developments from the comic strip: the births of the Bumsteads' second child, Cookie, and their dog Daisy's five puppies. You might naturally assume that the movie would be all about the challenges of raising a newborn baby, but you'd be wrong.

Although Blondie is due to give birth soon (supposedly the Hays Code forbade her from appearing visibly pregnant), she complains to Dithers that Dagwood's anxiety is driving her crazy, so he sends him to Chicago to speak at an architect's convention. At the hotel, he meets struggling playwright George Wickley, who agrees to write the speech for him. The speech, an anti-architect tirade calling for people to build their own homes out of potato peelings, does not go well and the convention abruptly ends early. Dagwood returns home, clumsily attempts to do housework with his son (he vacuums up one of the puppies) and waits at the hospital while Blondie gives birth. When Dagwood and Blondie return home with their newborn daughter, they find Wickley waiting on their front porch, and the rest of the movie is about him being a rude houseguest.

This is not as outright dull as some of the other Blondie movies, but I struggle to identify anything I liked about it. It feels pretty disjointed and Wickley isn't a particularly funny character. The way his plot completely overtakes the movie makes me suspect they just shoved all the birth stuff into an unrelated script.

• Looking into the production history, the way they were pumping these out feels crazy by modern standards: filmed in January, released in April. Also, I learned Peggy Singleton, who plays Blondie, married the producer, Robert Sparks, the previous year.
• The movie repeats a gag from the comic strip where Dagwood rushes home after being told there's "five more mouths to feed," although in the strip Cookie had already been born so I don't know what he was thinking:
  
  05/26/1941 (via Tom Heintjes)

• Daisy and her pups would later star in their own spin-off comic book where they talk and have adventures, precipitating the Air Buddies franchise. The identity of the puppies' father is not stated, but they were originally planned to be introduced in Blondie in Society as the offspring of Daisy and the Great Dane Chin Up (it's even hinted at on the poster).
• I imagine "Dagwood Finally Tells Off Dithers!!!" would be the equivalent of "Quagmire Goes Off on Brian!" on 1940s YouTube.

Sandwich Watch: A bellboy brings in a platter of stuff for Dagwood to make his own sandwich, which he offers to Wickley.

War Report: A government guy offers Dagwood a job after hearing his speech, because they need all those building supplies for the war effort.

Continuity Corner: Baby Dumpling decides to go by his comic-accurate real name, Alexander, retconning an earlier movie that blithely asserted it was Dagwood Jr., a major win for loreheads.

Felt pretty regressive, even considering the time period and prior movies. Dagwood and Mr. Dithers can't get any work done because their respective wives are wrapped up in patriotic fervor. Dithers is living in a hotel because his house is being used to quarter soldiers in a possible violation of the Third Amendment. Meanwhile, Blondie has formed a civilian defense group, Housewives in America, and uses her house for meetings. The men get bossed around by the women, forced to become first aid dummies for demonstrations and sit through defense fashion shows. Dagwood can't even see his infant daughter because the babysitter thinks he's an intruder trying to assault her (funny stuff!). Blondie is so busy that she neglects her housewife duties, forcing Dagwood to make dinner for himself and Dithers. Naturally, he mixes up some cans and accidentally serves dog food, which makes the two men bark.

Enough is enough: "It's up to you to convince Blondie that a woman's place is in the home," Dithers orders. Even the hackiest parody of '50s sitcoms (of which the Blondie films are a prototype) would think that line's a little too on-the-nose. A meeting of husbands is called, and a plan is formed to have Dagwood steal valor by borrowing a soldier's uniform and lie to Blondie about enlisting so she'll reconsider her priorities. On their first mission* standing guard at a dam, the Housewives of America freak out at the sight of a skunk like the hysterical broads they are. Dagwood shows up in uniform, but the army thinks he's an AWOL soldier and a chase ensues. As this is going on, he sees a man carrying a suspicious package he assumes is a bomb, and heroically leaps into action to apprehend him. It turns out to just be rationed sugar, but the army is nonetheless impressed by Dagwood's selfless heroism and all charges are dropped. Blondie has a change of heart and disbands her group, and there's a propagandic montage at the end where they basically say "yeah, some women are needed on the front lines, and we support them, but housewives are important too!" It closes with a shot of the Bumsteads standing in uniform as a representation of the American family, double exposed with a waving American flag. It's Blondie and Dagwood's America, all right.

*I'm not familiar with the history of WWII civil defense groups, so a lot of this movie felt completely alien to me. What exactly were they doing???

Sandwich Watch: Dagwood's sandwich gets the most screentime of any Blondie movie so far, as he carries it from one room to another trying to find a place to work. It is eventually eaten by one of Daisy's pups, whom the boys have decked out in special collars to collect coins for the war effort.

Mail Time: The former mailman Dagwood always runs into has a new job as a watchman at the dam. I shan't spoil what happens to him…

Department of Synergy: It's mentioned that as a morale booster the lowliest soldier will get a date with Rita Hayworth, whose star had risen considerably since her appearance in Blondie on a Budget. Coincidentally, she was under contract with Columbia, the studio behind the Blondie series.

Comics Corner: The meeting of husbands reminded me of the Husbands' Back Fence Club, where Dagwood and his neighbors would complain about their wives. This turned into a brief interactive feature where actual husbands, and later wives, could send in their grievances and have them featured in the strip.

Dagwood accidentally buys a horse, as one does, which becomes the key to winning over a horse-obsessed rich guy sought by Mr. Dithers and his business rival, culminating at a fox hunt. Initially I thought this was just going to be a bunch of lame animal antics, but the movie gradually won me over by fully embracing the weirdness. There's a number of fun scenes: Dithers happens to be getting his blood pressure checked by insurance guys when Dagwood informs him he bought a horse (having misheard Dithers asking for a house); Dagwood rides the horse to work, which follows him to upstairs to his office; comedian Hugh Herbert plays an eccentric millionaire who can't think straight, one of the better guest roles.

The most inventive scene is one that uses the language of comics to great effect: having sold the horse, Dagwood dreams of its new owner mistreating it, visualized within a thought bubble. Meanwhile, Blondie dreams of her and Dagwood sitting forlornly on a bale of hay. These two dreams start to interact, and the dream Bumsteads work together to save the horse. I'm sure this had been done before, but it's nice to see this franchise embrace its comic strip roots.

Finally, in the very last scene, the horse suddenly talks (with 2-D animation on its mouth, presumably from the Screen Gems team), bidding farewell to the dog Daisy, who then looks at the camera and says "Can you beat that? A talking horse!" (which I expertly predicted back in my review of Blondie Takes a Vacation). A little cheap, but a nice gag to go out on. Where do you go from here?

This is the first Blondie film without "Blondie" in the title; it was originally the more literal-minded "Blondie Buys A Horse," but I couldn't find a definitive reason why it was changed. My assumption was that the Blondie brand was waning in popularity (the film series will go on a brief hiatus after the next one), and they thought they could trick unsuspecting moviegoers into seeing this, but the advertising still emphasized Blondie and the rest of the Bumsteads, so I'm not sure how viable that strategy would be. Also, something I didn't look into until now is that 16 of the 28 Blondie films were written or co-written by female screenwriters. This installment was written by Karen DeWolf and Connie Lee, both of whom would later be blacklisted.

War Report: Alexander and Alvin trick neighbor kids into beating rugs for them by charging them a penny to hit a drawing of Hitler in the rear, which I believe is the first direct reference to the dictator.

Sandwich Watch: Alexander makes himself a "Bumstead Special," but Blondie takes it away from him, saying "That thing's enough to kill a person. Let your father have it."

Animal Antics: Daisy, the dog who plays Daisy, was bitten by the fox and couldn't sit up for several days according to a newspaper at the time.

Continuity Corner: Blondie twice refers to Dagwood by his supposed full name, "David Harum Bumstead." No. Absolutely not. I can buy "Blondie" being a nickname, but I adamantly refuse to believe "Dagwood" isn't his actual government name.

War rations have ravaged the Bumstead household: they don't have enough points for peaches, and Dagwood is forced to brush his teeth with soap. Blondie suggests taking on a boarder so they can get another ration book. Meanwhile, a wealthy friend of Mr. Dithers, Randolph Wheeler, shows up at the office worried about his daughter, Vicki, who's been bitten by the acting bug. Dithers senses a solution to both problems and suggests letting her stay at the Bumsteads for a couple of months to get over it. Now, Wheeler has shown Dagwood and Dithers a photo of Vicki as a child, but it's not until after Dagwood leaves the room that he takes out a more recent one of her as an adult and goes "that's what she looks like now!" So, it's not Dagwood's fault when he shows up at a hotel with a stuffed animal and a balloon and tries to take a little girl away, to the horror of everyone.

Once everything gets sorted out, Vicki and Dagwood arrive home. Blondie is incensed that Dagwood has brought an attractive young woman into their house (there's war footage superimposed over her scowling face, a recurring gag I thought they'd stop doing once an actual war started), but she gets over it once Vicki convinces her and the rest of the regular characters to act alongside her in a play she's written, Mad Moonlight. The play is a disaster: Dagwood misses his cues and flubs his lines, falls down a trap door, gets sick from drinking sea water, and wears a magician's tuxedo filled with magic props. Vicki is humiliated and gives up acting, to the delight of her father, who in gratitude signs a big contract with Dithers. And all Dagwood had to do was crush a young woman's dreams!

The chaos of the play is fun and there are some nice moments from the side characters, but like most guest characters Vicki and her conniving director boyfriend are too one-note to care about, and it's disappointing to see the series fall back into familiar patterns. It's a little weird that you're supposed to side with the rich guy over his daughter... sure, she's pretentious and deluded, but surely there are worse things for a wealthy dilettante to do with her time.

Footlight Glamour marks the end of an era: it's the last Blondie film for both director Frank Strayer and producer Robert Sparks, and the series will go on hiatus for a year before returning in 1945 in response to fan demand (allegedly). Rest assured, however, that 1944 was not a dark year for Bumsteadheads: this and the previous film, It's A Great Life, continued to play in theaters, and the radio show and comic strip kept chugging along with new material.

• Blondie sees her son and his friend dressed as commandos with dark camouflage smeared on their faces and asks, "What are you two made up for, a minstrel show?" The next scene is Dagwood being mistaken for a pedophile trying to abduct a child. This one has it all.
• Mad Moonlight is about Dagwood having to choose between two women, his silly, vain wife (played by Blondie) and an intelligent, beautiful actress (played by Vicki). I like that nobody ever comments on this weird subtext.
• Mr. Dithers's oft-mentioned wife Cora makes her first (and apparently only) appearance in the BCU as an overbearing, patriotic society snob who henpecks her husband into playing a butler, performed impeccably by character actress Grace Hayle. She insists the French maid she's playing is "Free French, of course" and ensures proceeds from the play will be donated to the USO.
• The mailman Mr. Crum, usually limited to one scene per movie, gets a lot of screentime in this, pulling double duty as an actor in the play and incompetent stagehand. It's a shame that this is actor Irving Bacon's last time playing the character.

War Report: Dithers's secretary left to work in a defense plant, so her grandmother is filling in for her ("I suppose her mother's a welder." "Oh, no, sir, a riveter."). Similarly, all of Dagwood's co-workers have been replaced by elderly guys, and the main reason he gets the starring role in the play is because there's a shortage of men. Are we meant to assume he was classified as 4-F?

Sandwich Watch: Dagwood makes a sandwich in front of the puppies, then looks at the calendar and realizes it's Meatless Tuesday (specifically, August 24) and ruefully puts it away.

Continuity Corner: Dagwood mistakenly thinking a future houseguest is a little girl also happened in a 1933 strip:

Have you no shame, Dag? Also, he joins a carpool in this movie, which won't happen in the comic strip until 1990 in what was surely a blow to the bus industry.

• Gregg Turkington of the Victorville Film Archive
• Carol Lynn Scherling, author of Blondie Goes to Hollywood: The Blondie Comic Strip in Films, Radio & Television