The 100 Years of Rita Hayworth Blogathon is an event celebrating the centennial of the actress's birth, hosted by Love Letters to Old Hollywood. For a complete listing of participating blogs visit the host site.

Blondie on a Budget
YouTube viewing

Of course I read Blondie, along with all the other comic strips in the newspapers, growing up. I doubt I ever thought it was particularly hilarious; I just read it because it was there. As I got older, I appreciated its art more — creator Chic Young had a very elegant line that his successors duplicated almost as well — but I could never say I loved reading it.

If it had been removed from the daily lineup of strips, I wouldn't have missed it, though there are those who will always declare a jihad on their local paper should they dare to remove these grandfather strips, still taking up space which would be better served by newer, more diverse strips, but that's another issue.


I do respect Blondie's longevity, though, not only as a strip but as a multimedia franchise. Ivan recently did a piece on Blondie in other media. She and Dagwood were the stars of a sitcom long before the word existed, appearing in a mind-boggling 28 films in only twelve years, all with the same two stars, Penny Singleton & Arthur Lake.

Jeanine Basinger explained the appeal of Blondie in her book on marriage in the movies, I Do and I Don't:

... Blondie and Dagwood relieved marital pressure for the audience by reconstituting their ordinary problems into easily resolvable comedy. There's a comforting quality to them: they never change, they never fail. In what Preston Sturges called "this cockeyed caravan of life," they could be counted on.

I chose the film Blondie on a Budget to watch because of the presence of Rita Hayworth, the reason for this post. She made this film the year after Only Angels Have Wings, and she was a legitimate star at this point. The first of her four Life covers was in 1940. Budget was one of five films she made that year. The next year, she would team up with Fred Astaire for the first time, in You'll Never Get Rich. Did you know she was WB's first choice for Casablanca before Ingrid Bergman?


In Budget, Rita plays an old lover of Dagwood's who pops up for business reasons and just wants to hang out with him for awhile, though Blondie gets jealous anyway. Misunderstandings ensue, mostly money related, hence the title.

I laughed once, maybe twice, throughout the whole movie, and I use the word "laughed" very loosely. Watching this was painful. Dagwood is way more of a schlemiel than I remember from the strip, one completely lacking a spine. I didn't believe for a minute that Rita was ever attracted to him.

Blondie was more assertive than I remember her, but in the end, her story arc revolves around nothing more than a mink jacket she's just GOTTA HAVE. The best thing about this movie was the bratty kids!


Dagwood didn't eat one of his epic sandwiches, nor did he sleep on the couch or get his ass kicked by his boss, but at least he knocked down the mailman while running out the door. Singleton & Lake's hairdos made them look the part, and as far as I could tell, they were true to the characters, but man, am I glad domestic comedy has evolved beyond this.

As for Rita, she doesn't sing or dance, not that I really expected her to, but her character is pretty bland. Don't look for any hint of future Gilda here. The movie was a big disappointment overall.


-------------------
Related:
A Rita Hayworth primer

The Miriam Hopkins Blogathon is an event devoted to the actress, hosted by Silver Screenings and A Small Press Life. For a complete list of participating bloggers, visit the links at either site.

----------------

A bit of explanation for the newbies: City Mouse is a cartoon character I created in 2008 when I was living in Ohio and have since brought over to WSW more or less intact. Click on the label "cartoons" over in the sidebar if you wanna see more. 

I wasn't planning on taking this approach for this post, but the truth is that I wasn't able to get a hold of The Smiling Lieutenant. Someone on Netflix had checked it out (I know, right?) and I couldn't wait for it to return, so I put this together two days ago, based on the one scene from the movie available on YouTube. 

Donna and Sophie are supporting characters in the strip who like old movies too. This is their solo debut.

Good news! Page and I have begun talking about rescheduling the Terrorthon. It was truly unfortunate that we've had to put it on hold for as long as we have, because we had a fairly large amount of people lined up to take part. I don't know if we can get as many the second time around, but I do know that Page has her heart set on making this blogathon happen, and I'm just as eager to help her with it. We haven't settled on an exact date yet, but sometime around Halloween might be a possibility (which, strangely enough, was my original suggestion!). Either way, we haven't forgotten about it, so we hope you won't either.

For all you filmmakers out there: Katha Cato from the Queens World Film Festival wants me to remind you that they're now taking submissions for the 2014 edition, which will be March 4-10. Once again the opening night venue will be the Museum of the Moving Image, and once again there will be all sorts of year-round programming. For more information, visit the website.

I've been meaning to address the recent talk about the future of Hollywood, specifically the comments made by directors Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Ryan sums up my feelings on the matter, but I'd also like to add this: much of this larger debate has focused on the studios and the moviegoers, but what about the theater owners? If the moviegoing experience needs to be more enticing, I'd much sooner trust the individual theaters to make that happen than the studios imposing order from above. 

After all, the theater owners are much closer to the audiences, not to mention their communities - and that's what I believe it comes down to. The theaters need to foster a greater sense of community with their patrons. A couple of years ago, I threw out a few ideas about how theaters can improve comfort for audiences. There's much more that I could add to this list, but like I say, any kind of outreach should come from the theater owners and it needs to fit the needs of the community. This strikes me as a much more sustainable solution for the industry than $50 premium tickets.

How much does Aurora love Judy Garland? This much.

While at BAM last weekend, I saw that they're currently showing all nine of Hitchcock's surviving silent films as part of a series. Here's more about them.

This comic strip pays tribute to Roger Ebert in a way that'll bring a tear to your eye.

Former child star Mara Wilson talks about the perils of being a child star - and how she managed to escape them.

And finally, much love to my pal Caftan Woman for 25 years of marital bliss.

Previously: As shooting begins on the movie, leading man Aiden is optimistic but cautious.

Previously: As shooting on the movie begins, Sophie is anxious about her role.

Previously: The first day of shooting on CM's movie is somewhat less than productive.

Previously: Nadine, the leading lady in CM's movie, makes it plain to CM that she sees his movie as a springboard to revive her sagging television career.

Previously: CM has cast the lead actors for his film.

Previously: CM finds his two lead actors for his movie, but Collie objects to one of them.

Previously: Back in Columbus, City Mouse recruits his old friends to work on his movie with him.

Previously: City Mouse returns to Columbus, Ohio, where his producer friend Collie lives and where he used to live, to make his movie.

Previously: Mr. Gillis, the investor for City Mouse's movie, insists that CM make his movie in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Gillis' home and the place where CM used to live as well.

Previously: Collie has found a mystery investor willing to fund City Mouse's film.

This is the third year in a row that I've contributed a new City Mouse strip to the 'LAMB Devours the Oscars' segment at the LAMB website, and I gotta say, this has become fun in its own way. This time around I've changed a few things; most notably, you'll find that CM's pal Collie has taken center stage, and the truth is, I couldn't stop her! That's how it is sometimes when your characters develop a life of their own, and Collie is nothing if not lively. She insisted on presenting a major category, and I was fortunate to be able to get her Best Actress. If you're expecting to see my renderings of the five nominated women (and girl), however, think again. Thanks go out to David from Never Too Early Movie Predictions for arranging the feature this year.

Previously: City Mouse is in the process of writing the screenplay to his movie, which his pal Collie is producing.

Previously: City Mouse's pal Collie proposes to produce his movie.

All you need to know about City Mouse prior to reading this is that he's a character I created back in 2008 when I was living in Columbus, Ohio (which would make 2013 his fifth anniversary!). The original strips can be seen here, though one of these days I'm gonna have to update that blog. When I moved back to New York, so did he, though that's about to change very soon...