Blondie for Victory

This is the twelfth in the Blondie movie series. Made at the beginning of U.S. involvement in World War II, Mrs. Bumstead organizes a Housewives of America meeting to tell her fellow neighbors their duties for help in the war effort. But that means the husbands have to do what their wives normally do when they're not on duty. I'll stop there and just say there are plenty of funny slapstick scenes especially when they involve Dag with his boss, Mr. Dithers. Also, the mailman-Mr. Crump-in this ep is at another job but guess who still bumps into him here? Most of the movie I thought was funny though the chase at the end was a bit too silly for my tastes. So on that note, Blondie for Victory is worth seeing. P.S. This was Don Beddoe's last appearance in the series having previously been in Blondie Meets the Boss and Blondie on a Budget. And the only time Alexander is called by his old name of Baby Dumpling is when his father addresses him as such before quickly changing to the other one. And Majelle White played Cookie in this entry. Also, one of the movie stars mentioned by one of the guest characters was Rita Hayworth, who had appeared in Blondie on a Budget as an old friend of Dag's.

It's wartime now and Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead have shifted to wartime priorities. For Dagwood it's not much, he's got a draft exemption as the sole support of a wife, two children, and several dogs courtesy of Daisy. But Blondie wants to do her bit for the country as well. She's organized the housewives of the neighborhood as a kind of female home guard which does first aid. In fact two of the first people that Blondie and her women get to practice first aid on are Dagwood and Mr. Dithers.

Unfortunately work at the Dithers Construction Company has slowed because Arthur Lake is not getting the T/L/C he deserves from Penny Singleton. Lake and Jonathan Hale concoct a Lucy Ricardo like scheme to get Singleton to fold up her little amazon militia involving Stu Erwin, a soldier awaiting orders. Can't tell what it is, but Lucille Ball never thought of anything better.

Dagwood as usual is in hot water this time with our Armed Services, but he gets out at the end of the film none the wiser because you know in the next film it will be something equally bizarre.

Blondie For Victory? Good thing our war effort wasn't dependent on the Bumsteads.

So how do you mix tricky wartime stress with B&D's wacky humor. Fortunately, the series writers manage the trick in entertaining fashion. For younger folks, historical glimpses of the war's impact on the homefront are woven in, ordinary things like tires and sugar.

The first part is a hoot as Blondie organizes neighborhood wives into a wartime support group, 'Housewives for Victory'. It's early 1942, just months into the big war. Naturally, B&D have to respond, while even Daisy the dog collects money for bombs. Trouble is the wives now have duties apart from housework, which means husbands have to take up the slack. In short, gender roles get muddied. Of course, for B&D the material is loaded with all kinds of potential laughs. Now if D can only figure out which food goes to people and which goes to puppies. Then too, B needs to learn First Aid without turning D into an American Mummy.

The second half, however, moves into a more conventional slapstick, with everyone racing around in a gloomy forest, including a mysterious character with a loaded sack-- is he a saboteur or what. There's not as much flag-waving as might be expected, though the women show they can march as formidably as men. Emphasis instead is on how suburban couples learn to adjust to the new conditions. For B&D that means a lot of laughs; for contemporary viewers it's an entertaining glimpse of a stressful time.

All in all, the programmer's a humorously revealing 70-minutes with our adorable couple facing up to the demands of a new era. The latter half may be somewhat repetitive, but overall the entry's still worth tuning in.

BLONDIE FOR VICTORY (Columbia, 1942), directed by Frank R. Strayer, finds the Bumstead family doing their part in the war effort. In this 12th installment and nearly a year after America's involvement into the war following its historical attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941, this became the first time in the series where even the mention wartime is discussed, placing Blondie and Dagwood in uniform, with amusing results. This is also the entry where Larry Simms officially becomes Alexander Bumstead, by which, according to him, the "Baby Dumpling" name is out.

The time is World War II and Blondie (Penny Singleton) leaves the household chores to her husband, Dagwood (Arthur Lake) while doing her patriotic duty as leader of the American Women's Volunteer Service. With the housewives participating in the war effort (one of them being Dithers' wife, Cora), the husbands are left to tend to the cooking and cleaning at home, causing the men to rebel, electing Dagwood as their leader in hope that he'll lure his wife back to active duty at the home-front so that the others will follow. He does this by borrowing a uniform from a soldier named Herschel Smith (Stuart Erwin), to let Blondie know that he's "enlisted," while Herschel finds himself mistaken for Dagwood while sporting his suit and bow tie.  The plan nearly works until the soldiers are called to report to active duty, causing Dagwood to look for Herschel and switch clothes before being taken to go on the battlefield, leading to a merry chase with Dagwood, a tough sergeant (Edward Gargan), and the military police along with a mysterious individual (Charles Wagenheim) believed to be the one to blow up the local water dam.

Another satisfying episode with numerous comic highlights: Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), Dagwood's boss, having trouble with his eyes, refusing to see an optometrist, involved a slight accident while driving with Dagwood with his car found in a sideway position; Dagwood volunteering as a wounded patient for the volunteering housewives, leaving him bandaged from head to toe; Dagwood having Dithers over to the house for dinner and unwittingly switching canned items leading them to eat dog food instead, resulting to boss and employee literally barking at one another; Dagwood's attempt from getting arrested or taken by the MPs while hiding in the pond of cold water with the assistance of Blondie and Dithers; and Dagwood running through the woods into Bert Crump (Irving Bacon), his former postman now retired, continuously knocking him down as he did during Crump's morning mail delivery.

Adding to the supporting players are Majelle White as Baby Cookie; Don Beddoe in his third and final appearance as Marvin Williams; Eddie Acuff and Dewey Robinson as the husbands; Renie Riano as Miss Cabbler, a snoring baby sitter; Thurston Hall as the captain; Danny Mummert returning as Alvin Fuddow who bribes Dagwood after obtaining his diary with things Blondie shouldn't see; and special guest star, Stuart Erwin, as a country boy raised by his mother and sisters, wanting to break away from his female environment by enlisting as an Army private to feel like a soldier in the company of real men. Being true to his word about avoiding females, he refuses to have his picture taken with the most gorgeous movie starlets, including Rita Hayworth.

While BLONDIE FOR VICTORY might have been handled more seriously due to its wartime theme, it remains relatively amusing throughout until Blondie's patriotic speech followed by the entire Bumstead family standing in front of the waving American flag. As much as this entry in typical situation-comedy, battle of the sexes theme, overall it represents true-to-life Americans doing their part for the good of humanity.

BLONDIE FOR VICTORY, along with 27 others in the series, was formerly distributed on video cassette through King Features, and presented on American Movie Classics from 1996 to 2001. Next in the series: IT'S A GREAT LIFE 1943).(**1/2)

Karen De Wolf, who wrote most of the early series entries, put this funny and original episode together that boasts a large cast of familiar character actors. The best part is spotting the faces.

Since ABBOTT AND COSTELLO and LAUREL AND HARDY at the time made some popular movies about the war, why not join them? It was a smart move that sees Blondie uniting the neighborhood housewives to do their part. Unfortunately, that leaves Dagwood to blame by all the lonely husbands? Watching Arthur Lake is just plain outrageous.

I agree with the last reviewer. There are some wacky situations that may have inspired I LOVE LUCY, and when you come down to it, the BLONDIE series was the grand daddy of sitcoms, albeit on the wide screen. As usual, Dagwood and Mr. Dithers make a genuine Odd Couple, this time having Dithers over for dinner and feasting on a "pot luck" sort of a meal. Daisy's dog food gets mixed in and do the math.

Also a little adventure added, which changes gears to a dramatic finale, all about the town dam -- which could be blown up by saboteurs! Character actor Charles Wagenheim raises suspicion lurking around the place in the dark, and its kind of spooky. Good support from Ed Gargan as a brash sergeant and Stu Erwin as Private Smith. Erwin was a staple in many classic comedies, who had just appeared in THE BRIDE CAME C. O. D., starring Bette Davis.

Also some good bits; stone-face Renie Riano playing Miss Crabber(?), Cookie's babysitter. Sylivia Field ( DENNIS THE MENACE) plays Mrs. Williams.

This episode runs fast because so many goofy scenes are thrown at you. The THREE STOOGES were also filmed at the same studio (Columbia Pictures), so comedy was in the air, and yes, it does have the feel at times of a Stooge movie. Once again, director Frank Strayer has fun with the cast. You really have to love this stuff, and lots of us kids grew up watching it on tv in glorious black and white.

The password is "Tires," uttered by Mr. Dithers, since there was a WWII ration on rubber at the time, also sugar, which plays into the plot.

Thank you to MOVIES Net for rerunning this classic series Saturday mornings, like the old days. Forever on remastered dvd.