Leave It to Blondie

This is the fifteenth in the Blondie movie series. After a hiatus of more than a year, this series was revived due to public demand. The cast is pretty much the same with the exception of the mailman who is played by Eddie Acuff instead of Irving Bacon. And Abby Berlin takes over as director, replacing Frank Strayer who Berlin was previously assistant to. Anyway, in this one both Blondie and Dagwood write a $100 check to charity but the bank can't cover both so they need some money fast. Enter a song writing contest...This was another funny entry in the series. Arthur Lake does really well with many physical bits of business here. As usual, Dag temporarily gets fired and Blondie gets jealous when she jumps to conclusions. And it takes a while here but the new mailman also gets bumped into by Mr. Bumstead. So on that note, Leave It to Blondie is recommended. P.S. In this one, Alvin's father is played by Arthur Space. John Qualen previously played the role in Blondie on a Budget.

In Leave It To Blondie both Dagwood and Blondie write out a check for the Bumstead commitment to a new kid's summer camp for $100.00 each. That's twice what they pledged and it's really depleted their checking account balance.

But there's a possibility of ready cash as the head of the summer camp committee Eula Morgan is also sponsoring a local songwriting contest. Arthur Lake goes into the Bumstead family archives and has found an old song that Uncle Henry Bumstead wrote back in the day. Dagwood submits it as his own and he becomes one of three finalists in the contest.

Now personally I think it was a bit unfair for the contest organizers to ask for the songwriters to sing their own material. Dagwood wasn't exactly Crosby or Sinatra to begin with, but that cold he gets really doesn't help. After all did anyone ever ask Jerome Kern to sing his own material?

It all works out in the end and while Lake does not become the new Irving Berlin he closes a nice real estate deal for the J.C. Dithers Construction Company. That's all mixed in with the songwriting contest and you'll have to watch Leave It To Blondie to see how.

After a two year hiatus, Blondie & Dagwood have returned in "Leave it to Blondie"...a fair but flawed installment of the series. While I did enjoy it overall, it returns to a plot device that just never felt right for the films...the jealous wife in search of a divorce. After all, Blondie and Dagwood love each other so much and this just doesn't seem to fit the films at all.

The story begins with the couple deciding to give $100 to charity...a huge amount for 1945. But by mistake BOTH Blondie AND Dagwood promise the money...and they cannot possibly afford giving $200. The solution, albeit contrived, is for Dagwood to enter a songwriting contest. But, Dagwood doesn't know about this and Alexander and Alvin enter a song they found for him. It turns out the song was written some time ago by Dagwood's deceased uncle. Cheating? Of course...but that's not the end to it! See the film and find out where this one little lie lands Dagwood and nearly destroys their marriage (mostly because Blondie is, in this one, a complete idiot).

Overall, charming at times and enjoyable...I just wish they'd eliminated the jealous wife bit. It's not very funny AND what woman would be jealous of Dagwood and think he was sleeping around on her?!?!

LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, I mean LEAVE IT TO BLONDIE (Columbia, 1945), directed by Abby Berlin, welcomes back the Bumstead family to neighborhood theaters since their last venture in FOOTLIGHT GLAMOUR (1943). For this 15th episode based on Chic Young's popular comic strip characters, some changes have been made: Abby Berlin takes over the director's chair after having it warmed up for him by Frank R. Strayer, who sat through 14 films in the series; Dagwood's image is changed slightly by wearing a long tie instead of his traditional bow one; Eddie Acuff, having appeared in earlier segments ranging from a door peddler to taxi driver to next door neighbor, is introduced as the new postman, Mr. Beasley, replacing Irving Bacon, who actually began as Mr. Beasley in BLONDIE (1938) before becoming Bert Crump. It is now Beasley's turn to face Bumstead's race towards the bus stop from the house while delivering letters to the front door resulting to air mail delivery and workman's composition. Character actor Jack Rice joins the cast as a new series regular, Ollie Merton (later Merlin), Dagwood's trouble-making co-worker. Aside from that, everything else remains the same, ranging from its leading players to situations at hand. Leave it to the Bumsteads.

Plot summary: Blondie (Penny Singleton) and Dagwood (Arthur Lake) both contribute $100 to a charity sponsored by their neighbors, Emily (Bess Flowers), and Mr. Fuddow (Arthur Space), without each other's knowledge. Because there's not enough money in their bank account to cover both donations, one of the checks needs to be returned or else the other will bounce. Blondie refuses to take back her contribution, naturally leaving Dagwood with the embarrassing situation to face Mr. Fuddow, which he cannot do at this point. Thanks to son Alexander (Larry Simms) and his know-it-all best friend, Alvin Fuddow (Danny Mummert), who, while cleaning the attic, stumble upon a poem titled "Blue Eyed Sweetheart of Mine" written by Dagwood's Uncle Horace, and to help out Mr. Bumstead with his financial situation, Alvin comes up with an idea of entering the poem in a song writing contest with the possibility of winning a cash prize. Situations become more complicated as Blondie mistakes the poem written especially for her by Dagwood, while Dagwood spends time away from the office taking singing lessons from Rita Rogers (Marjorie Weaver), secretary to Mrs. Laura Meredith (Eula Morgan), a contest sponsor. It so happens that Dagwood's boss, Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale) had insulted Mrs. Meredith, unaware that she's to be one of his most important clients. To make amends, Dithers has Dagwood go in his place to arrange a new business deal. While doing this, Blondie discovers her faithful spouse in a hotel room innocently rehearsing his song for Miss Rogers. Her jealousy has her assume the worst, locking Dagwood out of the house all night, causing him to catch a cold while Blondie makes arrangements for divorce proceedings. With the cold leading him to lose his voice, Dagwood faces a dilemma of entering the contest and face his audience to sing. Alvin comes up with a solution, but even with his plan and Dagwood's know-how, everything goes wrong, with hilarious results. Leave it to Dagwood.

Other members of the cast include: Maude Eburne as Madame Magda, the fortune teller); Chick Chandler as Eddie Baxter; Fred Graff as Henry Harvey; and series regulars Marjorie Ann Mutchie as Cookie Bumstead; and of course, Daisy, the Bumstead family dog. This would be the second and last time Alvin's father appears, the first being BLONDIE ON A BUDGET (1940) enacted by John Qualen.

A notch below the prime "Blondie" movies produced during 1941-42, LEAVE IT TO BLONDIE is actually the start to more slapstick and faster pace stories that were to follow. For this one, the formula is recycled a bit from its earlier efforts, marking one of the last in which Blondie shows her jealous nature with visions of army tanks and battleground explosions going through her head. This is not, however, the last time Dagwood would get fired by Dithers, or Blondie jumping to conclusions, only to change her tune after realizing her error. Leave it to Blondie.

Formerly distributed on video cassette through King Features with inserted sing-along introduction and different closing titles inserted over the original theatrical credits, this and 27 others in the series aired on American Movie Classics cable channel from 1996 to 2001. This entry must have been good enough for the next installment, LIFE WITH FATHER, I mean LIFE WITH BLONDIE (1946). Leave it to the writers. (**)

This film actually marked the return of the series, which had been cancelled by Columbia Pictures in 1944. With many other projects going on, the studio apparently lost interest, and even limited the number of episodes over the last few years. However -- fans -- and lots of them, wrote in and complained and Columbia resumed production, with some changes.

Assistant director Abby Berlin, who had been with the series since the start, took over as director from Frank Strayer, who went on to other film projects. Also, Connie Lee, who wrote many B films in her career, took over for series writer Karen De Wolf. De Wolf moved on to tv in the 50s.

This episode is very lively, much like the early series episodes, and you'll notice that Alexander and Cookie are growing up fast. It also has another "entertainment" theme, this time Dagwood entering a goofy songwriting contest, inspired by an old song his late Uncle Henry wrote. He even gets to sing the song, becoming one of three finalists who appear on a radio show. Kooky stuff, hammed up by Arthur Lake.

In the meanwhile, as can be expected, Blondie gets jealous -- thinking the song was written by Dagwood for somebody else?? -- and Dagwood gets fired by Mr. Dithers (again) for messing up another business deal. Jonathan Hale as Dithers is a hoot to watch, ready to strangle Dagwood at any chance he can get. He and Dagwood make a super team.

Eddie Acuff (who appeared in no less than 300 movies and tv shows), plays the new and flustered mailman, also Jack Rice joins the series as Ollie, Dagwood's wisecracking co-worker. Rice co-starred with Florence Lake (Arthur's sister) for many years as the brother-in-law to Edgar Kennedy in his comedy film series.

Funny support from Chick Chandler as fast-talking Eddie, and veteran Maude Eburne as Magda, the tea leaf reader. Maude has some of the best lines here.

A gem. Always on dvd, either sold separately or in box sets. Thanks to MOVIES Net for running this classic series Saturday mornings.