Blondie Brings Up Baby

In this movie there is a scene when Baby Dumpling comes home from school with a blackeye. Dagwood picks him up and brings him over to the mirror to look at the blackeye. During their conversation at the mirror, Dagwood tells Baby Dumpling that although they call him baby dumpling, his "real name is Dagwood, named after me".

This story of the adventures and misadventures of the Bumstead family starts with an unusual premise. It's Blondie getting conned rather than Dagwood that starts the ball rolling in Blondie Brings Up Baby.

It's another day at the Bumstead house with Arthur Lake running late and plowing into hapless mailman Irving Bacon. Penny Singleton falls victim to the cunning wiles of encyclopedia salesman Olin Howland who convinces her that Baby Dumpling is a genius. Larry Simms will need these books as an aid as he starts school early.

Of course no Blondie film would be complete without Dagwood fouling up on the job. He falls into a scheme whereby the Dithers Construction company gets stuck with a building they built when Dagwood made changes that the prospective owner never officially signed off on. Of course that all works out as well in the end.

Last but not least poor Baby Dumpling can't keep his precocious mind on school with Daisy the dog having run away and then be picked up by the dogcatcher. Daisy gets adopted by little Peggy Ann Garner, a girl with polio. That all works out as well rather touchingly.

Some pathos in Blondie Brings Up Baby as well as the usual laughs at Arthur Lake's expense.

Just when the new mailman thought he had a new clever idea to deliver the mail to the Bumsteads without the letters literally becoming air mail, here comes Dagwood again! Alvin (Danny Mummert) is back to visit his pal Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) to exert his intelligence. Today is Baby Dumpling's first day in school and not all goes well. The next film in the series is BLONDIE ON A BUDGET.

Goofy adventure with the Bumsteads, this episode featuring some poignant moments coupled with a Three Stooges-like plot, all worked around Dagwood.

Baby Dumpling is the center of attention, first being hailed as a child genius by a door to door salesman? Everything changes when Daisy wanders off, Baby goes looking for her and disappears. Is there a kidnapper on the loose?

Murphy's Law where everything goes haywire, and really fast. In a sentimental twist, it turns out Baby finds Daisy at the home of a girl confined to a wheelchair (played by Peggy Ann Garner). The two become friends, Dagwood meanwhile is searching for him and gets mistaken (very easily) for the kidnapper? The insane question; how could he look suspicious and goofy at the same time? A recurring theme in many more episodes to come.

Arthur Lake steals lots of scenes here. Even though the story is centered around Baby and Melinda, Dagwood gets himself into some bizarro complications that could lead to him going to prison for life!

Written by Gladys Lehman, one of the founders of the Screen Writers Guild, associated with many classics, later writing MEET JOE BLACK for Brad Pitt. Peggy Ann Garner does a wonderful job here, who would go on to win a special Oscar. She appeared in scores of top films; JANE EYRE, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN and DAISY KENYON.

Check out the early film posters for these episodes, beautifully designed with a cartoon slant, saluting the comic strip series.

10 Stars. EPISODE 4 remastered. The BLONDIE films are packaged in dvd box sets, either separate episodes or the full series. Thanks again to MOVIES Net for running these classic episodes Saturday mornings.

remember this from childhood dog caught by vet--nurse gets dog for disabled girl (polio?) Dagwood the fall guy gets fired yet again

When I was a boy, they used to show the Blondie and Dagwood films a lot on TV. The only one I remember at all was this one, a good but rather typical installment.

When the show begins, some huckster is going door-to-door giving IQ tests to children. He tells Mrs. Bumstead that Baby Dumpling is a super-genius....but it seems likely he's just trying to sell her a lot of books.

While Blondie is getting all excited about Baby Dumpling, Dagwood is working on a frustrating project. The client keeps approving every change and Dagwood is excited...but the client is a jerk and has no intention of actually having the project completed. Mr. Dithers (as usual) blames Dagwood and fires him.

Later, Baby Dumpling gets lost while looking for his runaway dog, Daisy. He eventually finds she was adopted by a disabled girl*. And, somehow this meeting ends up being the solution to all the Bumstead problems!

Overall, another enjoyable and nice installment in the series. Worth seeing and quite clever for a B-movie.

*While they never say why the girl is in a wheelchair, most likely it was Polio, which was sadly common. Plus, Polio is a disorder you CAN recover use of the legs from in some cases so this would be consistent with the story.