Blondie Goes Latin

This episode has to be the most original of the entire series, filled to the brim with excellent music and comedy, similar to the type of material ABBOTT & COSTELLO were doing at the time.

Mr. Dithers wants to take a relaxing South American cruise, and Dagwood, Blondie and Baby Dumpling get to come along. So far... so good... UNTIL word comes in at the office that an important client is waiting. Duty calls, so Dithers sends Dagwood back home (leaving Blondie and Baby on the ship) -- but it doesn't quite go that way. Dagwood gets stuck(!) and has to HIDE from everybody.

The best gag is Dagwood posing as a drummer with the ship orchestra, lead by Kirby Grant, later famous for the SKY KING tv show. There's a super number called "You Don't Play a Drum, You Beat It," written by the popular team of Chet Forrest and Bob Wright.

The biggest surprise of all is Penny Singleton showing off her beautiful singing voice, accompanying Grant's (Hal Trent) band. A real unexpected treat. Penny would also sing in the next episode, BLONDIE IN SOCIETY, and with good reason. Also a bit of jealousy and romance at work here; Blondie bumping into handsome Spanish singer Tito Guizar (as Manuel), making Dagwood stand up and take notice! Guizar, born in Guadalajara, Mexico, became a popular singer and composer, later featured in Spanish tv series for years.

For travel buffs, filmed partly at the elite Miradero Estate in Glendale, CA. Miradero was the home of real estate pioneer Leslie Brand, known as the father of Glendale, responsible for mapping out the city in the early 1900s. The estate was later purchased by the city.

A super family episode, not to be missed, applause to the creative direction of Frank Strayer. Always on remastered dvd, either separate episodes or the entire series. Thanks much to MOVIES Net for running this classic Saturday mornings.

This is the 8th film in the series of 28 (1938-1950). Alvin (Danny Mummert) is nice enough to visit the Bumsteads and give flowers to Blondie. h He has a poem to read titled, "The Bumsteads Go To South America". The Bumstead family gets to go on a six-week cruise to South America thanks to Mr. Dithers. Well, a telegram comes for Mr. Dithers. To close a deal at the office, someone must be at the office Tuesday. This is Mr. Dithers health cruise, so that means Dagwood (Arthur Lake) must leave the ship to be at the office. After all Mr. Dithers is Dagwood's boss. But Dithers insists on Blondie (Penny Singleton), Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) and Daisy too to stay on the ship with him with his compliments. Dagwood says a tearful goodbye. Well, as you will see, Dagwood doesn't quite make it ashore. He is still on the boat and trying to hide from Mr. Dithers. Baby Dumpling meets a little girl and they sing a duet. Penny Singleton gets to sing three beautiful songs and dances too. The next film in the series is BLONDIE IN SOCIETY.

Dagwood disguises himself as a drummer in the ship's conga band to sneak aboard a South American cruise ship. Blondie performs several song and dance routines.

Blondie Goes Latin is the episode in the series where we are reminded that pert Penny Singlton got her start in musical comedy. She gets to sing and dance, and very well at that. Plot wise, this entry is standard for the amusing series which ran for 12 years and 28 episodes and made a fortune for Columbia in the process. The series was filmed mostly on Columbia's backlot, which means that if you watch the films, you will see the street and house sets from almost all the 1950s-60s Screen Gems TV shows such as Hazel, The Donna Reed Show, I Dream of Jeannie and Father Knows Best, who used the same house set for it's residence as the Blondie films. The songs employed here are quite melodic and hummable, and actress Ruth Terry (who is still living at this writing) gets a featured part and gets to sing "Don't Cry On My Shoulder" to boot. This tuneful nonsense has a big, patriotic finale which was standard procedure during the time just prior to WW2. I got this film on DVD as part of a 10 film set of Blondie films for $5.00 some years ago at Walmart. I'm not sure if it is still in print, but the quality is pretty good and it is enjoyable to have the first ten films in the series for such a low cost. These are the TV prints which cut off the original opening and closing credits, but add their own King Features credits with a theme song familiar to viewers who watched these films on TV during the 1960s. As such, these films almost play like the first Screen Gems sitcom, with continuity between films that is rare for any film series. To pad out the running time to something uniform on the shorter entries of the series, a scene from the middle of some of the films plays before the opening credits. You can fast forward over them if you don't care to see them. This seems like a review for the Blondie DVD set, yet the musical elements in Blondie Goes Latin makes that entry unique and a treat for musical fans.

Blondie Goes Latin is an odd one out of the Blondie series. On the one hand it has one of the stupidest plots in the entire series. On the other hand it's a nice musical treat with numbers by Tito Guizar, Ruth Terry and Penny Singleton herself. This is the only one of the Blondie series that could qualify as a musical.

The Bumsteads including Baby Dumpling and Daisy the Dog all go on a cruise courtesy of Mr. Dithers. I can't quite believe that Jonathan Hale craves the Bumstead company more than his wife, but each marriage is surely unique. But then Dagwood has to stay in the office to meet with an important client so Hale takes Penny Singleton, child, and dog without her husband. To top that off Arthur Lake is held up getting off the boat and takes refuge with Kirby Grant's Ship Orchestra and their singer Ruth Terry. Their drummer didn't make it so Lake pitches in on the drums.

These thing usually only happen to the Ricardos. I wonder if they ever ran into the Bumsteads?

The whole thing is too stupid to make this one of the better films in the Blondie series. But the musical numbers are nice and we get to see Arthur Lake in drag.