Blondie Goes Latin

What a musical delight ! I just saw this on the Movies! Cable Chanel, and waited with baited breath to see the credits at the end to find out who these great singing performers were.... I assumed Penny Singleton's singing voice was dubbed by what they used to call a "studio singer", like Marni Nixon...and also, Ruth Terry who I've only known as an actress in the Westerns, never heard she was a singer....but alas, no credits were shown at the end, so I came here in hopes that some of the Reviews would give this info.....and I find out, that both ladies did their own singing! WOW ! Penny has a magnificent operatic voice, and Ruth reminded me very much of Judy Garland! And Arthur Lake is a virtuoso on the drums! Does it get any better? Yes.....because, as usual, the movie was stolen by Baby Dumpling and DAISY! I think Macauley Culkin would have had a run for his money if Larry Simms had shown up for the Home Alone audition....and that DAISY ! DOUBLE WOW ! He would be a winner on " America's Got Talent " for sure !

The plot is really silly, but with all that talent & cuteness, who cares ??

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.

This is the eighth in the Blondie movie series. In this one, the Bumsteads go on a cruise to South America with Mr. Dithers-mainly so the boss can rest. There's also a funny scene involving the mailman, the cab driver, shaving cream, and running. And another when-after it's established Dagwood has to come home to take care of business-the others think they're seeing him on the boat and, oh, watch the movie if you want to find out. Anyway, the whole thing is an excuse to showcase musical numbers of Kirby Grant, Ruth Terry, Tito Guizar, with Arthur Lake displaying his drum skills, Penny Singleton her singing and dancing prowess, and even the boy playing Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) warbling a little with Janet Burston who was also doing that in the M-G-M-produced-only Our Gang comedies during this time. In summary, Blondie Goes Latin was one of the most enjoyable of the series! P.S. By this time, Ms. Singleton had fallen in love and eventually married producer Robert Sparks so she might have influenced this change of pace! And the person credited with writing the original story is Quinn Martin-presumably the same one eventually responsible for producing "The Fugitive", "Cannon", "The Streets of San Francisco", and "Barnaby Jones".

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.

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.