Footlight Glamour

A little bit of Arthur Lake (as Dagwood or anybody else) is more than enough, and usually too much, but this entry, set in mid-WW II,ranks as one of the best in the series, especially in the segments involving the stage play, and more so when Jonathan Withers and Thurston Hall stroll across the stage totally unaware a live play is being presented.

In an effort to help fund the wartime USO, B and D help put on a stage play that, of course, turns into a crowd pleasing loony-bin.

To me, the entry's mainly a matter of taste, the last part becoming silly slapstick. This, I think, takes away from the priceless D and B characters whose special brand of character comedy distinguishes the series. After all, slapstick trades on pratfalls that require no special acting talent of the sort Lake and Singleton have in abundance. But if you like slapstick, this is your ticket.

(In passing-Oh my gosh, is that really Ann Savage playing the immaculately turned-out Vicki. As a teen, I stayed away from girls for maybe a day after seeing Savage's scary roadside tramp in that classic noir, Detour (1945). I wish they gave Oscars for best vixen of the year, that way she'd have a well-deserved lifetime award.) (Also, with Singleton's re-done hair-do for the play, she could pass for Lucille Ball's double in I Love Lucy. To me, the resemblance is striking. See what you think.)

Anyway, the flick's a good chance to catch some restrictions the war effort (1943) placed on civilians of the time. I recall my parents having to deal with them, especially with gasoline rationing. I'll bet audiences of the time felt a special bond with B and D as they shared in the same sacrifices, even if it was on film. Of course the B and D laughs helped.

Once again Dagwood ever anxious to please his boss agrees to let Thurston Hall's daughter Ann Savage stay at the Bumsteads. It is fascinating to me how Jonathan Hale and later Jerome Cowan keep taking advantage of him. It reminds me so much of Jack Lemmon in The Apartment. I wonder if Billy Wilder saw a lot of the Blondie series when he wrote The Apartment.

One thing Hall wants is to get her away from Rafael Storm, a ham actor looking to latch on to a rich meal ticket. He's convinced Savage she has talent. And when he finds her anyway at the Bumsteads he's got Penny Singleton convinced there could be a career for her. One of the few times Blondie isn't behaving levelheaded.

The play as it goes on that Savage wrote and stars in is one of the funniest things since Gracie Allen's production in Here Comes Cookie.

One of the funnier Blondie comedies.

FOOTLIGHT GLAMOUR (Columbia, 1943), featuring Blondie and the Bumsteads, directed by Frank R. Strayer, is the 14th chapter in the popular "Blondie" feature film series, the second and last without Blondie's name in the title. It was originally intended as the final installment, however, due to the popularity of the series, Columbia revived the series with 14 more installments to come starting in 1945.

In FOOTLIGHT GLAMOUR, Blondie (Penny Singleton) and her spouse, Dagwood (Arthur Lake) help out a client's daughter by taking part in a dramatic play titled "Mad Moonlight" written by show-biz hopeful Vicki Wheeler (Ann Savage), daughter of Randolph Wheeler (Thurston Hall), a show-business hating client of Dagwood's boss, Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), who has Vicki stay at the Bumstead household in order to keep her away from her no-good boyfriend, Jerry Grant (Rafael Storm). Jerry, however, manages to find her and appear in her play anyway. Also appearing in Vicki's play are Cora Dithers (Grace Hayle) as the maid, and Mr. Crum, the neighborhood postman, (Irving Bacon) playing the English butler, etc., with boy "genius" Alvin Fuddow (Danny Mummert) helping out with the sound effects. But the dramatic play accidentally turns out to be a comedy hit with the audience, thanks to Dagwood's bumbling, which includes him walking on stage only to have a trap door open from under him, and in true silent comedian Harold Lloyd fashion, Dagwood later acquires a dinner jacket belonging to a magician and unwittingly does some magic tricks. The curtain also falls on top of Dagwood moments later to have only his head seen visible below as he calls out for "BLOONDIE!!!" During the course of all this, Dithers tries to prevent Mr. Wheeler from finding out about his daughter's play being in production, but in spite of everything going wrong, things become right again in typical Bumstead fashion.

In smaller roles, Larry Simms and Marjorie Ann Mutchie return as the Bumstead children, Alexander and Cookie, along with Daisy, the Bumstead pooch, up to "her" old tricks again to obtain laughs. Some good humor among the footlights can be had in this average comedy. Formerly shown on the American Movie Classics channel from 1996 to 2001, "Footlight Glamour" can be found on either video cassette or the DVD format.(**)

This is a pretty good Blondie in the series - it combines life in the Depression era, comedy, and a rare appearance of Mrs. Dithers.

Mr. Dithers has a friend whose daughter is "obsessed" with being in the theatre. Naturally, he volunteers Dagwood to take care of her while he and his friend conduct business. The Bumsteads get involved in her schemes to bring the theatre to their town. Among those involved in her production for the USO is Mr. Crum, and Mrs. Dithers. This is funny and gets you into the theatre production literally.