Blondie for Victory

It's wartime now and Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead have shifted to wartime priorities. For Dagwood it's not much, he's got a draft exemption as the sole support of a wife, two children, and several dogs courtesy of Daisy. But Blondie wants to do her bit for the country as well. She's organized the housewives of the neighborhood as a kind of female home guard which does first aid. In fact two of the first people that Blondie and her women get to practice first aid on are Dagwood and Mr. Dithers.

Unfortunately work at the Dithers Construction Company has slowed because Arthur Lake is not getting the T/L/C he deserves from Penny Singleton. Lake and Jonathan Hale concoct a Lucy Ricardo like scheme to get Singleton to fold up her little amazon militia involving Stu Erwin, a soldier awaiting orders. Can't tell what it is, but Lucille Ball never thought of anything better.

Dagwood as usual is in hot water this time with our Armed Services, but he gets out at the end of the film none the wiser because you know in the next film it will be something equally bizarre.

Blondie For Victory? Good thing our war effort wasn't dependent on the Bumsteads.

Karen De Wolf, who wrote most of the early series entries, put this funny and original episode together that boasts a large cast of familiar character actors. The best part is spotting the faces.

Since ABBOTT AND COSTELLO and LAUREL AND HARDY at the time made some popular movies about the war, why not join them? It was a smart move that sees Blondie uniting the neighborhood housewives to do their part. Unfortunately, that leaves Dagwood to blame by all the lonely husbands? Watching Arthur Lake is just plain outrageous.

I agree with the last reviewer. There are some wacky situations that may have inspired I LOVE LUCY, and when you come down to it, the BLONDIE series was the grand daddy of sitcoms, albeit on the wide screen. As usual, Dagwood and Mr. Dithers make a genuine Odd Couple, this time having Dithers over for dinner and feasting on a "pot luck" sort of a meal. Daisy's dog food gets mixed in and do the math.

Also a little adventure added, which changes gears to a dramatic finale, all about the town dam -- which could be blown up by saboteurs! Character actor Charles Wagenheim raises suspicion lurking around the place in the dark, and its kind of spooky. Good support from Ed Gargan as a brash sergeant and Stu Erwin as Private Smith. Erwin was a staple in many classic comedies, who had just appeared in THE BRIDE CAME C. O. D., starring Bette Davis.

Also some good bits; stone-face Renie Riano playing Miss Crabber(?), Cookie's babysitter. Sylivia Field ( DENNIS THE MENACE) plays Mrs. Williams.

This episode runs fast because so many goofy scenes are thrown at you. The THREE STOOGES were also filmed at the same studio (Columbia Pictures), so comedy was in the air, and yes, it does have the feel at times of a Stooge movie. Once again, director Frank Strayer has fun with the cast. You really have to love this stuff, and lots of us kids grew up watching it on tv in glorious black and white.

The password is "Tires," uttered by Mr. Dithers, since there was a WWII ration on rubber at the time, also sugar, which plays into the plot.

Thank you to MOVIES Net for rerunning this classic series Saturday mornings, like the old days. Forever on remastered dvd.

The quality of "Blondie for Victory" is a notch or two lower than the previous installments of the Blondie and Dagwood series. The writing, this time, disappoints and the film makes a very strange message about WWII and the homefront.

When the story begins, Blondie has organized the housewives in town into a paramilitary sort of group...and the husbands are mad because the wives aren't there to feed them and keep house. When the other fellows learn that Blondie is behind all this, they threaten Dagwood...telling him to stop her...or else. Dagwood comes up with a really stupid plan where he pretends to enlist so that Blondie will come home and give up this organization. The plan not only makes no sense but could get Dagwood in a lot of trouble for impersonating a soldier. Yet, inexplicably, the whole thing ends well...and no one punched in Dagwood's face.

While most wartime Hollywood films are very patriotic, this one is different and seems to tell housewives NOT to do their part and men to do anything (short of joining up) to stop them. Despite this goody message, a sickeningly sweet three cheers for America and the war effort ending is tacked on to the film...leaving me very confused and wondering what happened to the writing with this one!

By the way, after Dagwood wrecks Mr. Dither's car, Dithers asks "Are my tires okay?!"...this is because there was a severe tire shortage during WWII as most all of the rubber went to the war effort.

Dagwood's boss, Mr. Dithers' wife is hosting nine soldiers in their home and the office phone is ringing off the hook! Dagwood takes his work home to work in quiet...only his home is invaded by The Housewives of America.

"Mr. Dithers will understand that our country comes first."-Blondie

And the next thing you know in an act of demonstrating first aid...Dagwood is all trussed up in bandages.

This is a huge add for the war...war bonds, first aid, etc. Released in 1942 at the height of America's involvement in WWII.

"She's devoting her life to the welfare of others."-Dagwood

This is a classic Blondie performance by Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. Fans from all over will love it!

So how do you mix tricky wartime stress with B&D's wacky humor. Fortunately, the series writers manage the trick in entertaining fashion. For younger folks, historical glimpses of the war's impact on the homefront are woven in, ordinary things like tires and sugar.

The first part is a hoot as Blondie organizes neighborhood wives into a wartime support group, 'Housewives for Victory'. It's early 1942, just months into the big war. Naturally, B&D have to respond, while even Daisy the dog collects money for bombs. Trouble is the wives now have duties apart from housework, which means husbands have to take up the slack. In short, gender roles get muddied. Of course, for B&D the material is loaded with all kinds of potential laughs. Now if D can only figure out which food goes to people and which goes to puppies. Then too, B needs to learn First Aid without turning D into an American Mummy.

The second half, however, moves into a more conventional slapstick, with everyone racing around in a gloomy forest, including a mysterious character with a loaded sack-- is he a saboteur or what. There's not as much flag-waving as might be expected, though the women show they can march as formidably as men. Emphasis instead is on how suburban couples learn to adjust to the new conditions. For B&D that means a lot of laughs; for contemporary viewers it's an entertaining glimpse of a stressful time.

All in all, the programmer's a humorously revealing 70-minutes with our adorable couple facing up to the demands of a new era. The latter half may be somewhat repetitive, but overall the entry's still worth tuning in.