Blondie Meets the Boss

"Blondie Meets the Boss" is the second of two dozen Blondie and Dagwood films. It's pleasant enough viewing but the darker tone of the film makes it among my least favorite I've seen so far.

The story begins with the Bumstead family about to go on vacation. However, Mr. Dithers informs Dagwood he cannot go and he MUST complete some business deal. Well, not surprisingly, Dagwood is angry and he quits his job then and there. When he returns home, he tells the wife...and she goes to talk to Mr. Dithers. Surprisingly, he offers her Dagwood's job 'to teach him a lesson'.

At the same time, Dagwood listens to his idiotic neighbor and takes a fishing trip (leaving Baby Dumpling with his aunt). However, the neighbor is a real Cassanova and the trip includes women...and these are two married men. Dagwood soon leaves...he's just not the cheating kid of guy. But photos taken during this brief outing come back to haunt him when Blondie finds them and thinks the worst.

I didn't particularly like the idea of this sweet and loving couple planning on getting a divorce. It seemed untrue to the characters. Still, the film is entertaining and Baby Dumpling has a few good lines here and there. Pleasant but a tad disappointing.

This is the second Blondie movie in a series. Dagwood resigns from his job after Mr. Dithers tells him he can't take his vacation yet because of something he wants him to do. Blondie ends up taking her hubby's place while Dag does her household chores. But he then decides to go fishing with a neighbor friend who takes a couple of girls with him. Also, Blondie's sister Dot comes in with a boyfriend who she's trying to enter a jitterbug contest with. I'll stop there and just say most of what happens was quite funny if also a bit silly part of the time. Arthur Lake does some good physical stuff while Penny Singleton does a funny look when she gets jealous. Overall, Blondie Meets the Boss was a funny enough second entry. P.S. If you know the original Blondie comic strip's history, you may be confused by seeing her have a sibling since no such character existed in Chic Young's panels nor was Blondie's maiden surname Miller, it was Boopadoop. Incidentally, this was Dorothy Moore's second and last appearance as Dot. If you're fans of W.C. Fields, you may have been amused by the appearances of George Chandler-a laundryman here-best known as the son in Fatal Glass of Beer and of Grady Sutton-a camera clerk here-who appeared in quite a few of Fields' films, the last being The Bank Dick. Oh, and I'm familiar with bandleader Skinnay Ennis-who sings in the nightclub sequence-from his regular radio spots on Bob Hope's and Abbott & Costello's shows. And one of the story writers was Kay Van Ripper, who was also writing the early Judge Hardy's Family entries at M-G-M.

I have always been a fan of the Blondie comics, even to this day, but some of the movies have been duds. In this one, however, I found myself laughing uncontrollably at times, with the highlight being Dagwood's (Arthur Lake's) accidentally stumbling into a jitterbug dance contest with Dorothy Moore (playing Blondie's sister). His uncoordinated movements while slipping and trying to regain his balance was masterfully done and simply hilarious. It's easily worth the price of admission for this sequence alone.

This film is even funnier and more delightful than the first one. Daisy the Dog, Baby Dumpling, and his playmate from next door, Alvin Fuddle, get up to even better hijinks and say even cuter things, and the gags and sight-gags fly thick and fast. Jonathan Hale, who plays Dagwood's boss J. C. Dithers, the head of Dithers Construction Company, is here brought into the story as more of a character in this film, and he will remain that way for the rest of the long series. Dagwood and Blondie are all set to have their first holiday in two years, when the horrid Dithers orders Dagwood to cancel it and stay behind to help him land a contract. Dagwood resigns in protest. When he gets home, Blondie decides to take matters into her own hands, and goes to see Dithers. She ends up doing the job for Dagwood, though it all goes horribly wrong without her knowledge and the situation is only saved inadvertently by Dagwood's congenital idiocy. As usual, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake are marvellous in their roles, and Larry Simms as Baby Dumpling and Danny Mummert as Alvin are just as astonishing as ever. While Blondie is taking his place in his office, Dagwood is left at home being a house husband and gets bored, so he is persuaded by Alvin's father to go on a fishing trip, where he meets a nightclub singer named Francine Rogers, which will lead to multiple complications and misunderstandings for the rest of the film, with Blondie getting jealous and threatening divorce. The plot is really too complicated to summarize, but each new twist is funnier than the last. Daisy has plenty of occasions to raise her ears in shock and dismay, Baby Dumpling gets lots of opportunities to show that he, aged five, is wiser than his parents, Blondie gets to prove she can do her husband's job better than he can, Dagwood wins a dance context by mistake, and countless mishaps, accidents, misunderstandings, and unfortunate coincidences get to mount up into a mountain a fun. This film is particularly notable for having several top jitterbug dancers of the period do some astonishing dance routines, which are classics of the genre and deserve to be seen by period dance afficionadoes.

As you may know by now after seeing the first film of the series "Blondie", the films are wholesome and have a pure sense of humor. This second film "Blondie Meets The Boss" is just as funny as the first. If the Blondie films seem to be serious at times, please take it in light-hearted fun. Everything works out. Dagwood wears the apron this time. You might recognize the boy who plays "Alvin Fuddle". He is Danny Mummert. He played Baby Dumpling's pal beginning with the very first film, Blondie (1938), at the age of 4 until the last film, Beware of Blondie (1950), at the age of 16. Danny Mummert did 24 Blondie films in all. Mr. Mummert has not been in a film since 1956, but no doubt is enjoying his life in retirement. As always, the film ends with a happy ending and a smile on your face. Isn't Daisy a hoot? The next film in the series is BLONDIE TAKES A VACATION.