Blondie Plays Cupid

It's July 3 and Baby Dumpling wants fireworks for the Fourth of July. Dagwood bought a whole sack full, but Blondie disapproves. They decide to go to the country, but there trip isn't exactly trouble-free. Blondie helps a young Glenn Ford get back with his fiancee. The next film in the series is BLONDIE GOES LATIN.

This is the seventh in the Blondie movie series. While there are more contrivances than usual in the series, this is still a pretty funny entry involving firecrackers, a man with a shotgun, a ladder, a car that goes off by itself, and a young couple trying to get married. Of that young couple, one of them is Glenn Ford-years before he achieved stardom in films like Gilda with Rita Hayworth who was in a previous entry, Blondie on a Budget. The other half was Luana Walters who I just found out was in lots of B westerns and would eventually be the first to play Superman's Krytonian mother, Lara, in the 1948 serial named after her son. Interestingly, Ford himself played Supes' adopted father, Jonathan Kent, in the Christopher Reeve version from 1978. My favorite gag is what happens when Dagwood rushes down the ladder! So on that note, Blondie Plays Cupid is highly recommended. P.S. Charles Lane, previously in the first film in the series as a furniture salesman, makes a welcome return here as the train conductor. And, as in Blondie Brings Up Baby, Baby Dumpling's real name is revealed to be Dagwood Jr. though that will be changed to Alexander a few years down the line after original comic strip creator Chic Young does so by then.

Two of the biggest names in Columbia Pictures history got some exposure in supporting parts in the Blondie Series. Blondie On A Budget had Rita Hayworth playing an old flame of Dagwood's. And in this film Blondie Plays Cupid Glenn Ford plays a prospective bridegroom trying to elope with his beloved Luana Walters under the watchful eye of her shotgun toting father Will Wright.

It's 4th of July weekend and it's a long one that Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton get to spend with her aunt and uncle in the country. But after a series of the usual comic missteps the Bumsteads get involved Ford and Walter and their efforts to elope. Ford's a geologist who is drilling for oil on Wright's property and would very much like to do some drilling with Walters. Wright can't stand the sight of him though, he's tore up his farm considerable without any oil. No guy like that is going to have his daughter.

The Bumsteads get into their usual shenanigans, my favorite is when Irving Bacon the mailman finally gets even with Dagwood for plowing into him every morning while racing for his bus.

That running gag in the Blondie comic strip and on film was always a source of great amusement. I knew a Dagwood like character at my former job only he had some flex time work hours, from 7:30 am. to 3:30 pm. When the hour struck, God help you if you were in his path as he raced for the subway. I still remember him almost plowing into one of the bosses one day.

Ford shows signs of the affable charm that would make him a leading star for 25 years in his part. There are also some good gags involving 4th of July firecrackers and they play a big part in giving Blondie Plays Cupid a happy ending.

In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Charles Lane and Will Wright made a specialty out of playing grouchy supporting characters in movies and television. I loved seeing them as they added a lot of wonderful grouchy color to whatever they were in--no matter how insignificant. Here is one of the few times I can recall BOTH of these men in the same production--too bad they didn't get to act together--though I am not sure if the audience could have stood so much of their acerbic personas--but I loved them.

The film begins with Blondie lecturing Dagwood and Baby Dumpling NOT to use fireworks for the upcoming 4th of July. However, Dagwood is certifiably insane (or stupid) and sees no problem giving a 4 year-old explosives!! So, to get these two away from temptation, Blondie decides they should go visit her aunt and uncle in the country. However, the trip turns out to be anything but exciting, as they blunder into the middle of a feud. Two young people (one is a very young Glenn Ford before he became famous) want to get married but her insanely grumpy father is ready to shoot Ford or anyone who gets in his way. Can the Bumsteads manage to avoid blowing off any limbs as well as help this nice young couple? Despite the use of a silly runaway car sequence near the end, this is a very endearing episode of the series of 28 films Columbia made for the cartoon strip. The best part was Daisy, as her stunts were wonderful. So, as usual the dog is THE star--with Baby Dumpling a close second. Lots of fun...and grouchiness. Oh, and if you are looking for Lane, he's the befuddled conductor on the train. Amazingly, he died only a couple years ago--at 102 years of age!

By the way, if you watch this film you might easily get the impression that it's really cool to let very young children play with firecrackers, dynamite and drive. Oh, those wacky Bumsteads.

The whole cast is back for this installment of Blondie. Dagwood and Baby Dumpling are in rare form as they want to light off fireworks and Blondie is so worried about safety that she has forbidden it! This creates a bit of a three way hide and seek with large firecrackers. And the mailman gag...yep! You guessed it, he gets a lit firework that has been tossed out of the Dagwood household!

In order to avoid fireworks altogether, Blondie plans a nice quiet weekend out of the city at her Aunt Hannah and Uncle Abner's country farm. On the way to the farm they hitch a ride with this lovely couple...a young Glenn Ford plays the groom to be Charlie and Luana Walters the bride to be Millie. The couple runs into trouble by way of her father...and Blondie steps in to help them elope.

Fireworks, Dynamite and Oil oh my!

This was a fun, family friendly installment built around the Fourth of July. Blondie fans will be thrilled and I highly recommend this film as irbid one of the better ones in the series. I also recommend the film to Glenn Ford fans as they will enjoy seeing him as a youngster on the cusp of marriage.