Blondie's Big Deal

Why the Bumsteads aren't on easy street after Dagwood invents his fireproof paint Blondie's Big Deal fails to answer. But the film does deliver good family humor Bumstead style.

Arthur Lake is always looking to improve himself and it may just have happened. Some chemical experiments of his have resulted in Dagwood inventing a fireproof paint. This could give the Radcliffe Construction Company a leg up on contracts. But Jerome Cowan's unscrupulous rivals Ray Walker and Wilton Graff steal Dagwood's paint and sabotage the experiment conducted on Cowan's fishing cabin. As it burns down Dagwood sees his career go up in flames.

But it's Blondie in this film that is the savior. Penny Singleton and a new genius kid that's moved on the block Mason Alan Dinehart who save the day which includes Dagwood's job, once again in jeopardy.

Funniest bit is the demonstration of the fireproof paint that goes so badly and costs town mayor Chester Clute what we would call a photo op today.

Still this invention should have netted the Bumsteads Gazillions.

A bland but watchable entry in the Blondie series, "Blondie's Big Deal" has most of the series' usual features, with a story that includes a couple of interesting ideas.

Dagwood has come up with a brilliant invention, a new kind of paint that renders objects completely fireproof. But he is having trouble convincing his boss that it actually works, and at the same time a rival company is trying to steal his invention. Naturally, Dagwood quickly finds himself in a complicated mess, and Blondie has to try to bail him out. Thus begins a series of entanglements.

After a pretty good start, the plot soon becomes fairly routine, and almost completely predictable. But there are a couple of good scenes, and it is mildly entertaining to see how everything comes out.

There's a bit of scientific history to this episode, all about Dagwood inventing fire-proof paint! About a year earlier, fire-proof paint was, in fact, patented, though it would be many years later before it was commercially available. The paint was probably developed during WW II for the war effort, a time when many new inventions were born.

Mr. Radcliffe and Dagwood have a new client called Mr. Forsythe (played by character actor Stanley Andrews), who is building a school. To impress him when it comes to safety, Dagwood offers to demonstrate his new invention by painting Radcliffe's vacation cabin --then set the place on fire! In the meanwhile, two of Radcliffe's sly competitors (Wilton Graff and Ray Walker), pull a switch, stealing the paint and replacing it with a phony baloney.

You have to admit, painting a house with gasoline(!) is INSANE, the place burns up and Dagwood is fired in two seconds. Laugh out loud stuff, and watching Arthur Lake's stunned expressions is always a highlight.

In an amazing twist, Dagwood's good luck charm this time around is a kid called Rollo (played by Alan Dinehart III), Alvin's cousin, a young genius who saves the day. Dinehart, the son of the famous actor, later appeared in the tv series WYATT EARP, playing Batt Masterson.

Of COURSE, the BIG inside joke is Dagwood's invention could have made him an instant millionaire! But that's the way it goes. Well written fluff by Lucile Watson Henry, and the only episode she wrote for the series.

Collette Lyons plays the secretary to one of the bad guys Famous a few years later due to her marriage to newspaper publisher George Randolph Hearst.

Directed by Edward Bernds, writer and director for the Three Stooges, Dagwood --without fail -- the biggest Stooge of 'em all. Why we love Arthur Lake.

Nearing the end of the series. Always available on dvd, separate episodes or the entire series, remastered. Thanks much to MOVIES Net for running this goofy series Saturday mornings.

This is the twenty-fifth in the Blondie movie series. Dagwood invents a paint that proves to be impervious to flame. When he demonstrates this to Mr. Radcliffe, he's convinced enough to let him use it on his fishing home! But his firm has a rival for the upcoming school building project and this other firm is not very honest in their dealings...You can probably guess what happens from there if you haven't seen this particular entry yet. Blondie herself, as always, finds out a way to straighten things in the end, taking a more active role this time around with help from a smart kid named Rollo (Alan Dinehart III). There's also a funny sequence in a gym between Dag and Rollo. Anyway, this was another pretty good entry in the series. So on that note, I recommend Blondie's Big Deal. P.S. This was second regular postman Eddie Acuff's final appearance in the series. After a few more movies by 1952, he'd basically retire before he passed on December 17, 1956.

In the previous film, "Blondie's Secret", his boss admitted that Dagwood was his best and most capable employee. Here in "Blondie's Big Deal", Dagwood invents a fire-proof paint...further proof that the dimwit isn't quite as dumb as he used to be in the earlier Blondie films! The problem, however, is that although not at all dumb, he's not a good judge of character. So, when a guy working for a competitor pretends to be from the insurance industry and is helping them, Dagwood accepts this...not realizing the jerk is only there to make sure the demonstration of the paint is a failure! Can Blondie and Dagwood get to the bottom of this and make the formula a success or will everyone just assume Dagwood is a crackpot?

Apart from featuring Rollo instead of Alvin, Blondie going undercover and Dagwood being smart, this is still a fairly standard series installment. And, considering how likable the characters are, this is not a bad thing in the least. Fun and worth watching.