OtherDaryl

This aired on TCM last night, selected by guest programmer/star/screenwriter Charles Grodin. Classic? Hardly! He seems fairly proud of this pic, though, which allows an extremely talented cast to either overplay or underplay to agonizing effect. Director Asher (an Emmy winner for Bewitched) was better in the half hour television format. A complete waste of time. I think it's supposed to satirize the dying Hollywood studio system. It was movies like this that killed it. Pairing Bill Macy and Gilda Radner as a couple? Penny Marshall is credited and we hear her voice, but to my recollection only ever actually see her feet. Tyne Daly stands around with nothing substantive to do but be ticked off.

Caught this on late-night cable and stopped flipping when I caught Champion's director card in the opening credits. Now I understand why he wasn't given Birdie or Dolly to translate from brilliant Broadway stagings. Debbie Reynolds heads a cast of gold, including Eileen Hecket, Cliff Robertson, Alice Ghostly, Hans Conried and John McGiver. Unfortunately the plot is less than a standard Doris Day flic of the time - worse than wooden dialogue. Edith Head provided the dowdiest "star" wardrobe of her career (if they are her designs - she may just carry the credit as head of the costuming department). Gratuitous musical number mid-way through ingratiating Reynolds character to her new-found and distrusting orphans.

A curiosity at best.

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House may be the best Frank Capra/Preston Sturges movie neither man ever made! If you love Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelpia Story, The Thin Man, I Was A Male War Bride or It's a Wonderful Life - movies made with wit, taste and and the occasional tongue firmly panted in cheek, check this one out. Post WWII life is simply and idyllically portrayed.

Grant is at the absolute top of his form playing the city mouse venturing into the life of a country squire. Loy is adorable as his pre-NOW wife. The cast of supporting characters compares to You Can't Take It With You and contains an early bit by future Tarzan Lex Barker. Art Direction and Editing are way above par.

The movie never stoops to the low-rent, by-the-numbers venal slapstick of the later adaptation The Money Pit.