Blondie Hits the Jackpot

The 26th in a series of 28 Blondie films, based upon the ever-popular Chic Young comic strip and produced by Columbia, any freshness is long spent as this piece displays that familiar puerile scripting, and low level performing by Arthur Lake as Dagwood Bumstead, that characterizes all of the episodes. For this chapter, Alexander Bumstead (Larry Simms) prepares for his first date, arranged by Dagwood's boss, Mr. Radcliffe (Jerome Cowan) in order to gain a lucrative construction contract for his company because a prospective client, new in town, is seeking an escort for his daughter at her birthday party. Dagwood is persuaded by Blondie to walk his son home from the party so that he may explain the "facts of life" to Alexander, but instead he knocks the girl's father into a swim pool, is fired by Radcliffe and, following a tiresome montage of failed employment efforts, is hired as a construction worker. Ineptly toiling at a construction site, Dagwood finds that faulty girders are intentionally being utilized, and a witless scene occurs when he is chased as a result of his discovery, during which he nonetheless manages to send a plea for aid, as usual, to Blondie. The building location is property of the man whose pool dunking led to his termination, and perplexities ensue, the title's reference to Blondie's attempt at winning a radio contest having but a weak connection to the other plotted activity. As it is directed by Edward Bernds, who wrote and helmed an abundance of Three Stooges inanities, it can be no surprise that this movie falls shy of the comic strip's comedic tone, additionally resultant from Lake's consistently banal interpretation of Dagwood as an utter nincompoop who functions only through Blondie's accordance. Such weak material limits the players to slapstick or hamminess, although reliable Lloyd Corrigan is effective as the wealthy customer wooed by Radcliffe, and the camerawork is top-flight for this effort shot on location in the eastern San Fernando Valley sector of Los Angeles.

This is the twenty-sixth in the Blondie movie series. Alexander is going on a date with a Louise Hutchins (Ann Carter) because Mr. Radcliffe wants to make a deal with her father, J.B. Hutchins (Lloyd Corrigan). Dagwood appears at his residence in time to see him "hit" his son and give it to him as a result! You can probably guess what happens after that. Anyway, this Louise turns out to be quite a brat especially since she has no mother. Oh, and let me just mention that Dag ends up doing literal construction work that does result in several building disasters but also...oh, watch the movie if you want to find out. Anyway, this was both funny (dig many silent scenes of Dag doing odd jobs with only the score playing) and touching (like when Blondie and Dagwood discuss both Alexander and Cookie out growing them with Blondie wistfully saying "There goes Baby Dumpling". Neither they nor the audience of the time would know that their offspring would never grow past the teen years in the comic strip!) Also hilarious was Dick Wessel as the new postman who's also in a pro football team. So on that note, Blondie Hits the Jackpot is another worthy entry in the series. P.S. This was Jerome Cowan's final stint in the series as Mr. Radcliffe. He'd continue to appear in various movies and TV shows until his death on January 24, 1972. Oh, and the fact that the father and daughter had the surname of Hutchins was amusing to me since a Will Hutchins ended up playing Dagwood in a short-lived TV series version of "Blondie" in the late '60s!

Yet another goofy episode that finds Dagwood getting fired again, however this time going to work for a construction company that has some real nasty folks.

Mr. Radcliffe's latest client is JB Hutchins, played by Lloyd Corrigan. In an interesting turn of events, Alexander -- who is growing up fast! -- is used by Radcliffe to go on a date with his spoiled young daughter, Louise (Ann Carter), hoping that may improve their business relationship. Things go haywire, not due to Alexander, but Dagwood messes things up and winds up working (at hard labor) at Hutchins construction company.

Here's the catch; Dagwood soon discovers Hutchin's "trusted" foreman and his crew are using cracked steel in his buildings which could lead to some deadly consequences. Dagwood to the rescue!

Edward Bernds directs this funny episode with his usual style, of course Arthur Lake outrageous no matter what he gets himself into. Note, pretty Ann Carter was a very famous child actress at the time, co-starring in I MARRIED A WITCH opposite Veronica Lake -- all because she bore a striking resemblence to her.

Fun to watch Lloyd Corrigan, great in character roles as bumblers, and look for veteran actor Maurice Cass as Pierre. This would be the final appearance of Jerome Cowan, who like Jonathan Hale, would leave the series to go on to other projects. Curiously, Mr. Dither's character would be re-written into the series, and I have often wondered if the producers didn't ask Hale to return. Obviously, he didn't and was not in the radio series either. The role of Dithers was played by Hanley Stafford, who would have been fun in the later movie episodes, but either declined or was not asked.

Written by comedy writer Jack Henley, who would later write scripts for the MA AND PA KETTLE movie series.

Dedicated to all us Arthur Lake fans, a lovable stooge. Remastered on dvd, episodes sold separately or the entire series in select box sets.

Thanks much to MOVIES Net for running this classic series on Saturday mornings.

Lots of things are happening at the Bumstead household in Blondie Hits The Jackpot. Young Alexander is starting to feel his hormones, Blondie like so many million American housewives is glued to that radio hoping to win a jackpot from some game or quiz show. That would be changing shortly. And Dagwood gets fired once again, but in the Bumstead tradition lands on his feet.

I think Jerome Cowan as Dagwood's boss was a bit out of line on this one. Taking advantage of Alexander's adolescence at the request of a new potential client Lloyd Corrigan he gets Dagwood to arrange a first date with Corrigan's daughter Ann Carter for Larry Simms.

Carter has been spoiled rotten by her widower father and when the date doesn't work out due to Arthur Lake's usual bumbling, Cowan once again fires him. This time it really does look like it's for real as we see Lake flopping at a bunch of new jobs.

But Carter is not done yet. She gets Corrigan to hire him and then Lake is put in the construction end of construction. Dagwood and the hardhats do not mix and we get a lot of good sight gags at the site where Corrigan's building is going up.

Still there's something crooked afoot which I will not reveal and Dagwood once again saves the day. Of course in the usual Bumstead fashion.

This is one of the best of the Blondie series although I have to say it looks ridiculous at that construction site for Dagwood to keep yelling for his wife every time he screws up.

Some time ago, I bought a collection of all of the Blondie and Dagwood films. For the most part, they are a fun series of pictures...with a nice cast and dependable writing. However, with 27 films in total, there are bound to be a few klunkers...and "Blondie Hits the Jackpot" is clearly a klunker. First, the title has nothing to do with the film...but that is forgivable. Second, the plot just seemed far-fetched...like the writers had run out of ideas. Considering it's the 25th film, I guess they just couldn't think of anything better!

The film begins with a new client meeting with Mr. Radcliffe. He tells Radcliffe that he's having a birthday party for his teenage daughter and wonders if Radcliffe knows a boy her age who could be her date. Without asking first, Radcliffe promises Alexander Bumstead will be that date! Alexander is excited but the party turns out to be a bust...and he spends little time with the surly young lady. So, the brat decides to make life hard on the Bumsteads by having her father hire Dagwood and instead of doing it for his architectural skills, she has him sent to work in the construction business...and has the foreman give him the most god-awful jobs. Later, Dagwood learns that the foreman is cutting corners...so many that the building would be an accident waiting to happen. Then, after working all this out and getting his old job back, Blondie wins a prize that simply defies my understanding.

To say this was a poorly written episode is to the point and accurate. One reviewer called it fatuous...and, after looking it up in the dictionary, I would agree that the film was generally silly and pointless...so why didn't they just say that?! Overall, a big letdown for the series and hopefully the final two will be better...it's hard to imagine them being much worse.