Blondie Goes to College

The setup for this installment of Columbia's Blondie and Dagwood series is REALLY contrived--so much that you wonder who thought this would be a good idea for a film. Inexplicably, Dagwood insists he MUST go to college (despite having a wife, a kid, a job and a home) and so they put Baby Dumpling (who is practically a baby) in military school and the couple go to college--SEPARATELY. They agree to not tell anyone they are married and take up separate housing on campus and even begin dating other people!! None of this makes sense and it sounds more like the plot of a bad porno than a family comedy. All I know is that I really, really like the Blondie & Dagwood films and hated that this one was such a disappointment. The bottom line is that this episode of the series made no sense nor was it particularly funny. All in all, there isn't much to like about this one--and it's amazing, as the previous film, "Blondie in Society" was among the very best. What happened? Did the producer let his cat write this one?!

By the way, the double-talk bit was never funny, though, inexplicably, they used it twice in this film. Lame. And the "I want my mommy" segment was REAAAALLY creepy, as it made the normally lovable Dagwood seem like a child molester!! Yikes.

Keep an eye out for a young Lloyd Bridges who plays one of the students. Fortunately he was able to get past this minor hiccup in his career.

Baby Dumpling steals the show as he is dumped off at a military boarding school while his parents go back to school. KP duty is hilarious...I have never seen so many potatoes.

Dagwood gets it in his mind to go to college, which he and blondie missed out on by getting married. Once there things don't go quite as planned. First they have to pretend they are single for their living situations...and then Dagwood comes up with a scheme to meet Blondie at the registrar's office...but he gets waylaid and then Shanghai's by a sorority girl with a flat tire...meanwhile blonde gets picked up by a jock and overall good guy.

Real light weight comedy...but a fun look at college life of the times.

Big highlight for me was seeing the crew races from train and boat...just like I read about in Boys in the Boat!

For reasons I still can't fathom both Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton decide they need to go back to college and further their education. Both have missed the college experience so Dagwood and Blondie park Baby Dumpling in a military boarding school and head to the halls of dear old ivy.

Columbia Pictures more than most studios used the movie series as part of their programming and the Blondie films afforded them the opportunity to exhibit some of their young hopefuls. In the student body are people like Larry Parks, Sid Melton, Lloyd Bridges, Janet Blair and Adele Mara. Parks is the campus jock who sets out after Blondie and the beautiful Janet Blair is attracted to Dagwood God knows why. Blair's father is Andrew Toombes who is rich and who the Dithers Construction company would like to land as a client. Dagwood always had phenomenal charm, or luck, or something that always landed these clients and usually saved his job throughout the series.

This one has some good moments with Dagwood trying out for many collegiate sports. Best is him blowing the big crew race when he stands up in the canoe and tips over. He's not a big man on campus after that.

Good entry in the Blondie series.

BLONDIE GOES TO COLLEGE (Columbia, 1942), directed by Frank R. Strayer, is a so-so entry to the tenth installment of the highly popular movie series. Instead of opening this segment in typical fashion at the breakfast table with Blondie (Penny Singleton) telling husband Dagwood (Arthur Lake) that he's late for work, thus, having Dag rushing out the door and running into the neighborhood postman (often played by Irving Bacon), the story begins at a football stadium where, after watching a scored touchdown with his wife, son and dog Daisy, Dagwood gets the urge to want to return to school and get a college education. Blondie (who is pregnant with their second child but keeps it a secret from Dagwood for the time being), is against the idea, and after discussing this with Dagwood's boss, Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), he convinces her to let Dagwood take some time off from work and enroll in order to get the college bug out of his system. Taking Dithers's advice, the Bumsteads enroll at Leighton College, and leave their young son, Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) at a military school. While at Leighton, Blondie and Dagwood pose as a single couple, thus having Blondie chased by the football hero (Larry Parks) and Dagwood getting involved with a pretty co-ed (Janet Blair).

Bright and original idea becomes a bit mediocre at times, but the story does include some funny moments, especially with Dagwood wanting to participate in athletic sports, and failing in almost all of them. One very funny moment that stands in mind for me is when Blondie and Dagwood are in Professor Mixwell's (Cliff Nazarro) classroom where the instructor speaks in nothing but double-talk. Mixwell is "understood" by the other students but confuses Blondie, though Dagwood tries to impress Blondie by pretending to know what Mixwell is saying by "jotting down notes" and looking quite attentive. Otherwise, the rest of the movie is routine with few laughs. The movie closes with the Bumsteads leaving college with Blondie singing "We'll Remember Leighton."

Series regular Danny Mummert returns as Baby Dumpling's next door neighbor friend, Alvin Fuddow, who accompanies him in military school, and of course, the Bumstead dog, Daisy, adding some humor. It's also interesting seeing then unknown actors on the career rise being featured in this film episode, particularly Larry Parks (of the 1946 hit "The Jolson Story") and Janet Blair. Then there's a tall and thin Lloyd Bridges as one of the college students; Adele Mara as Babs; and future TV character actor Sid Melton (the carpenter of TV's GREEN ACRES of the 1960s) appearing as "Mouse." Formerly shown on the American Movie Classics cable channel from 1996 to 2001, broadcast on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: September 9, 2020), BLONDIE GOES TO COLLEGE can be found on either video cassette or the DVD package. Next installment: BLONDIE'S BLESSED EVENT (1942). (**1/2)

This is the 10th film (of 28) in the Blondie film series. The Bumsteads go to the football game. But Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) is a bit disappointed. The seats are right in the center of the goal posts and he can't see a thing. But Baby does manage to catch the special football. Dagwood (Arthur Lake) decides he wants to go to college for the first time. Later, Blondie (Penny Singleton) wants Dagwood to stop dreaming and not be late for work this morning. Blondie decides to have a talk with Mr. Dithers. Dithers thinks it's a great idea for Dagwood to go to college to get it out of his system. He thinks Blondie should go too. But Blondie has another idea. She's going to have another baby. Dagwood doesn't know yet. Lloyd Bridges plays a college student. Sid Melton plays "Mouse". Notice the scene when Dagwood tells Mrs. Dill that he dreamed he was a baby, and then he yawns. Notice Larry Simms laughing abit at Arthur. The next film in the series is BLONDIE'S BLESSED EVENT.