Ma femme et mon patron

"Blondie Meets the Boss" is the second of two dozen Blondie and Dagwood films. It's pleasant enough viewing but the darker tone of the film makes it among my least favorite I've seen so far.

The story begins with the Bumstead family about to go on vacation. However, Mr. Dithers informs Dagwood he cannot go and he MUST complete some business deal. Well, not surprisingly, Dagwood is angry and he quits his job then and there. When he returns home, he tells the wife...and she goes to talk to Mr. Dithers. Surprisingly, he offers her Dagwood's job 'to teach him a lesson'.

At the same time, Dagwood listens to his idiotic neighbor and takes a fishing trip (leaving Baby Dumpling with his aunt). However, the neighbor is a real Cassanova and the trip includes women...and these are two married men. Dagwood soon leaves...he's just not the cheating kid of guy. But photos taken during this brief outing come back to haunt him when Blondie finds them and thinks the worst.

I didn't particularly like the idea of this sweet and loving couple planning on getting a divorce. It seemed untrue to the characters. Still, the film is entertaining and Baby Dumpling has a few good lines here and there. Pleasant but a tad disappointing.

Dagwood resigns from the Dithers Construction company when Dithers wants him to postpone his long awaited vacation to close a business deal. Blondie goes to Mr. Dithers to get Dagwood his job back, but he gives her Dagwood's job thinking it would be a good joke to play on Dagwood, who is now taking Blondie's role of housekeeper. Fustrated, Dagwood goes fishing with his neighbor Marvin Williams, who really goes out to escape his nagging wife and meet girls. One of these girls, Francine Rogers, falls for Dagwood, but he darts back for home. The next day Blondie finds a camera belonging to Francine (which has an uncompromising, but innocent photo of Dagwood and Francine) and decides to have the pictures developed, but first has to close a deal with Philpot (a nightclub owner) where Blondie's sister Dot is in a jitterbug contest with Freddie Turner, and Francine works as a singer, who Dagwood has come to explain the loss of her camera. The fireworks fly (literaly). One of the best entries in the series with slapstick galore (Dagwood's jitterbugging, Daisy "dancing", etc.) and overall brilliance from every angle. The script is able to seamlessly combine all the different stories for the various characters and have them come together at the end. Simms has plenty of smart one liners which are said expertly by the four year old. Rating, 10.

Dagwood has a much needed vacation coming up, but Mr. Dithers has other plans for Dag. He has to leave town, and wants Dagwood to run the office for him. But Dagwood says he'll resign first. Dithers quickly accepts his resignation. Now Dags has to find a way to tell Blondie. He,does, so Blondie decides to talk to Dithers. Dagwood is very upset, and takes advice from his neighbor, and goes fishing with him. Turns out his neighbor "goes fishing" only to meet his girlfriend. And he has a girl for Dagwood. Eventually, Dagwood goes back home around 2am. Blondie found out about her neighbor's so called fishing trip, and tells Dagwood if she ever found out the he had another girl, she might feel compelled to kill. By drowning Baby Dumpling and offing her self. So Blondie had a very dark side to her that shocked me. This isn't a spoiler, I don't think. I just wanted to reveal Blondie psychotic side.

This is the second Blondie movie in a series. Dagwood resigns from his job after Mr. Dithers tells him he can't take his vacation yet because of something he wants him to do. Blondie ends up taking her hubby's place while Dag does her household chores. But he then decides to go fishing with a neighbor friend who takes a couple of girls with him. Also, Blondie's sister Dot comes in with a boyfriend who she's trying to enter a jitterbug contest with. I'll stop there and just say most of what happens was quite funny if also a bit silly part of the time. Arthur Lake does some good physical stuff while Penny Singleton does a funny look when she gets jealous. Overall, Blondie Meets the Boss was a funny enough second entry. P.S. If you know the original Blondie comic strip's history, you may be confused by seeing her have a sibling since no such character existed in Chic Young's panels nor was Blondie's maiden surname Miller, it was Boopadoop. Incidentally, this was Dorothy Moore's second and last appearance as Dot. If you're fans of W.C. Fields, you may have been amused by the appearances of George Chandler-a laundryman here-best known as the son in Fatal Glass of Beer and of Grady Sutton-a camera clerk here-who appeared in quite a few of Fields' films, the last being The Bank Dick. Oh, and I'm familiar with bandleader Skinnay Ennis-who sings in the nightclub sequence-from his regular radio spots on Bob Hope's and Abbott & Costello's shows. And one of the story writers was Kay Van Ripper, who was also writing the early Judge Hardy's Family entries at M-G-M.

I know there was another Blondie movie called "Blondie Takes A Vacation". It was pretty weird watching them about to do just that, but then it turned into something completely different. This movie features Dagwood accidentally resigning so while trying to get his job back, Blondie ends up getting his job instead! There's actually a pretty big subplot about how Dagwood accidentally holds a woman in a boat. It turns out this is mostly pointless because he kisses her later anyway. It was interesting to be introduced to all of these movies through Leonard Maltin's movie guide.

Of course, now it's in a separate guide. They actually got a lot done on the first sequel. They even make jokes about Dagwood running over the mailman. That's just the second movie out of twenty-seven! The funniest part was easily when Blondie got mad and then it showed stock footage of random stuff blowing up! I thought their neighbor was named Herb, but here he's called Marvin. Well, they've probably changed a lot in the seventy years since this movie! ***