Blondie's Secret

When the story begins, Dagwood and his family are preparing to go on vacation. However, Dagwood's annoying co-worker, Ollie, turns out to be an idiot and made a HUGE mistake on some important blueprints and the client insists that Radcliffe's BEST employee, Dagwood, fix it. Well, Dagwood puts the vacation on hold for one day...and then is raring to go. In the meantime, Ollie apparently made more mistakes and the client is threatening to cancel the contract. But Radcliffe has already promised Dagwood that nothing could stop him from leaving on time. So, Ollie comes up with a nasty plan...to sneak into the Bumstead home and steal their luggage...and this would allow Dagwood to once again fix the blueprints! What else is going to happen? See the film.

This is another quality installment of the Blondie series. However, it is interesting to note that Dagwood is acknowledged several times in the film to be a great employee..the best at his firm and NOT some bumbling idiot! Now THAT is a first! Well worth seeing...especially since it's fun seeing Ollie get his!

Ed Bernds, who directed many of the THREE STOOGES comedy shorts, officially took over the series with this episode and you can catch some of his "Stooge" touches here, especially with a couple of goofy crooks.

Dagwood and Blondie want to take a vaction, but Mr. Radcliffe keeps on holding Dagwood back at the office, what with making change after change to building blueprints. Thurston Hall, best at playing distinguished elder gents, plays Radcliffe's latest client, Mr. Whiteside.

The fun part to this story are ways to keep Dagwood and Blondie from taking a vacation; Radcliffe has Ollie (Jack Rice) sneak into their house at night and steal their luggage. You have to admit, that's pretty clever. But there's more mix-ups and twists to follow. Daisy bites Ollie, although he gets away, so in order to find out who stole their stuff, Dagwood puts out a fake story all about Daisy being rabid -- to expose the thief. Instead, Daisy is sent to the dogpound and Dagwood and Blondie's vacation is stalled again.

Then there's a funny money situation when Blondie accidentally switches purses with a counterfeiter's gal pal (played by popular actress Greta Granstedt). The two crooks (Murray Alper and Bill Phillips) sneak into the Bumstead's house to get Greta's purse --at exactly the same time Ollie is sneaking in to return the luggage!

Very good comedy writing on the part of Jack Henley, who would go on to write for the MA AND PA KETTLE movie series.

Lots of familiar faces here, like Frank Orth as Mr. Philpotts and Joseph Crehan playing a police sergeant, a role he played dozens of times.

By the way, Dagwood gets to sing "Oh, Susanna." Another salute to Arthur Lake, one funny actor.

Always on dvd, sold separately or the entire series in a box set. Thanks to MOVIES Net for running this series on Saturday mornings.

This is the twenty-fourth in the Blondie movie series. The Bumsteads are ready for their vacation but because a client of Mr. Radcliffe wants only Dagwood to correct some errors in some building plans, Blondie reluctantly agrees to a one-day delay despite Dagwood's boss having done that three times already! Then this client wants some more corrections and now Radcliffe has to find a way to delay yet again without upsetting Blondie. His toady, Ollie Merton (Jack Rice), has some ideas...Being the first of the series directed by Edward Bernds, this one has plenty of good laughs as well as a plot that for once doesn't have Dag getting fired, asking for a raise, or Blondie getting jealous of other females around her hubby. (Though if she knew what Dag was dreaming about, she wouldn't like it!) I should note that Alvin Fuddle, as played by Danny Mummert, sounds like the native Texan Mummert really was in this one. Oh, and there's a subplot involving a counterfeiting ring. So on that note, Blondie's Secret is another worthy one in the series. P.S. While Eddie Acuff's postman was addressed as Mr. Johnson in the last one, here he's Mr. Beasley which was the name used in the actual comic strip created by Chic Young as well as the name for the previous regular mailman, Irving Bacon, in the very first Blondie movie 10 years earlier!

BLONDIE'S SECRET (Columbia, 1948), directed by Edward Bernds, reunites the Chic Young comic strip family on screen for the 24th time in another one of their madcap adventures. The title might indicate something interesting about Blondie's past, namely being married before and having a long lost husband appearing at their front door, which this is not the case, although might have made a good story. So, what is Blondie's secret anyway? First off, let's examine the situations involved this time around.

Blondie (Penny Singleton) and Dagwood (Arthur Lake) have been planning their long-awaited vacation to Lake Hokapola with their children, Alexander (Larry Simms) and Cookie (Marjorie Kent) all summer, but thanks to Dagwood's boss, Mr. Radcliffe (Jerome Cowan), responsible for having it postponed three times already, is about to do it to them a fourth time. It's now September and summer nearly over. Radcliffe talks Dagwood into correcting the blueprints for Mr. Whiteside (Thurston Hall), a prominent client, but how to tell Blondie. With much persuasion, Blondie agrees to put off their vacation for one more day, and no more. The plans are then completed, but after Whiteside examines them, he finds more errors that puts Radcliffe in a tough situation. Would he dare cancel the Bumstead's vacation again? Fellow employee Ollie Merton (Jack Rice) agrees to help Radcliffe by breaking into the Bumstead home during the night and stealing their luggage, which would prevent them from going anyway. While carrying out his plan, a sudden noise awakens Daisy, the Bumstead dog, causing her to run over to the living room and bite the seat of Ollie's pants as he's climbing out the window. Ollie's plan has succeeded now that the Bumsteads are homebound and Dagwood has no other choice but to come to the office and perfect the blueprints for Mr. Whiteside. Things start to really get complex when Alvin Fuddow (Danny Mummert), the Bumstead's next door neighbor, suggests to Mrs. Bumstead the only way to capture the burglar is to make it known through a radio broadcast that Daisy is rabid, causing the culprit to seek a physician once he hears the news. The plan backfires as Daisy is picked up and sent to the pound for examination. Blondie is told the only way to get Daisy back is for the culprit to come forward, or else the pooch will have to be put to sleep. Will the Bumsteads ever get to go on their vacation? Not without their Daisy. And if that's not enough. While at the butcher shop, Blondie and another customer, Mona (Greta Grandstadt) unwittingly switch purses, with Blondie picking up the one containing counterfeit money. In order to retrieve her purse, Mona and her mobster friends (Murray Alper and William "Bill" Phillips) attempt to break into the Bumstead home while the Bumsteads are asleep to make the switch, the very same night Ollie is to sneak in and return the luggage, leading to enough disturbance to wake up the entire neighborhood. By this time Blondie discovers something that's to become her secret from Dagwood.

While gags and all else concerned appear to be overly familiar, since the "Blondie" series has reached its tenth year on screen, BLONDIE'S SECRET is actually not a bad entry, reminiscent to a good comedy short, thanks to Edward Bernds, in his debut as the series director, in keeping the pace moving and story interesting, even when situations become too complex with enough situations squeezed into 69 minutes of screen time. As usual, Arthur Lake as Dagwood provides the most laughs, especially when awaken due to the commotion downstairs, going downstairs to investigate with his pants put on backwards. Even when Dagwood breaks into tears at the office after learning Daisy may have to be put to sleep is done with humor and a touch of sentiment, especially when crying like a squeaking mouse.

Also seen in the supporting cast are Frank Orth as Mr. Philpont; Alyn Lockwood as Mary, the switchboard operator; Eddie Acuff as Mr. Beasley, the postman; Edward Gargan as the butcher; and Grandon Rhodes as Ken Marcy, among others.

Formerly available on video cassette through King Features, BLONDOE'S SECRET, along with 27 others in the series, had a successful run (1996-2000) on American Movie Classics cable television. How did this series get to last this long? Well, that's Blondie's Secret. Next installment: BLONDIE'S BIG DEAL (1949) (**1/2)

The more I see of Blondie comedies it is clear that Dagwood Bumstead is one indispensable man working either for Jonathan Hale or Jerome Cowan as he is in Blondie's Secret. It's only at the very end does Blondie discover she has a secret and she persuades one of Dagwood's fellow employees that revealing it would cost him greatly.

I've been reviewing Blondie films of late and I was reminded today that I must remember that this is all based on a comic strip. Knowing that I can accept some of the surreal plot setting such as they have here.

The Bumsteads are finally going on vacation, one that Arthur Lake's boss Jerome Cowan has finally relented and is letting them have it. But hitches develop in a big project that Thurston Hall has given the firm and Lake is the only one it seems that can deal with it.

Which leaves Jerome Cowan to come up with some Lucy Ricardo like schemes to get Dagwood to stay. We also learn that there's a bigger sap than Dagwood working in his company, his friend Ollie played by Jack Rice.

Add to that Blondie gets involved with some counterfeiters quite innocently. Those are the basic ingredients in a film that might have influenced the zany style of Mel Brooks.

You'll have to see it to believe it.