Penny Singleton (Blondie), Arthur Lake (Dagwood), Larry Simms (Baby Dumpling), Gene Lockhart (C.P. Hazlip), Ann Doran (Elsie Hazlip), Jonathan Hale (J.C. Dithers), Gordon Oliver (Chester Franey), Stanley Andrews (Hicks), Danny Mummert (Alvin Fuddle), Kathleen Lockhart (Mrs Miller), Dorothy Moore (Dorothy), Fay Helm (Mrs Fuddle), Richard Fiske (Nelson), Irving Bacon (mailman), Ian Wolfe (judge), James Flavin (cop), Emory Parnell (desk sergeant), Charles Lane ("Gus"), and "Daisy".
Director: FRANK R. STRAYER. Screenplay: Richard Flournoy. Based on the comic strip created by "Chic" Young. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Gene Havlick. Art director: Lionel Banks. Set decorator: Babs Johnstone. Costumes: Kalloch. Music director: Morris W. Stoloff. Associate producer: Robert Sparks.
Copyright 7 November 1938 by Columbia Pictures Corp. of California. New York opening at the Criterion: 21 December 1938. U.S. release: 30 November 1938. Australian release: 6 April 1939. Original running time: 68 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Dagwood loses his job on the eve of his fifth wedding anniversary.
NOTES: First of the 28-picture series. The others, all starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake: Blondie Meets the Boss (1939), Blondie Takes a Vacation (1939), Blondie Brings Up Baby (1939), Blondie on a Budget (1940), Blondie Has Servant Trouble (1940), Blondie Plays Cupid (1940), Blondie Goes Latin (1941), Blondie in Society (1941), Blondie Goes to College (1942), Blondie's Blessed Event (1942), Blondie for Victory (1942), It's a Great Life (1943), Footlight Glamour (1943), Leave it to Blondie (1945), Blondie Knows Best (1946), Life with Blondie (1946), Blondie's Lucky Day (1946), Blondie's Big Moment (1947), Blondie's Holiday (1947), Blondie in the Dough (1947), Blondie's Anniversary (1947), Blondie's Reward (1948), Blondie's Secret (1949), Blondie's Big Deal (1949), Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949), Blondie's Hero (1950), Beware of Blondie (1950).
The "Blondie" series was a commercial success because of a deft balance between high humor and low slapstick, and when the latter began to predominate the series' popularity began to ebb. Nevertheless, "Blondie" pictures might have continued in theaters but for television.
COMMENT: The first of the series. Arthur Lake tries too hard and gives too strained a performance to come across well as Dagwood. Penny Singleton is better and she has good support from Lockhart and Wolfe. Hale cannot make anything of Julius Dithers and the Woodleys are not represented. And Hollywood censorship has committed one crime against Chic Young's famous comic strip by having Dagwood and Blondie sleep in twin beds!
In all, Richard Flournoy's screenplay is but a poor reflection of the strip, with Baby Dumpling handling most of the gags (and handling them very badly) and worst of all, the wonderful characters of the strip considerably muted and toned down.
Dagwood here is simply portrayed as a bungling fool not as the inspired idiot he appears in the Sunday Comic Supplements. And as for the movie Dithers, he could be anybody's boss. Gone are the outrageous tantrums, the rib-tickling Panic Stations Alerts of the real Dithers Construction Company!
In fact Hollywood has consistently reduced and watered down the whole zany inventive strip to the most humdrum level of mediocre ordinariness, to achieve a domestic comedy of typically Hollywooden blandness.
Director: FRANK R. STRAYER. Screenplay: Richard Flournoy. Based on the comic strip created by "Chic" Young. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Gene Havlick. Art director: Lionel Banks. Set decorator: Babs Johnstone. Costumes: Kalloch. Music director: Morris W. Stoloff. Associate producer: Robert Sparks.
Copyright 7 November 1938 by Columbia Pictures Corp. of California. New York opening at the Criterion: 21 December 1938. U.S. release: 30 November 1938. Australian release: 6 April 1939. Original running time: 68 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Dagwood loses his job on the eve of his fifth wedding anniversary.
NOTES: First of the 28-picture series. The others, all starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake: Blondie Meets the Boss (1939), Blondie Takes a Vacation (1939), Blondie Brings Up Baby (1939), Blondie on a Budget (1940), Blondie Has Servant Trouble (1940), Blondie Plays Cupid (1940), Blondie Goes Latin (1941), Blondie in Society (1941), Blondie Goes to College (1942), Blondie's Blessed Event (1942), Blondie for Victory (1942), It's a Great Life (1943), Footlight Glamour (1943), Leave it to Blondie (1945), Blondie Knows Best (1946), Life with Blondie (1946), Blondie's Lucky Day (1946), Blondie's Big Moment (1947), Blondie's Holiday (1947), Blondie in the Dough (1947), Blondie's Anniversary (1947), Blondie's Reward (1948), Blondie's Secret (1949), Blondie's Big Deal (1949), Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949), Blondie's Hero (1950), Beware of Blondie (1950).
The "Blondie" series was a commercial success because of a deft balance between high humor and low slapstick, and when the latter began to predominate the series' popularity began to ebb. Nevertheless, "Blondie" pictures might have continued in theaters but for television.
COMMENT: The first of the series. Arthur Lake tries too hard and gives too strained a performance to come across well as Dagwood. Penny Singleton is better and she has good support from Lockhart and Wolfe. Hale cannot make anything of Julius Dithers and the Woodleys are not represented. And Hollywood censorship has committed one crime against Chic Young's famous comic strip by having Dagwood and Blondie sleep in twin beds!
In all, Richard Flournoy's screenplay is but a poor reflection of the strip, with Baby Dumpling handling most of the gags (and handling them very badly) and worst of all, the wonderful characters of the strip considerably muted and toned down.
Dagwood here is simply portrayed as a bungling fool not as the inspired idiot he appears in the Sunday Comic Supplements. And as for the movie Dithers, he could be anybody's boss. Gone are the outrageous tantrums, the rib-tickling Panic Stations Alerts of the real Dithers Construction Company!
In fact Hollywood has consistently reduced and watered down the whole zany inventive strip to the most humdrum level of mediocre ordinariness, to achieve a domestic comedy of typically Hollywooden blandness.