Blondie Takes a Vacation

Catch that inferno consuming the lodge; it's an unexpectedly somber note inside the usual Blondie amusement. Must be stock footage since it's too real for a budget series. Seems our favorite movie family is taking a vacation lakeside. Trouble is the inn they're staying at is almost vacant and about to be foreclosed by a mean guy who owns the lodge across the lake. When B & D find out, they pitch in to help the old couple who are about to lose their livelihood. Meanwhile, Baby Dumpling and Daisy go missing. Oh my, what will Mom and Dad do now.

There's more action here than usual with more cast extras. Still the Bumstead antics are funny as usual, especially Daisy the dog who steals the show. Too bad they don't give canine Oscars. Daisy deserves one for her flawlessly natural silliness. Then too, shouldn't overlook MacBride (Morton) who was such a good meanie. Here his clashes with Dagwood are little gems. And what about Donald Meek, he looks meek but is he. But whatever you do, don't let Dagwood fix your vacuum cleaner unless you want to visit the moon. Anyway, it's solid Bumstead fun, again showing what a perfect pairing they were.

BLONDIE TAKES A VACATION (Columbia, 1939), the third installment to Chic Young's comic strip characters of the Bumstead family, is a continuation from BLONDIE MEETS THE BOSS which concluded with Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), Dagwood's boss, granting the Bumstead family their long awaited vacation.

In this venture, as usual, nothing seems to go right. As they prepare themselves to leave on their vacation, Blondie (Penny Singleton) becomes upset over Dagwood's (Arthur Lake) frightened reaction towards her new hat. Then, on the train bound for Lake Kanoby, Blondie is reading "Old Mother Hubbard" to her son, Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms),while their dog Daisy, hidden away between the luggage, barks whenever she hears the word "Bone." This starts to annoy an irritable passenger (Donald MacBride) sitting close by, to the point of reporting the situation to the conductor, who places Daisy in the baggage car, causing Baby Dumpling to address this mean man as "The Big Bad Wolf." Also on board the train is Jonathan N. Gillis (Donald Meek) a kindly old gentleman who takes an immediate liking to the Bumsteads. Upon their arrival at the Lake Hotel, Blondie and Dagwood are refused accommodations from the manager, who turns out to be Harvey Morton, the "big bad wolf" on the train. They then head on over to the Westview Inn, located on the other side of the lake, owned by Matthew and Emily Dickerson (Thomas W. Ross and Elizabeth Dunne), an elderly couple in financial straits, thanks to Morton's scheme in phasing them out and taking over their establishment. Instead of enjoying their time away from home, the Bumsteads find themselves helping the Dickersons, with Dagwood acting as manager; Blondie the host-es; Baby Dumpling doing what he does at home, the dishes; and Daisy dreaming of being back home.

Funny and sentimental with a touch of suspense, particularly towards the end as the abandoned Lake Inn catches fire, with Baby Dumpling and Daisy trapped inside one of the rooms, making this one hot item in the series. BLONDIE TAKES A VACATION leaves a good feeling in having a young married couple taking the time to help an elderly couple in need. While Donald MacBride is the villain here, his initial encounter with the Bumsteads isn't properly developed. First seen on the train with his foot resting on Dagwood's hat on the floor, and apologizing for his error, Blondie becomes the instigator, stirring up the passenger by insulting him, leading to rivalry between the two. Had his Harvey Morton character shown no remorse instead of apologizing, Blondie's anger towards this man would have been understandable. Morton may have no right in turning away paying guests like the Bumsteads, however, if this didn't happen, the Dickersons wouldn't have had the help they needed to survive. Donald Meek plays a likable character who turns out to be an arsonist, a secret known only by his nephew, John Larkin (Robert Wilcox), who later suspects his uncle for starting the Lake Inn blaze, while Morton accuses Dagwood and having the sheriff (Arthur Aylesworth) placing him under arrest. However, unknown to everyone, there happens to be a sole witness who knows how the fire started.

Series regulars as Danny Mummert as Alvin Fuddow and Irving Bacon as the neighborhood postman (who gets knocked down by the entire family as they rush from the house to the taxi), are seen briefly during the film's opening. (It's funny that the Bumsteads didn't bother to close their front door after departing). The story then breaks away from routine domestic affairs after shifting to the train and hotel.

Another quieter entry in the series with some amusing moments worth mentioning: Dagwood's attempt in fixing a vacuum cleaner, to put on the switch and having it float into the air as the dust bag fills up like a balloon; Daisy wiping the dishes dry with a dish rag towel attached to her tail; and Baby Dumpling's encounter with a skunk as it runs into the air conditioning system of "the big bad wolf's" hotel, with the smell causing peddles to drop from the flowers and the vocalist (Christine McIntyre) of the dining room getting all choked up while attempting to sing "Love in Bloom," followed by the hotel guests making an immediate exit in droves. Pew!

Distributed on commercial television in the 1970s, and years later on video cassette and DVDs, with sing-along introduction and King Features trademark conclusion, the original theatrical introduction, featuring Columbia logo and drawings of comic strip characters superimposed to the actors portraying them, has been restored as presented on American Movie Classics from 1996 to 2001. Other cable television viewing being Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: May 1, 2018). What's more in store with the Bumsteads? Find out with its next installment, "Blondie Brings Up Baby." (**1/2)

Of the entire series run, this episode ranks as the most dramatic, if not poignant, and still pretty funny. Series writer Richard Flournoy did a fine job, and the script may have inspired his next film, BEWARE, SPOOKS! Starring Joe E. Brown.

FINALLY.... Blondie, Dagwood, Baby Dumpling and Daisy get to go on a vacation --which has been in the works for the last two episodes... They board a train and head into the country, meeting up with some strange characters; nasty businessman Morton (played by Donald MacBride) and Mr. Gillis (Donald Meek), a "reformed" arsonist?

Best line department. Baby Dumpling tells Morton he hopes Daisy will be ok in the baggage car. To which Morton replies, "If I had my way. You and your whole family would be in the baggage car!"

The gang finally makes their way to a remote hotel, which seems kind of spooky, owned by a kindly couple called the Dickersons (played by veteran actors Thomas W. Ross and Elizabeth Dunne). Business is very slow and they are losing money because Morton, who built a new hotel across the lake, tricked them into signing a large loan --and he's about to take the hotel away.

What a mess; Dagwood and Blondie help the folks with some bills and take charge. Classic scenes with Dagwood working on a stubborn vacuum, reminiscent of the THREE STOOGES, also attempting to start up the antique hotel bus.

In the meanwhile, sneaky Mr. Gillis has plans of his own, possibly burning down Morton's hotel. Popular B film actor Robert W. Wilcox plays Gillis' nephew, Mr. Larkin. Wilcox would soon co-star in one of the greatest movie serials of all time, MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN, opposite Eduardo Ciannelli.

Donald Meek, one of the most unforgettable film character actors, is a standout, prior to this episode appeared in two mega classics, STAGECOACH and YOUNG MR. LINCOLN. Note, there are some excellent minature models used during the fire scene, and very good on location work, possibly Toluca Lake, CA, not far from Hollywood. Also this episode boasts many extras (hotel guests) and some very attractive sets. A labor of love and it shows, thanks to director Frank Strayer.

The best of the BLONDIE series, 10 Stars. Remastered and released in box sets, usually containing 10 episodes each. Thanks much to MOVIES Network for rerunning the series on Saturday mornings.

This BLONDIE film is full of laughs but mostly takes place away from the Bumstead family home, and J. C. Dithers and the office do not appear in it at all. Most of the film is set beside a lake at a summer holiday hotel. The amazing series of incidents and highly complex twists of plot are every bit as intricate as in the previous film in the series. Daisy the Dog gets more and more endearing, as she learns more and more cute tricks for the camera. At one point she even leaps into the air and flies right past Dagwood and Blondie's heads as if she had been shot out of a cannon. I really don't know how they did that stunt. She also turns backwards somersaults to express her dismay. Baby Dumpling (played by the unforgettable Larry Simms) is getting wiser and wiser as his parents get stupider and stupider, and he sits pontificating like a Taoist sage, expressing his disdain at their childish behaviour and lecturing them about how they should behave. (Remember, he is only four years old!) The results of this are hysterically funny. At the very beginning of the film, he and his friend Alvin from next door exchange ponderous and droll remarks like two old codgers sitting on a porch in the evening chewing their 'baccy', and commenting upon the hopelessness of the world, or I should say at the hopelessness of Dagwood and Blondie, who are in a sense a world of their own, after all. Often in these films, Blondie is the sensible one and it is Dagwood who is the idiot. But in this film, both are idiots. After all, Blondie locks herself in the bedroom when they are supposed to be leaving for holiday and sobs and pouts because Dagwood did not express sufficient enthusiasm for her weird new 'holiday hat'. (To their credit, Daisy raised her ears in horror at the hat and Baby Dumpling did a horrified double-take as if he had become disillusioned in humanity at large.) People who do not know what a skunk is will miss part of the plot of this film. A skunk, for those who do not know, is a small furry black and white animal found in the woods who when disturbed emits a stink so horrible that if one gets in the house you have to burn the carpet and furniture to get rid of the smell. Baby Dumpling does not know what a skunk is, so he plays with them and calls them 'pretty kitties', with malodorous consequences for all. There is a guest appearance in the film of a St. Bernard, and a scene where Baby Dumpling is discovered asleep in the baggage car of the train taking them on holiday with Daisy in his arms and his head resting on the St. Bernard as if it were a huge four-poster bed, all three of them sleeping soundly in an idyllic pose. There is a horrid man in the story, played by Donald MacBride, master of the slow burn, who turns out to be a genuine villain, and it is, you guessed it, not Dagwood or Blondie who gets the best of him, but Baby Dumplng, the four year-old Hercule Poirot of this wonderful comedy. Donald Meek is delightful in a guest appearance character role in the film. The series marches on, and fortunately there are 25 more to go, which means thousands more laughs are on the way. I saw the whole series once years ago, and now am enjoying seeing it again even more than I did the first time. It seems to get funnier with time. That is because it is so genuine, and without affectation. The plots may be incredibly complicated, but the humour is as simple as, well, Dagwood. Really, the Blondie series is a truly great classic series in the history of American situation comedy.

This film, third in the Blondie series, takes a refreshing change of pace. The Bumsteads finally get to take a two-week vacation. The vacation isn't exactly trouble-free though. There is much concern for Baby Dumpling. This film takes a dramatic turn when Baby Dumpling gets caught inside a hotel on fire. The next film in the series is BLONDIE BRINGS UP BABY.