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.
