Blondie Meets the Boss

"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 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 film is even funnier and more delightful than the first one. Daisy the Dog, Baby Dumpling, and his playmate from next door, Alvin Fuddle, get up to even better hijinks and say even cuter things, and the gags and sight-gags fly thick and fast. Jonathan Hale, who plays Dagwood's boss J. C. Dithers, the head of Dithers Construction Company, is here brought into the story as more of a character in this film, and he will remain that way for the rest of the long series. Dagwood and Blondie are all set to have their first holiday in two years, when the horrid Dithers orders Dagwood to cancel it and stay behind to help him land a contract. Dagwood resigns in protest. When he gets home, Blondie decides to take matters into her own hands, and goes to see Dithers. She ends up doing the job for Dagwood, though it all goes horribly wrong without her knowledge and the situation is only saved inadvertently by Dagwood's congenital idiocy. As usual, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake are marvellous in their roles, and Larry Simms as Baby Dumpling and Danny Mummert as Alvin are just as astonishing as ever. While Blondie is taking his place in his office, Dagwood is left at home being a house husband and gets bored, so he is persuaded by Alvin's father to go on a fishing trip, where he meets a nightclub singer named Francine Rogers, which will lead to multiple complications and misunderstandings for the rest of the film, with Blondie getting jealous and threatening divorce. The plot is really too complicated to summarize, but each new twist is funnier than the last. Daisy has plenty of occasions to raise her ears in shock and dismay, Baby Dumpling gets lots of opportunities to show that he, aged five, is wiser than his parents, Blondie gets to prove she can do her husband's job better than he can, Dagwood wins a dance context by mistake, and countless mishaps, accidents, misunderstandings, and unfortunate coincidences get to mount up into a mountain a fun. This film is particularly notable for having several top jitterbug dancers of the period do some astonishing dance routines, which are classics of the genre and deserve to be seen by period dance afficionadoes.

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.

BLONDIE MEETS THE BOSS (Columbia, 1939), directed by Frank R. Strayer, the second installment to the long running domestic comedy series based on Chic Young's ever popular comic strip, is a misleading title, giving the indication that this is the first time the title character, Blondie, has never come across Dagwood's boss, Mr. Dithers, which in fact, they've already known each other as indicated in its debut film, BLONDIE (1938). Alternate titles such as "Blondie Meets With the Boss" or "Office Wife Blondie," might have served its purpose, however, it's not the title that matters really, but the comedic situations the Bumsteads get themselves into, in this case what happens when husband and wife switch jobs (Dagwood the house husband and Blondie the office wife) for a few days.

The story opens typically at the breakfast table as the Bumsteads, Dagwood (Arthur Lake), Blondie (Penny Singleton) and Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) prepare themselves and looking forward to their upcoming vacation away from home, followed by Dagwood rushing out the front door to catch his bus to the office and bumping into the neighborhood postman (Irving Bacon). While at the office, everything seems to be going well on his last day before vacation time until Dagwood is told by Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale) that he is needed at the office and vacation plans are to be postponed until he settles an important construction deal while in Washington. Because he hasn't had a vacation in two years, Dagwood refuses and resigns. After returning home with the news, Blondie, the helpful wife as she is, leaves Dagwood in apron, broom and the household chores while she goes to the office to speak to Dithers. Dithers agrees to take Bumstead back under the condition that, wanting to teach Dagwood a lesson, has Blondie take her husband's place during his absence. After Dithers informs Dagwood of his plan, the humiliated Dagwood decides to teach Blondie a lesson by leaving the household chores and babysitting under the care of Blondie's visiting sister, "Dot" (Dorothy Moore) and her boyfriend Freddie (Joel Dean), who have arrived in town to stay at the house and practice for the upcoming jitterbug dance contest, and go fishing with his neighbor, Marvin Williams (Don Beddoe). Guilt sets in for Dagwood when Marvin invites Francine Rogers (Linda Winters) and Betty Lou Walters (Inez Courtney), singers of the Garden Club, to accompany them. More complications follow leading to Blondie's accusing Dagwood of infidelity after finding a photograph of him on a boat with Francine, while Dagwood, trying to retrieve Baby Dumpling at the Garden Club from Dot and Freddie, meets up with Francine and spotted there by Blondie, who happens to be there to settle a business deal for Dithers. The highlight of the evening occurs with Dagwood, in a confusing state of mind after getting hit on the head with a purse by Blondie, to accidentally step onto the dance floor of the jitterbug contest, filling in for Freddie, who walked out on Dot, whose unusual style of dancing makes it possible for Dot to win the dance contest. More fun and confusion continue before Mr. Dithers returns with surprising news.

Familiar faces appearing in smaller roles include Eddie Acuff as the peddler; William B. Davidson as the night club patron; Wallis Clark as Henry W. Philpont; George Chandler as the laundry man; Edward Gargan as the Night Club Bouncer; Grady Sutton as the film processor; and Stanley Brown as Dagwood's co-worker, Ollie Shaw, who takes an interest in Blondie more ways than one. "You Had It Coming to You" by Sam Lerner and Ben Oakland is introduced during the night club sequence by Skinney Ennis and his Band performing.

Slow going and predictable at times, mostly during its first half, BLONDIE MEETS THE BOSS is a satisfactory entry with several funny bits to go around, especially by Daisy, the Bumstead pooch, raising her ears at times of astonishment. Aside from the "running gag" involving the poor postman's attempt to deliver the morning mail only to meet up with Bumstead as he rushes out of the house, there's a neat twist of delight for him as Blondie does the exact same thing, only leaving lipstick print on his cheek. He says to Dagwood, "You know, Mr. Bumstead. I like it better this way." Then there's little Alvin Fuddle (Danny Mummert), Baby Dumpling's best friend who lives next door, showing off his intelligence by spelling Mississippi forwards and backwards. He's around during the early portion of the story and is not seen or heard from again, until the next installments, anyway.

Distributed on commercial television in the 1970s with new opening and closing credits from King Features, the original theatrical opening credits has been restored and presented that way when aired on American Movie Classics from 1996 to 2001. Its availability on video and DVD doesn't include the original opening, neither does Turner Classic Movies showing (TCM premiere: May 1, 2018). Next installment: "Blondie Takes a Vacation." Finally. (**1/2)