Blondie Brings Up Baby

Goofy adventure with the Bumsteads, this episode featuring some poignant moments coupled with a Three Stooges-like plot, all worked around Dagwood.

Baby Dumpling is the center of attention, first being hailed as a child genius by a door to door salesman? Everything changes when Daisy wanders off, Baby goes looking for her and disappears. Is there a kidnapper on the loose?

Murphy's Law where everything goes haywire, and really fast. In a sentimental twist, it turns out Baby finds Daisy at the home of a girl confined to a wheelchair (played by Peggy Ann Garner). The two become friends, Dagwood meanwhile is searching for him and gets mistaken (very easily) for the kidnapper? The insane question; how could he look suspicious and goofy at the same time? A recurring theme in many more episodes to come.

Arthur Lake steals lots of scenes here. Even though the story is centered around Baby and Melinda, Dagwood gets himself into some bizarro complications that could lead to him going to prison for life!

Written by Gladys Lehman, one of the founders of the Screen Writers Guild, associated with many classics, later writing MEET JOE BLACK for Brad Pitt. Peggy Ann Garner does a wonderful job here, who would go on to win a special Oscar. She appeared in scores of top films; JANE EYRE, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN and DAISY KENYON.

Check out the early film posters for these episodes, beautifully designed with a cartoon slant, saluting the comic strip series.

10 Stars. EPISODE 4 remastered. The BLONDIE films are packaged in dvd box sets, either separate episodes or the full series. Thanks again to MOVIES Net for running these classic episodes Saturday mornings.

The Blondie films were absolute classics of American comedy, and I hope that one day they will receive their due recognition. The plots of the Blondie films were constructed with the greatest of care, and were complex and always involved more than one story line going on at once in each episode of the series. Certain continuous threads of plot extended through each episode (there were 28 episodes in total) and these threads could be picked up at any time and carried forward, to enormous comic effect. Sometimes, as in Episode Three, Dagwood's office environment does not appear at all. Wonderful characters are sometimes created for a single episode, such as the fabulous character played by Gene Lockhart in Episode One, and then they drop out of sight forever. This was the continuous injection of novelty which kept the series fresh and unpredictable, so that there was always something new and exciting turning up, and then they would move on to the next new and exciting thing. In other words, this was a series that was always 'on the move', developing in an organic fashion, and hence very much alive. The sense of fun was always there, fed with the new and unexpected at every turn. This fourth episode is as hilarious as ever, with even more outrageous plot variations appearing. In this episode, the boy next door named Alvin (played by Danny Mummert, who has now learned to regard adults with a supercilious eye, which adds to the comedy effect) is portrayed as a precocious budding intellectual, who aged five quotes Samuel Johnson: 'Intelligence is always superior to force'. He says this to Dagwood, whom he calls 'a dumbbell'. Blondie pouts and gets jealous that the little boy next door may be cleverer than her own Baby Dumpling, aged four. At that point Alvin makes it possible to open the front door, which was 'stuck' so that neither Dagwood nor Blondie could open it, simply by turning the top lock. In walks a door to door encyclopaedia salesman, who offers a free intelligence test to the two children. The results are that Baby Dumpling turns out to be a genius, and the man pronounces: 'He has an IQ of 168, which is thirty points above the genius level.' Blondie phones Dagwood at the office to tell him this, and Dagwood panics and rushes out of the office shouting: 'I have to go home immediately! Baby Dumpling is ill. He has an IQ of 168!' Blondie insists that because Baby Dumpling is a genius, he must go to school immediately, so she and Dagwood lie about his age and have him enrolled. He refuses to be accompanied to school by anyone but Daisy the dog (whose antics are as cute as ever, including her raised ear trick). However, this leads to a traumatic incident where the waiting Daisy is captured by the officers of the Dog Pound and disappears, causing havoc amongst the Bumstead family. The Dog Pound sells Daisy to the nurse of a rich man whose daughter is in a wheelchair. Baby Dumpling, wandering around the streets looking for Daisy, hears her barking through a huge iron gate leading to a great house with a large lawn, goes in, and is reunited. The invalid girl's father is furious that the nurse let his child have a dog, as he thought dogs were bad for people. Meanwhile, Dagwood has been set up by an unscrupulous property developer during Mr. Withers's absence on holiday and tricked into making alterations to a building design in good faith which the man intends to use as a pretext to get out of a contract because he is secretly going bust. However, after Baby Dumpling coaxes the invalid girl into walking and playing, aided by the jovial company of Daisy, the rich father decides in his joy to build a children's' home with kennels for dogs included. However, he needs a design. Dagwood's design for the crooked builder has been rejected and he has had it carry it home. He dumps it over his front fence and Blondie, who had been weeding on her knees at that very spot, gets encapsulated. This is a very good sight-gag. This design ends up being enthusiastically adopted by the rich man, thus saving Dagwood's job, as Dithers has just fired him again, but quickly re-hires him and gives him a bonus. All of these shenanigans are directed with pace and style, as usual, by Frank R. Strayer, who did the previous three episodes and was to go on to do three more before leaving the Blondie series. Strayer deserves a great deal of the credit for making the Blondie films crisp, funny, and fast. Larry Simms as Baby Dumpling is just as outrageous and cute and funny as ever. Arthur Lake is, well, he is Dagwood. And Penny Singleton (the pre-War version of January Jones) is superb as usual as the dominant Blondie, who while keeping all the men and babies in order has her own moments of feminine frailty and looks weepily at her departing child on his way to school, sensing the fleeting joys of parenthood. Daisy plays Daisy with the same poise and personality as ever, and it is certain that her Dog IQ was even higher than 168. What a wonderful addition to the Blondie series this episode was. In this one, the postman plans various devious ways of avoiding the inevitable collision with Dagwood in the mornings, but all his best-laid plans fail comically. There is simply no way for any postman to avoid the Dagwood Menace, and the bumbling chaos of Dagwood's behaviour spreads like peanut butter over the entire proceedings. But the hopeless Dagwood is so lovable, and Blondie adores him so much, that we forgive him everything. And so we continue to watch the endlessly fascinating spectacle of Blondie bringing up both baby and husband.

BLONDIE BRINGS UP BABY (Columbia, 1939), directed by Frank R. Strayer, the fourth theatrical installment based on Chic Young's popular comic strip characters, is by far the most involved in the series with so much happening during its 67 minutes worth of family crisis.

Returning to familiar territory following their previous vacation venture from BLONDIE TAKES A VACATION, the Bumsteads encounter numerous complications at both home and at the office. The scenario this time revolves around Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) and his dog, Daisy. A book agent (Olin Howland) comes to the front door to sell encyclopedias, and gets around Blondie (Penny Singleton) by making her believe he's there to give her child an intelligence test with the use of blocks. Because Alvin (Danny Mummert), the next door neighbor, is always showing off with his extreme smartness, and calling Baby Dumpling a "dumbbell," Blondie agrees to the examination. While Alvin does everything correctly, the agent fools Blondie into buying the encyclopedias by telling her that her son has an I. Q. of 168. As for Dagwood (Arthur Lake) , whose I. Q. is probably on a low lower, his day at the office is anything but perfect. As an architect designer, he makes changes for the betterment on the Cartwright Building, but because it fails to meet with client Abner Cartwright's (Robert Middlemass) approval, he withdraws his account, causing Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), Dagwood's boss, to fire him. Returning home and keeping the bad news from his spouse, Blondie, who has come to the conclusion that Baby Dumpling is a gifted child (considering that he can recite the alphabet from "A" to"B"), that he should be enrolled in school. School days becomes dog daze for Daisy as she misses Baby Dumpling's company, awaiting outside the schoolhouse until his afternoon dismissal. Daisy is then spotted and captured by dog catchers who take her to the pound. Baby Dumpling comes home upset that Daisy is lost, and the following day, skips school to search for her. He later finds Daisy on the Mason estate playing with Melinda Mason (Peggy Ann Garner), a rich but lonely crippled girl in a wheelchair whose nurse (Grace Stafford) had adopted the dog from the pound as companion for the child. Receiving the news that Baby Dumpling didn't come to school has the worried parents report the disappearance to the police, at the same time of report of Melinda being reported, who had been wheeled away from the property by Baby Dumpling without anyone seeing them. Things start to really get involved as Dagwood tracks down his son at the Mason estate. While roaming about the grounds, the gardener (Victor Potel), suspecting Dagwood to be the one who kidnapped Melinda, sneaks up from behind, hits him over the head with a shovel, places the unconscious Dagwood in a tool shed and notifies the police. Dagwood awakens to find the tool shed he's in to be surrounded by a police squad throwing tear gas in his direction, handcuffing and placing him under arrest. Poor Blondie. Now Dagwood is missing. Paging the Lost and Found Department!

Far-fetched, amusing and slightly sentimental, this is one of the few times in the series where situations depicted are true to life, such as parents not wanting to let go of their child after sending him off with a teacher to enter a classroom; or from the little boy's point of view, returning home with a "shiner" following a fight (off camera) with another kid at school; Baby Dumpling wanting to go to school by himself and not having his mother around so he won't be made fun of by the other kids (a common occurrence more with middle school students than grammar school kids); the child's top priority in locating his missing dog by skipping school (who could blame him); and some upsetting moments for the parents as they discover the disappearance of their children, fearing the worst. Children needing companionship (doggies, too) makes this a good moral of the story.

On the lighter side, there are some real funny added bits, including the angry Mr. Dithers cooling himself off by placing his head in the shower of water, and placing himself entirely in there when reaching the boiling point. A pity the writers didn't use steam as a substance in cooling off this irritable boss. Daisy's running from and hiding from the dog catchers is another highlight.

BLONDIE BRINGS UP BABY is one of the few in the series to not be restored to its original theatrical opening and closing credits, thus, not giving credit to its supporting players consisting of: Fay Helm (Mrs. Fuddow); Roy Gordon (Mr. Gordon); Bruce Bennett (Johnson, the chauffeur); Irving Bacon (Mr. Beasley, the postman); and Helen Jerome Eddy (Miss Ferguson, the principal).

Honorable mention certainly goes to Peggy Ann Garner, years before her achievement as the teen-aged Francie Nolan in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (20th-Fox, 1945) as little Melinda. Her scenes are certainly heartfelt and natural, especially when encouraged by Baby Dumpling to get up from the wheelchair and walk. This alone is sure to leave viewers of sentimental nature with tears building up in their eyes. And speaking of eyes, there are certain characters who've obtained some black ones, Dagwood for one, Baby Dumpling another, and Mr. Cartwright with two black eyes, one from Dagwood and another punch from Mr. Dithers. Black eyes were quite common in the comic strips years before being toned down due to violence upset from readers.

BLONDIE BRINGS UP BABY, formerly presented on American Movie Classics (1996-2002), and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: May 1, 2018) is available for viewing on either the VHS or DVD formats. Next installment: BLONDIE ON A BUDGET (1940). (**1/2)

Just when the new mailman thought he had a new clever idea to deliver the mail to the Bumsteads without the letters literally becoming air mail, here comes Dagwood again! Alvin (Danny Mummert) is back to visit his pal Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) to exert his intelligence. Today is Baby Dumpling's first day in school and not all goes well. The next film in the series is BLONDIE ON A BUDGET.

In this movie there is a scene when Baby Dumpling comes home from school with a blackeye. Dagwood picks him up and brings him over to the mirror to look at the blackeye. During their conversation at the mirror, Dagwood tells Baby Dumpling that although they call him baby dumpling, his "real name is Dagwood, named after me".