This time around, Dagwood's (Arthur Lake) the only responsible employee at Radcliffe Construction Agency--which doesn't sit very well with Blondie (Penny Singleton), who has thrice postponed the Bumstead's annual vacation because Mr. Radcliff (Jerome Cowan) couldn't do without Dagwood's expertise.
"Blondie's Secret" (Columbia 1948), Chapter 24 in this film series marks the first turn for Director Edward Bernds, who continues in this position for the duration. Written by Jack Henley, this one has the family looking forward to a week in a cottage at Lake Hokapoka.
Blondie and Dagwood both dream of vacationing at Lake Hokapoka, he literally, as visions of bathing beauties sharing his high dive brighten his nights, notwithstanding that Blondie would invariably feel jealousy toward any such notion.
But Radcliffe client George Whiteside (Thurston Hall) has other plans for the use of Dagwood's time than spending it away from the office. When he insists that Dagwood revise building plans according to ideas conceived by Dagwood alone, Mr. Radcliffe, naturally, must find a way to postpone the vacation yet again even though it's already September, and Alexander (Larry Simms) and Cookie (Marjorie Ann Mutchie) really ought to return to school.
Radcliffe employee Ollie Merton (Jack Rice) shares a plan with his superior: to sneak Blondie's luggage from the Bumstead residence so that they would have no provisions for any sort of vacation.
Neither have they provisions for meals should they remain in town, for Blondie has already cleaned the icebox. Well, perhaps if she and Dagwood were to shop for groceries the next day, she may consider a brief delay.
When Daisy, however, is alerted to a perpetrator's trespassing, she samples the trousers of his suit. A new plan develops to identify the culprit, which may lead Daisy into hot water with authorities.
Meanwhile, there is a counterfeiting ring going on at this same time. When the grocery store clerk informs Blondie of this, the gangster's moll (holding a purse containing faux moo-la) accidentally switches pocketbooks with Blondie, unbeknown to our heroine.
The confusion which follows leads to a series of odd moments, with different parties attempting to break into the Bumstead residence late the next evening. Blondie alerts Dagwood to the noises which she hears originating from downstairs. Cookie and Alexander hear them afterwards, and then do Daisy's pups.
(Why the by-now-six-year-old puppies don't catch on to intruders before the Bumsteads raises a question in itself. But, perhaps the bigger question regards the living room window, which is shattered around midnight. Early the next morning, when the family exits to await a taxicab, the same window miraculously heals itself, frame, panes, draperies and all.)
(Also, the mailman portrayed by Eddie Acuff is billed as "Mr. Beasley" here, and as "Mr. Johnson" the last time around.)
If "Blondie's Secret" contains some of the largest goofs in this series, it can be forgiven for its charms, which include Daisy's performance at the pound, the gangster's moll's trying to explain the seemingly deliberate mix-up, the radio announcer's reporting upon Daisy's plight, and the taxicab driver's intrigue regarding the Bumsteads' intention to visit Lake Hokapoka.
