Blondie films
The "Blondie" films are a series of comedic movies produced by Columbia Pictures from the 1930s to the early 1950s, based on the popular comic strip created by Chic Young. The films center on the life of Blondie Bumstead, portrayed by Penny Singleton, and her husband Dagwood, played by Arthur Lake. Their comedic escapades highlight the challenges of middle-class family life, with recurring themes of financial struggles, domestic mishaps, and Dagwood's humorous ineptitude. The series features a cast of quirky characters, including Dagwood's demanding boss, Mr. Dithers, and the neighborhood mail carrier, Mr. Beasley.
As the series evolved, it reflected societal changes during and after World War II, shifting from the economic difficulties of the 1930s to adapting to the post-war landscape. With a total of 28 films, the "Blondie" series became a staple of American cinema, showcasing relatable family dynamics and humor that laid the groundwork for later television sitcoms. Singleton and Lake's enduring performances as the Bumsteads contributed significantly to the films’ popularity and their representation of the archetypal American family. The series concluded with "Beware of Blondie" in 1950, just as television began to dominate family-oriented entertainment.
Blondie films
Identification Series of low-budget films based on a popular comic strip
Creator Murat “Chic” Young
Director Frank R. Strayer
Dates Syndicated from 1938 to 1950
Columbia’s Blondie series consisted of twenty-eight feature films—the most in motion-picture series history. The films presented a comic take on a typical American family as the United States was emerging from the Great Depression, entering World War II, and going through postwar changes that characterized the middle of the twentieth century in the United States.
Like the King Syndicate comic strip created by Chic Young in 1931, the Columbia Pictures Blondie series centered on the foibles of a middle-class, small-town American family. While Blondie Bumstead (Penny Singleton) was the titular main character, her hapless spouse, Dagwood (Arthur Lake), was also central to the series’ comedy, which was personified in his plaintive signature cry, “Blondeeeee,” that opened every film.
Stock situations that were transferred from the comic strip to the films included Blondie perpetually urging Dagwood to ask for a raise from Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), his crabby boss at a construction company; Dagwood’s ineptness at household chores; his need for long naps and his chronic tardiness; his enormous sandwiches; his unfortunate financial endeavors; and his loving, if inept, attempts to accomplish almost anything. Although a kind and loving wife and mother, Blondie constantly struggles to improve the family’s social and economic condition, often leading Dagwood into confusing turns of events. Both characters frequently create comic webs of lies to cover up problems, but everything turns out well by the end of each film. As the film series progressed into the 1940’s, the films shifted their emphasis from the economic challenges of the 1930’s to deal with changes in American society precipitated by World War II.
In contrast to many of the long-running film series of the 1930’s and 1940’s, Blondie retained its three principal cast members, Singleton, Lake, and Larry Simms, who played Dagwood “Baby Dumbling” Bumstead, Jr., throughout the series. Singleton, who started her film career during the mid-1930’s as a brunette named Dorothy McNulty, changed her name and dyed her hair blonde for the series. She appeared in few other films during the course of the series and made only one film after it ended, The Best Man (1964). Lake, however, had acted in many films prior to the series, and occasionally acted in non-Blondie films. His last feature film appearance was the series finale, but he revived the Dagwood character in 1957 for a short-lived National Broadcasting Company (NBC) television series. At the same time they were making the Blondie films, Lake and Singleton recreated their roles on the long-running Blondieradio series.
Hale portrayed Dagwood’s boss, Mr. Dithers, in fourteen of the films, offering a more dignified and somewhat less stern alternative to the character in the comic strip. Irving Bacon was the perfect embodiment of Mr. Beasley, the frustrated and often blindsided neighborhood mail carrier, in thirteen of the pictures.
In line with many of the major studios’ low-budgeted B-pictures, the Blondie films ran between sixty to seventy-five minutes in length and were made by a regular group of directors and writers. They also utilized some of Columbia’s rising stars such as Rita Hayworth, Janet Blair, and Larry Parks. Only two of the films did not include the name “Blondie” in their titles—It’s a Great Life and Footlight Glamour, both made in 1943 when Columbia reportedly was losing interest in the films. The series resumed in 1945 with Leave It to Blondie, and the final entry was Beware of Blondie (1950), released at a time in which the burgeoning television industry was about to become the primary source for family-centered comedies.
Impact
Blondie was one of several series produced by the major Hollywood studios from the mid-1930’s to the 1950’s that centered on the lives of characters who were promoted as average American families. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had the successful A-budgeted Hardy Family series, Paramount had The Aldrich Family, Fox The Jones Family, and RepublicThe Higgins Family. Studio series films, especially those centering on family life, were the forerunners of the television domestic situation comedies that flourished during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Blondie presented a comic prototype of American family life. Its quirky stock characters, bumbling father, social-climbing mother, and precocious children have continued as staples of television into the twenty-first century.
Bibliography
Young, Chic. Twenty-five Years with Blondie: A Silver Anniversary Volume. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1958.
Young, Dean. Blondie: The Bumstead Family History. New York: Thomas Nelson, 2007.