Blondie’s Secret

Blondie’s Secret (1948) starring Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake

In Blondie’s Secret, the Bumstead’s summer vacation has been postponed 3 times. It’s already September! What will Dagwood’s co-worker Ollie have to do to make it a 4th time?

Comedy highlights

• Ollie breaks into the Bumstead house to steal their luggage. No luggage, they can’t leave on vacation. And, Dagwood can fix Ollie’s mistake for an important client!
• Dagwood’s recurring dream of pretty girls in swimsuits fighting over him. And Blondie keeps waking him up in the middle of it to catch burglars, so he never finds out who wins!
• Ollie’s reaction when he hears the planted radio story of Daisy, Bumstead’s dog, having rabies! Since she took a bite out of him while he was stealing the luggage!
• Dagwood indecisively trying to buy meat for a treat for Daisy, while she’s in the pound.
• Blondie has unwittingly switched purses with a female counterfeiter while at the store. So that night, she and her male accomplices break into the Bumstead home to switch them back. Of course, Ollie is breaking in at the same time to restore the Bumstead’s luggage!
• Blondie realizes the Ollie was the original thief, and shows that she knows. Embarrassing Ollie in a funny, slow-paced bit. But, she doesn’t tell Dagwood. After all, it’s Blondie’s Secret.
• The long-winded man from the dog pound almost causes the Bumstead’s to miss their train.
• Blondie “blackmails” Mr. Radcliffe into letting the Bumstead’s have an extra week of vacation!

Editorial review of Blondie’s Secret courtesy of Amazon

Blondie and Dagwood have been planning their long-awaited vacation to Lake Hokapola with their children, Alexander and Cookie all summer, but thanks to Dagwood’s boss, Mr. Radcliffe, responsible for having it postponed three times already, is about to do it to them a fourth time. It’s now September and summer nearly over. Radcliffe talks Dagwood into correcting the blueprints for Mr. Whiteside, a prominent client, but how to tell Blondie. With much persuasion, Blondie agrees to put off their vacation for one more day, and no more. The plans are then completed, but after Whiteside examines them, he finds more errors that puts Radcliffe in a tough situation. Would he dare cancel the Bumstead’s vacation again?

Trivia

• Starting with this film, Edward Bernds, who wrote some of the screenplays, replaced Abby Berlin as the director. Bernds would directed the remaining entries in the “Blondie” series.
• The twenty-fourth of twenty-eight Blondie movies.
• Three Stooges regular, Emil Sitka, has a minor role as the grocery store clerk.
• Paula Raymond likewise has a small role as the doctor’s nurse.

Cast

• Penny Singleton (Blondie’s Holiday, The Jetsons) … Blondie. The family matriarch. She’s determined to get them to their vacation this time!
• Arthur Lake (Blondie Knows Best) … Dagwood. Husband and father, hard worker for Mr. Radccliffe. Interestingly, in this installment he’s not painted as a bumbling buffoon at the office. Instead, he’s a valued employee who saves the day, fixing Ollie’s mistakes. And, saving an important account.
• Larry Simms (Blondie’s Reward) … Alexander. Dagwood & Blondie’s son.
• Marjorie Ann Mutchie … Cookie. Their daughter.
• Daisy. Their dog, who actually has an important role to play. She bites the burglar (Ollie) and keeps a patch of his suit. But when Blondie has a bogus radio news article about Daisy possibly having rabies …. Poor Daisy is taken away by the authorities for observations!
• Jerome Cowan (The Comic) … George Radcliffe. Dagwood’s boss, who’s postponed the family vacation three times so far. And he knows about Ollie’s scheme to steal the family’s luggage. Which Blondie uses at the end to blackmail him into giving Dagwood an additional week of paid vacation!
• Thurston Hall (I Dood It) … Mr. George Whiteside. The important client.
• Jack Rice (Blondie’s Reward) … Ollie. Dagwood’s co-worker, who needs Dagwood to fix mistakes and prevent the entire office from being laid off.
• Danny Mummert … Alvin Fuddle. The neighborhood boy who creates the plan to tell the radio station that Daisy has rabies. In order to force the mysterious “burglar” to seek medical help. But it backfires, and Daisy is taken for observation, in case she would actually have rabies.
• Frank Orth (The Lost Weekend) … Mr. Philpotts. The nice, dog-loving, long-winded man at the dog pound.