Blondie Goes to College (1942) User Reviews

The Bumsteads recapture their youth

[lugonian · 5/10 · 13 April 2001]

BLONDIE GOES TO COLLEGE (Columbia, 1942), directed by Frank R. Strayer, is a so-so entry to the tenth installment of the highly popular movie series. Instead of opening this segment in typical fashion at the breakfast table with Blondie (Penny Singleton) telling husband Dagwood (Arthur Lake) that he's late for work, thus, having Dag rushing out the door and running into the neighborhood postman (often played by Irving Bacon), the story begins at a football stadium where, after watching a scored touchdown with his wife, son and dog Daisy, Dagwood gets the urge to want to return to school and get a college education. Blondie (who is pregnant with their second child but keeps it a secret from Dagwood for the time being), is against the idea, and after discussing this with Dagwood's boss, Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), he convinces her to let Dagwood take some time off from work and enroll in order to get the college bug out of his system. Taking Dithers's advice, the Bumsteads enroll at Leighton College, and leave their young son, Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) at a military school. While at Leighton, Blondie and Dagwood pose as a single couple, thus having Blondie chased by the football hero (Larry Parks) and Dagwood getting involved with a pretty co-ed (Janet Blair).

Bright and original idea becomes a bit mediocre at times, but the story does include some funny moments, especially with Dagwood wanting to participate in athletic sports, and failing in almost all of them. One very funny moment that stands in mind for me is when Blondie and Dagwood are in Professor Mixwell's (Cliff Nazarro) classroom where the instructor speaks in nothing but double-talk. Mixwell is "understood" by the other students but confuses Blondie, though Dagwood tries to impress Blondie by pretending to know what Mixwell is saying by "jotting down notes" and looking quite attentive. Otherwise, the rest of the movie is routine with few laughs. The movie closes with the Bumsteads leaving college with Blondie singing "We'll Remember Leighton."

Series regular Danny Mummert returns as Baby Dumpling's next door neighbor friend, Alvin Fuddow, who accompanies him in military school, and of course, the Bumstead dog, Daisy, adding some humor. It's also interesting seeing then unknown actors on the career rise being featured in this film episode, particularly Larry Parks (of the 1946 hit "The Jolson Story") and Janet Blair. Then there's a tall and thin Lloyd Bridges as one of the college students; Adele Mara as Babs; and future TV character actor Sid Melton (the carpenter of TV's GREEN ACRES of the 1960s) appearing as "Mouse." Formerly shown on the American Movie Classics cable channel from 1996 to 2001, broadcast on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: September 9, 2020), BLONDIE GOES TO COLLEGE can be found on either video cassette or the DVD package. Next installment: BLONDIE'S BLESSED EVENT (1942). (**1/2)

Blondie & Dagwood decide to go to college.

[james362001 · 6/10 · 30 August 2003]

This is the 10th film (of 28) in the Blondie film series. The Bumsteads go to the football game. But Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) is a bit disappointed. The seats are right in the center of the goal posts and he can't see a thing. But Baby does manage to catch the special football. Dagwood (Arthur Lake) decides he wants to go to college for the first time. Later, Blondie (Penny Singleton) wants Dagwood to stop dreaming and not be late for work this morning. Blondie decides to have a talk with Mr. Dithers. Dithers thinks it's a great idea for Dagwood to go to college to get it out of his system. He thinks Blondie should go too. But Blondie has another idea. She's going to have another baby. Dagwood doesn't know yet. Lloyd Bridges plays a college student. Sid Melton plays "Mouse". Notice the scene when Dagwood tells Mrs. Dill that he dreamed he was a baby, and then he yawns. Notice Larry Simms laughing abit at Arthur. The next film in the series is BLONDIE'S BLESSED EVENT.

The college experience

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 24 October 2015]

For reasons I still can't fathom both Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton decide they need to go back to college and further their education. Both have missed the college experience so Dagwood and Blondie park Baby Dumpling in a military boarding school and head to the halls of dear old ivy.

Columbia Pictures more than most studios used the movie series as part of their programming and the Blondie films afforded them the opportunity to exhibit some of their young hopefuls. In the student body are people like Larry Parks, Sid Melton, Lloyd Bridges, Janet Blair and Adele Mara. Parks is the campus jock who sets out after Blondie and the beautiful Janet Blair is attracted to Dagwood God knows why. Blair's father is Andrew Toombes who is rich and who the Dithers Construction company would like to land as a client. Dagwood always had phenomenal charm, or luck, or something that always landed these clients and usually saved his job throughout the series.

This one has some good moments with Dagwood trying out for many collegiate sports. Best is him blowing the big crew race when he stands up in the canoe and tips over. He's not a big man on campus after that.

Good entry in the Blondie series.

Sweethearts of Sigma-Foo

[dougdoepke · 3 November 2018]

Okay, in a strictly logical world, sending B&D to college makes little sense. But this is movie world, where it's contrived situations that count, whether it's good guys winning every gun battle or B&D taking a respite from 40's suburbia. So it's off to college for our comic strip heroes and military school for baby Dumpling and Daisy. Maybe Dagwood will get a promotion for his college effort. And what could be more comically promising than an addled Dagwood among the advanced learning. Now if he can only follow the double-talk origin of the word 'survive', he might even pass etymology class. Then there's the rowing team where he can't stay upright, and football practice where the basic concepts rival etymology. Frankly, I got a lot of laughs out of his good-natured flops.

Then happily we can add eye candy with June Blair as Daggie's aggressive car buddy, plus other coed lollipops from the 40's. Also, mustn't forget coed Blondie who's grabbed by handsome big-man-on-campus, Larry Parks. And if that's not enough, she's quickly conscripted into the top campus sorority. Looks like the Bumstead household may be in trouble, except this is the movies, so thankfully it's back to suburbia once the crop of college laughs are harvested.

No, the entry may not be the series best, but it's hard to beat comedic actors Lake and Singleton. Plus the series concept of a loving family with a wacky husband, a plucky wife, and an unlucky mailman practically guarantees chuckles.

(In passing-I may be wrong, but having Baby Dumpling in military school may well reflect the patriotic urgency of the 1942 production period.)

Actually both Blondie and Dagwood go to college!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 10 November 2017]

Penny Singleton (Blondie), Arthur Lake (Dagwood), Larry Simms (Baby Dumpling), Janet Blair (Laura Wadsworth), Jonathan Hale (J. C. Dithers), Danny Mummert (Alvin Fuddle), Larry Parks (Rusty Bryant), Adele Mara (Babs Connelly), Sidney Melton (Mouse Gifford), Andrew Tombes (J. J. Wadsworth), Esther Dale (Mrs Dill), Lloyd Bridges (Ben "Fishface" Dixon), Emmett Vogan (Coach Hartley), and "Daisy".

Director: FRANK R. STRAYER. Screenplay: Lou Breslow. Story: Warren Wilson, Clyde Bruckman. Based on the comic strip Blondie by Chic Young. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Otto Meyer. Art director: Lionel Banks. Music director: Morris W. Stoloff. Music associate: Jerome Pycha Jr. Producer: Robert Sparks.

Copyright 15 January 1942 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 15 January 1942. Australian release: 23 July 1942. 8 reels. 6,764 feet. 75 minutes.

U.K. release title: The BOSS SAID NO.

SYNOPSIS: Actually both Blondie and Dagwood go to college, enrolling as singles, with predictable results.

NOTES: Number 10 in the 28-picture series.

COMMENT: The tenth film in the series — and the first in which Irving Bacon does not appear to carry on his famous running gag.

Also, one notices a deterioration in the production values of this one. A great amount of space is devoted to newsreel footage, and the art direction is not nearly as lavish — though there is some fine photography by Henry Freulich.

The screenplay by Lou Breslow is very thin. Although agreeably played, it's rather slackly directed and edited.

"Daisy" has little to do in this one, but the supporting cast is certainly of interest. Top performances are contributed by Larry Parks and Janet Blair.

Right up to the final moment it seems Miss Singleton is going to pass up an opportunity to sing. She does finally, in an extended tracking shot director Strayer doubtless hoped would provide a stimulating conclusion. The intention was there but it doesn't quite come off, as Lake mugs so blatantly the mood is dissipated.

Lightweight Blondie and Dagwood comedy as they go back to college!

[cgvsluis · 4/10 · 24 March 2022]

Baby Dumpling steals the show as he is dumped off at a military boarding school while his parents go back to school. KP duty is hilarious...I have never seen so many potatoes.

Dagwood gets it in his mind to go to college, which he and blondie missed out on by getting married. Once there things don't go quite as planned. First they have to pretend they are single for their living situations...and then Dagwood comes up with a scheme to meet Blondie at the registrar's office...but he gets waylaid and then Shanghai's by a sorority girl with a flat tire...meanwhile blonde gets picked up by a jock and overall good guy.

Real light weight comedy...but a fun look at college life of the times.

Big highlight for me was seeing the crew races from train and boat...just like I read about in Boys in the Boat!

Blondie Goes to College is one of the lesser entries of the Blondie series

[tavm · 4/10 · 25 June 2015]

This is the tenth in the Blondie movie series. In this one, Dagwood wants to go to college and Blondie decides to go with him though reluctantly. So they send Baby Dumpling to military school. I'll just now say there wasn't much that was funny here though Cliff Nazarro as a doubletalk professor was amusing, as was Dag's attempts at joining some sports teams. Also, having Blondie sarcastically calling her hubby "Daggie" after a coed played by Janet Blair starts calling him that was also good for a laugh. Mr. Dithers seems more sympathetic here though he turns back to his partially mean self soon enough. Among the supporting cast are Larry Parks before his star-making turn as Al Jolson in The Jolson Story and Lloyd Bridges before "Sea Hunt". Not among the supporting cast is Irving Bacon as Mr. Beasley, the mailman. Guess he wanted to take a break from getting constantly knocked over by Dagwood! In summary, if you're a Blondie movie series completest, go ahead and watch Blondie Goes to College. Otherwise, it's skipable. P.S. This is the last one on the Platinum Disc Corporation set I originally bought from Walmart back in 2005 when the "Blondie" comic strip was celebrating 75 years of print. Now that the rest of the series is online, I'll be seeing the rest of them for the first time in the coming weeks and reviewing them afterwards...

DAGWOOD GOES TO COLLEGE TOO!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 6 April 2024]

If you're a movie buff, this is an unforgettable episode to watch, for all the young up and coming stars. Super cast at work here and a fairly good story that takes Blondie and Dagwood out of the same old domestic routine.

Time to go back to college! Why not? After watching an exciting football game, Dagwood gets the urge to head back to college and become some sort of a sports hero? Ha? In an interesting twist, even Baby Dumpling goes to school, in this case miltary school.

There's also a very poignant side story; Blondie secretly admits to Mr. Dithers --she is expecting! Mr. Dithers' expressions are priceless, and he's also behind Dagwood, urging Blondie to let him get the old college bug out of his system once and for all before the new baby arrives. Dithers, in way, was like Dagwood and Blondie's adopted father at times. It shows here. Nice touch.

Of course, there's some fractured romantic situations; Blondie is wooed by football hero Larry Parks while young Janet Blair has a crush on Dagwood? Also look for popular character actress Adele Mara as "Babs" and rugged Lloyd Bridges as Ben. One heck of a cast, you have to admit.

Applause to writer Lou Breslow, long time writer at 20th Century Fox, credited for writing a Charlie Chan film and two of Laurel and Hardy's comedies, including the classic, GREAT GUNS a year earlier. He also wrote ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD (1945).

Enjoy this trip back to the good old school days, Blondie and Dagwood style. Followed by the much awaited for BLONDIE'S BLESSED EVENT. A must see. Thank you to the MOVIES Net for rerunning this gem.

Blondie and Dagwood prove they are god-awful parents... and you wonder who thought this plot made any sense!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 15 April 2011]

The setup for this installment of Columbia's Blondie and Dagwood series is REALLY contrived--so much that you wonder who thought this would be a good idea for a film. Inexplicably, Dagwood insists he MUST go to college (despite having a wife, a kid, a job and a home) and so they put Baby Dumpling (who is practically a baby) in military school and the couple go to college--SEPARATELY. They agree to not tell anyone they are married and take up separate housing on campus and even begin dating other people!! None of this makes sense and it sounds more like the plot of a bad porno than a family comedy. All I know is that I really, really like the Blondie & Dagwood films and hated that this one was such a disappointment. The bottom line is that this episode of the series made no sense nor was it particularly funny. All in all, there isn't much to like about this one--and it's amazing, as the previous film, "Blondie in Society" was among the very best. What happened? Did the producer let his cat write this one?!

By the way, the double-talk bit was never funny, though, inexplicably, they used it twice in this film. Lame. And the "I want my mommy" segment was REAAAALLY creepy, as it made the normally lovable Dagwood seem like a child molester!! Yikes.

Keep an eye out for a young Lloyd Bridges who plays one of the students. Fortunately he was able to get past this minor hiccup in his career.

The Humor of Incomprehension

[tedg · 10 August 2006]

You need to be particularly hard up for gentle, mindless entertainment to find refuge in these Blondie movies. In a certain way, they and their radioshow brethren set the stage for nearly all situation comedies on TeeVee.

I cannot recommend any of them, except for those that have a good joke or two in them.

This one does. Oh, the story: the couple go back to college while baby is in military school. They pretend to be single and each get entangled in affairs. Ho hum.

The joke worth seeing has them in class. Etymology. The professor must be a vaudevillian who does what we see for a living.

He mixes stodgy phrases that we can just barely make out — and some of these are erudite — with incomprehensible blather. In a way, its similar to what Chris Cooper does with W. Bush in "Silver City." But here it is snappy and much funnier.

The pacing of when he comes in and out of the glossolalia is the funny thing. He knows just how to catch us with a portion of a phrase and when to leave us hanging. Its amazing comedy, skilled stuff that I think owes a lot to similar rhythms that Shakespeare uses when he moves from reality to metaphor.

Dagwood and Blondie look at each other in reaction. Its perfect. So much of humor, especially in movies, is of people too dumb to understand the language. Black characters were prime targets in that era for being dumped on. Here, the target is us.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

And so did Dagwood!

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 12 July 2016]

Poor Dagwood. Always neglected as far as these movie titles were concerned. Even when the story focused on him, he was neglected for the comic strip namesake. He's really the reason Blondie goes back to school here. Hoping to get assigned to bigger deals at work, he decides to finally go to college and Blondie tags along. They pretend to be single, turning Baby Dumpling (obviously far from a baby now) over to a junior military academy. Of course, the neglected kid gets into all sorts of trouble, and in college, pandemonium erupts because of their separation.

Four young actors were cast as fellow college kids, all poised for stardom, yet never as big as previous "Blondie" guest stars Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Young Janet Blair, a slight Rita look-a-like and the forgotten Adele Mara are the young femme fatales, while future "Jolson" (Larry Parks) and the most famous of the four (Lloyd Bridges) are the suitors after the supposedly older Singleton.

Not as funny as a few of the previous entries, it has its share of laughs, especially when a police officer refers to Baby Dumpling as Apple Turnover. If not the far fetched plot, the slow pacing sends this entry to comedy movie series detention, keeping it far from the dean's list.