Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Director: H.C. Potter
Honor:
For those who may be in the market towards buying a new house,
recently purchased a new home, or are in the middle of significant repairs to
their domestic dwelling this may not be the film for you. Be sure to bring
plenty of medications for headaches or indigestion as this picture can arise
the post-traumatic stress that comes to anybody who felt the painful joys of
home ownership. All joking aside, Mr.
Blandings Builds His Dream House is a delightful comedy revolving around ideas
of newly acquired home ownership that many members of the middle class can
relate to making it a feature that can be painfully relatable and at the same
time very comical and amusing.
Mr. Blandings Builds
His Dream House is a comedy of a city dwelling family that decides to find
a house in the more spacious surroundings in the country, but run into every
conceivable trouble in the process towards creating a new home. Neurotic New
York advertising executive Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) decides his Manhattan
apartment, shared with his wife Muriel (Myrna Loy) and two daughters, is far
too small for their needs and decides it is time to move to a more spacious surrounds
outside of the metropolis. At the warning of Jim’s business partner and friend
Bill (Melvyn Douglas) Jim and Muriel impulsively acquire a house on a large
plot of land in nearby rural Connecticut which ends up more dilapidated than
their hearts perceived it, costing them much more than they realized.
The structure ends up to be unlivable forcing them to
demolish it, but juggling their wishes in constructing a new home and its cost
cause a world of trouble in building of the newly planned dream dwelling. Unforeseen
circumstances force the family to move into the uncomplete house before its completion;
all the while they struggle with escalating costs and issues with the architect
and construction crew. All this happens while Jim juggles with ideas for company’s
big client, a ham company named Wham. All the stress and mental anguish brings
Jim to a point where he assumes Muriel and Bill might be having an affair
behind while he is away at work. However, through a small kind gesture Jim is
reminded of the goodness in the world, snapping himself back to reality of the
happy home he and Muriel are creating. Jim’s moment of clarity also leads him
to the breakthrough idea for Wham’s new advertising campaign, a major hit that
would help him pay for the dream house that once caused him grief.
The picture is a charming comedy that is sure to make many
people laugh with relatable humor for those that have ever bought or had
renovations to a home. It is not so much a movie with a dramatic plot, but
rather a situational comedy that can bring belly laughs for those who have been
in like circumstances. From unmet expectations, unforeseen mini disasters, couples
quarreling over ideas for a house, to the gap in male/female perceptions of
paint colors, this feature has something for nearly every middle class American
family can relate to. From the star power of Grant and Loy, to the imaginative and
humorous storytelling, the film lacks a creative plot, but makes up with fun hilarity.
At this time just after World War II the American middle
class were enjoying the new pleasures and sizable incomes that came with the
nation during its newest economic boom. In search for more space and enjoying
the “American dream,” many middle class Americans were escaping the tight
quarters of urban living compromising with commuting to enjoy the more spacious
surroundings that would provide many with single family homes, in most cases
complete with sizable yards and perhaps that idyllic white picket fence. Because
of this new migration and urban sprawl, this picture would become relatable for
an entire generation in the United States.
Cary Grant was at the top of comedic game during this period
of his career and having him pair alongside of Myrna Loy of the wildly famous
“Thin Man” series of comedies makes for the perfect match in such a picture.
The two stars are a bit on the older side to be completely believable as a
younger, but successful couple that has no idea about buy or building a home.
However, with their past experience in goofy comedies they slide into their
roles like well-used gloves.
Director H.C. Potter produces a wonderful mix of comedy with
the perception of imagination in the couple’s mindset for their dream house in
the beginning of the film. As the picture moves on the feature showcases many
situations of comedy that provide audiences with plenty of relatable humor that
speak well beyond its time period. He directs his character’s who are fighting
in a manner that makes keeps them likable and loving despite ongoing bickering.
Today this type of humor would be more at home in television sitcoms, but for
the late 1940s this was a perfect film for the job.
If there are to be presented negativity to the picture it
can be found in the underlying romantically suspicion plot point and how abruptly
the film wraps up everything all too sweetly. Much of the humor is found the in
the frustration and stress of Jim with the house. It is only compounded with
his work looking for the new slogan for a ham company with the outrageous name
of “Wham,” an unnecessary addition to the humor of the plot. However, the idea
of simply constructing a house is too weak a plot, so the writers mix in Jim’s
suspicion of his friend Bill possibly having an affair with his wife. This storyline
appears very weak and very forced, something created to simply provide the
picture with a third act and ultimate conclude in the form of a happy ending.
The film concludes so rapidly that if you blink you might miss it. Jim learns
his lesson that not everyone is trying to take his money and that Muriel is
only in love with him, then inspiration hits him with a convenient solution to
his work. There you have it, everything ends well. You can tell there was no
real ending in place that could match all the situational humor with entertainment
value. It just ends, and its does so quickly and conveniently.
On a side note of frustration is that Jim and Muriel have
two daughters that sort of disappear within the plot of the film. The two
daughters portrayed by Connie Marshall and Sharyn Moffett appear in the
apartment sequence early in the feature to display how the Manhattan two
bedroom, one bathroom apartment is inadequate for the family in the middle of
the city. However as the film moves to the construction of the Connecticut home
the girls become only an afterthought. They scarcely appear thereafter and only
for a moment do they experience their father’s frustration when he is at his
boiling point. Other than appearing as a happy family unit in the film’s
closing shot the two girls are left out of much of the picture with little
reference to them. Sorry for the little offshoot, but it proves how this picture
is more a series of episodic moments of situational comedy. It still works, it
just makes one scratch their head.
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| An example of a "Dream House" built in Oregon. |
To help boost exposure of the picture RKO promoted the film
by partnering with many home building companies across the nation who recreated
the dream house seen in the picture, either to sell or be given away in
contests. Utilizing the original blueprints from the feature, 73 homes in all
from New England to California were constructed, each a little different
depending on local building codes, landscapes, style, and building materials,
but sharing similar layouts inspired by the house in the feature. They were
originally promoted alongside of the Cary Grant Myrna Loy picture, with only a few
cases where the stars actually made an appearance at the recreated homes as the
structure had no financial tie to the income of the feature itself. Many of
these homes still stand today, most vastly altered, but it makes for an
interesting note that there are a series of houses throughout the country built
in the same manner due to a movie promotion and many may not know it.
Mr. Blandings Builds
His Dream House proved to be a critical success. Columnists raved about the
film’s humor and its wonderful acting. With pair of stars that brightly shined
in the world of comedies, a creative marketing campaign, and vast critical
praise it is amazing to think the picture actually lost money for RKO. Despite
the initial letdown, the film saw much more praise and admiration as the years
went by, hailed by the AFI as one for the best comedies in American cinematic
history as seen by being elected to their 2000 list. The film is a good watch,
but for me, coming off some personal housing business, it made me anxious, but
that did not keep me from laughing out loud through many moments.
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