Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

Directed by: H.C. Potter
Written by: Eric Hodgins (novel), Melvin Frank (screenplay), Norman Panama (screenplay)
Produced by: Melvin Frank and Norman Panama
Starring: Cary Grant as Jim Blandings, Myrna Loy as Muriel Blandings, Melvyn Douglas as Bill Cole, and Reginald Denny as Mr. Simms
Music by: Leigh Harline

This is a film based on a 40's pop hit novel - kind of like all of our "Nanny Diaries" and "Bridget Jones" today. It's been remade three times under different names - first in 1986 starring Tom Hanks in "The Money Pit," in 1993 as "The Dream House," and most recently (and most dismally) as "Are We Done Yet?" in 2007 starring Ice Cube.

It's a story most of us are familiar with. The typical American family decides they need a bigger, more prestigious house and the blundering father gets in way over his head as the expenses pile up. Nothing seems to go right and the husband regrets ever wanting to move - until the house is actually finished and miraculously paid for and then everything is lovely again. This film was a hit back in '48 when it was released and it has all the makings of a great movie. The cast is superb and the story is humorous. But for some reason, it just irked me. I tend not to care for movies in which fate seems to go completely against the protagonist no matter how much they do the right thing. One reason I can't stand "Meet the Parents." This movie wasn't quite as bad as all that, considering Blandings does make some rather stupid decisions from the get-go. He fails to consult his best friend lawyer (who seems to be his financial counsel as well) out of gusto and then jealousy - he believes his wife to be involved in an affair with the man. Which is never really confirmed or denied.

I think part of my disappointment stems from the disjointed storyline. It sails along beautifully at first, then stumbles and takes us into another crisis with the necessity of Blandings writing a jingle for WHAM ham. Then - when things begin to go wrong with the house, the jingle falls out of the picture again until the very end when it's brought up as the major problem of the movie. And then the entire thing suddenly resolves and the movie ends within a minute. With a breaking of the fourth wall which seemed so cliche and cheap that I wasn't surprised to see that the movie studio had promoted the movie by building houses just like the Blandings' all over America and either selling them or raffling them off.

Personally, I think the movie doesn't stand up as a great classic comedy as much as many of Grant and Loy's other films. The story fails to stand the test of time and is only buoyed by good acting and physical comedy. I give this film two WHAM hams out of a possible five (2/5).