Review of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) by Edith N — 19 Apr 2010

I'm feeling much better now. I had a nice, leisurely nap this afternoon--after being awakened far too early by an overzealous kitten!--and Gwen is home. So much better.

And, of course, all that's really long with Mr. Blandings is that his house is costing him too much. His wife isn't actually fooling around on him; I don't think he even really thinks she is. He's just madly frustrated with life. I mean, even the product he's got to come up with a slogan for isn't actually bad. Everyone who's not hopelessly involved in the project likes it. I mean, if they like ham, I guess; devout Jews and Muslims not so much.

It's a cute movie with a fine, strong cast. Cary Grant and Myrna Loy are charming--they usually are. The supporting cast is excellent--especially the wonderful Louise Beavers as Gussie.

Poor Louise Beavers. Apparently, the studio pretty much force-fed her so she could play large, cushioned mammies and cooks and things. She was one of the great character actresses of her day, but unfortunately, "characters" for a black woman pretty much required playing lots of maids and mammies and cooks. If you go over her resume, quite a few of her characters don't get names, just job titles. "So-and-so's maid" or "Cook" or whatever.

Now. As Hattie McDaniel put it, she'd rather have played maids than been one, no doubt. And of course, she seems to get a new character as a model--and possibly spokeswoman--at the end of the picture. I suppose she got that as gratitude from Mr. Blandings at having saved his job. Then again, saving his job saved hers; if he were out of work, he couldn't exactly afford to keep a maid, now, could he?

The upcoming [i]Are We Done Yet?[/i] was apparently intended to be a remake. However, I suspect the costs will have to be much higher in the new version. Someone worked out exactly how much Mr. Blandings ends up spending, and it's only just over a quarter-million dollars. Heck, in a lot of places, you'd be lucky to just get the 35 acres (more or less) for that!