Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
DVD cover
Directed by H. C. Potter
Produced by Dore Schary
Melvin Frank
Norman Panama
Screenplay by Melvin Frank
Norman Panama
Based on Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
by Eric Hodgins
Mr. Blandings Builds His Castle
1946 Fortune
Starring Cary Grant
Myrna Loy
Melvyn Douglas
Music by Leigh Harline
Cinematography James Wong Howe
Edited by Harry Marker
Production
company
Distributed by Selznick Releasing Organization
Release date
 March 25, 1948 (New York)[1]
June 4, 1948 (US)
Running time
 93 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $2,750,000 (US rentals)[2]

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) is an American comedy film directed by H. C. Potter and starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas. The film was written and produced by the team of Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, and was an adaptation of Eric Hodgins' popular 1946 novel, illustrated by Shrek! author William Steig.

This film was the third and last pairing of Grant and Loy, who had shared a comfortable chemistry previously in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) and Wings in the Dark (1935).[3]

The film was a box office hit upon its release. Warner Home Video released the film to DVD with restored and remastered audio and video in 2004. In 2007, a loose remake of the 1948 film was released under the title Are We Done Yet?.[4]

Plot

Jim Blandings (Cary Grant), a bright account executive in the advertising business, lives with his wife Muriel (Myrna Loy) and two daughters, Betsy (Connie Marshall) and Joan (Sharyn Moffett), in a cramped New York apartment. Muriel secretly plans to knock out a wall and remodel their apartment for $7,000 ($73,000 in 2017 dollars). After rejecting this idea, Jim Blandings comes across an ad for new homes in Connecticut and they get excited about moving. Planning to purchase and "fix up" an old home, the couple contact a real estate agent, who uses them to unload "the old Hackett Place" in (fictional) Lansdale County, Connecticut. It is a leaning, dilapidated, nearly 200-year old farmhouse on some 35 acres where General Gates stopped to water his horses during the Revolutionary War. The Blandingses purchase the property for 5 times more than the going rate per acre for locals, provoking his friend/lawyer Bill Cole (Melvyn Douglas) to chastise him for following his heart rather than his head.

The old house, dating from the Revolutionary War-era, turns out to be structurally unsound and has to be torn down before the previous owner's $6,000 mortgage is paid off. The Blandingses hire architect Henry Simms (Reginald Denny) to design and supervise the construction of the new home for $18,000 ($187,000 in 2017 dollars). From the original purchase to the new house's completion, a long litany of unforeseen troubles and setbacks, including digging a well, beset the hapless Blandingses and delay their moving-in date. On top of all this, at work Jim is assigned the task of coming up with a slogan for "WHAM" Brand Ham, an advertising account that has destroyed the careers of previous account executives assigned to it. Jim also suspects that Muriel is cheating on him with Bill Cole after Bill slept at the Blandingses' alone in the house with Muriel one night due to a violent thunderstorm.

With mounting pressure, skyrocketing expenses, and his new assignment, Jim starts to wonder why he wanted to live in the country. The Blandingses' maid Gussie provides Blandings with the perfect WHAM slogan, and he saves his job. As the film ends, Bill Cole says that he realizes that some things "you do buy with your heart."

Cast

Promotional still for film with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy
ActorRole
Cary GrantJames Blandings
Myrna LoyMuriel Blandings
Melvyn DouglasWilliam "Bill" Cole
Louise BeaversGussie
Reginald DennyHenry Simms
Jason Robards, Sr.John Retch
Lex BarkerCarpenter Foreman
Connie MarshallBetsy Blandings
Sharyn MoffettJoan Blandings
Ian WolfeReal Estate Agent Smith
Nestor PaivaJoe Apollonio
Harry ShannonW.D. Tesander
Tito VuoloMr. Zucca
Emory ParnellMr. PeDelford

Reception

According to Time magazine, "Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas have a highly experienced way with this sort of comedy, and director H. C. Potter is so much at home with it that he gets additional laughs out of the predatory rustics and even out of the avid gestures of a steam shovel. Blandings may turn out to be too citified for small-town audiences, and incomprehensible abroad; but among those millions of Americans who have tried to feather a country nest with city greenbacks, it ought to hit the jackpot."[5]

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that "as straight entertainment, this ambling and genial report on a young advertising man's disasters (and final triumph) in becoming a country squire is as much casual fun as can be looked for on our sparsely provided screen."[6]

Variety called it "a mildly amusing comedy" with Grant "up to his usual performance standard," but found the script to be flawed when an "unnecessary jealousy twist is introduced, neither advancing the story nor adding laughs."[7]

John McCarten of The New Yorker described the film as "quite ingeniously put together," comparing it to George Washington Slept Here and finding it "just as amiable" as that earlier film.[8]

Harrison's Reports called the film "a first-rate topical comedy farce ... The story itself is a flimsy affair, but it is so rich in witty dialogue and in comedy incidents that one is kept laughing all the time."[9]

While quite popular, according to one source the film actually recorded a loss of $225,000 during its initial theatrical release.[10]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Promotion

As a promotion for the film, the studio built 73 "dream houses" in various locations in the United States, selling some of them by raffle;[12] over 60 of the houses were equipped by General Electric, including the ones in the following cities:[13]

Phoenix, AZ, Little Rock, AR, Bakersfield, CA, Fresno, CA, Oakland, CA, Sacramento, CA, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, Denver, CO, Bridgeport, CT, Hartford, CT, Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Indianapolis, IN, South Bend, IN, Terre Haute, IN, Des Moines, IA, Louisville, KY, Baltimore, MD, Worcester, MA, Detroit, MI, Grand Rapids, MI, St. Paul, MN, Kansas City, MO, St. Louis, MO, Omaha, NE, Tenafly, NJ, Albuquerque, NM, Albany, NY, Buffalo, NY, Rochester, NY, Syracuse, NY, Tarrytown, NY, Utica, NY, Greensboro, NC, Rocky Mount, NC, Cleveland, OH, Columbus, OH, Toledo, OH, Oklahoma City, OK, Tulsa, OK, Cedar Hills, OR (near Portland),[14] Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Providence, RI, Chattanooga, TN, Memphis, TN, Nashville, TN, Amarillo, TX, Austin, TX, Austin, TX, Dallas, TX, Fort Worth, TX, Houston, TX, Salt Lake City, UT, Seattle, WA, and Spokane, WA.

Locations also included Worcester and East Natick, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; and Ottawa Hills, Ohio. Thousands lined up in front of the house in Ottawa Hills, paying admission to view the house at its opening.[12]

In Phoenix, the dream house was a ranch house built by P.W. Womack Construction Company in a central city development called BelAir (now part of Encanto Village).[15]

In Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the dream house that was built still stands at 1515 Lafayette Avenue.[16] Greensboro's dream house was built in the Starmount Forest community.[17]

The story behind the film began as an April 1946 article written by Eric Hodgins for Fortune magazine; that article was reprinted in Reader's Digest and (in condensed form[18]) in Life before being published as a novel.[19]

A half-hour radio adaptation of the movie was broadcast on NBC's Screen Directors Playhouse on July 1, 1949.[20] Grant reprised his role as Jim Blandings, and Frances Robinson played his wife Muriel. On October 10, 1949 CBS's Lux Radio Theatre presented a one-hour adaptation of the film,[21] with Irene Dunne taking on the role of Muriel. Screen Directors Playhouse gave a second performance of its half-hour version on June 9, 1950, this time with Grant's wife Betsy Drake playing Muriel.[22]

On January 21, 1951 a weekly radio series starring Cary Grant and Betsy Drake and titled Mr. and Mrs. Blandings premiered on NBC.[23] The comedy series was sponsored by Trans-World Airlines and followed the adventures of the Blandings family after their move into their dream house.

An episode of the 1950s television anthology series Stage 7, titled "The Hayfield", aired on September 18, 1955, and was based on the Blandings characters. This episode was a television pilot produced by Four Star Productions for a planned, but ultimately unproduced, weekly series entitled Blandings' Way.[24] Macdonald Carey and Phyllis Thaxter played the Blandings in this version. In the episode, Mr. Blandings attempts to clear a hayfield on his property by burning it off, with the predictably disastrous results.

In the late 1950s Screen Gems Productions also proposed a weekly television series featuring the Blandings family. Robert Rockwell was considered for the show[25] but the television pilot for the planned series featured Steve Dunne instead, along with Maggie Hayes.[26] The show would have been titled The Blandings, but a series was never produced. However the pilot ran on April 27, 1959 as an episode of Goodyear Theatre, under the title "A Light in the Fruit Closet."

Buildings

The house built for the 1948 film still stands on the old Fox Ranch property in Malibu Creek State Park in the hills a few miles north of Malibu. It is used as an office for the Park. After seeing the picture at a local theater, in 1950 dentist Luther Werner Fetter and his wife, Mary, purchased the plans for the house from RKO Productions, which produced the film, and built a complete replica of it on Mt. Joy Street in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. The Fetters moved into the house at Christmas in 1950. Mary Fetter continued to live in the home until her death in an automobile accident in 1960, while Dr. Fetter remained the sole occupant of the property until his death in 2002.[27] Coordinates: 34°5′41.4″N 118°42′43.63″W / 34.094833°N 118.7121194°W / 34.094833; -118.7121194

Similar themes

References

  1. ↑ "Selznick-Eyssell Tiff Results In 'Blandings' Shift to N.Y. Astor". Variety: 7. March 10, 1948.
  2. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1948", Variety 5 January 1949 p 46
  3. ↑ "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) - Articles - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies.
  4. ↑ "Are We Done Yet? (2007)". New York Times. April 4, 2007. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
  5. ↑ "The New Pictures". Time. April 5, 1948. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
  6. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (March 26, 1948). "The Screen". The New York Times: 26.
  7. ↑ "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House". Variety: 15. March 31, 1948.
  8. ↑ McCarten, John (April 3, 1948). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker: 58.
  9. ↑ "'Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House' with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas". Harrison's Reports: 50. March 27, 1948.
  10. ↑ Eyman, Scott (2005). Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. Robson Books. p. 420. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
  11. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
  12. 1 2 "A home made famous in the 1948 mega-hit 'Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House' is in Ottawa Hills". toledoblade.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
  13. ↑ "General Electric has made your Dream House come true! (advertisement)". Life. June 28, 1948: 78. ISSN 0024-3019. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
  14. ↑ The Oregonian (January 17, 2012). "Mr. Blandings' Dream House, 1948". Vintage Portland. vintageportland.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2012-11-04. The Portland-area house was built in the Cedar Hills area of Beaverton... on the northwest corner of SW Walker Road and Mayfield Avenue.
  15. ↑ Susie Steckner (August 2008). "Arizona Dreamin'". Phoenix magazine. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
  16. ↑ Nicholas Graham (July 2013). "Mr Blandings Dream House Rocky Mount NC". Digital NC blog. Retrieved 2013-07-19.
  17. ↑ Benjamin Briggs (October 2012). "Secrets of Hamilton Lake". Preservation Greensboro blog. Retrieved 2013-07-19.
  18. ↑ "Mr. Blandings Builds His Castle". Life. April 29, 1946: 114ff. ISSN 0024-3019. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
  19. ↑ "Mr. Blandings Goes to Hollywood". Life. April 12, 1948: 111&ndash, 124. ISSN 0024-3019. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
  20. ↑ "Radio Programs - TODAY'S BEST BETS (9:00 pm)". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York). 1949-07-01. p. 19. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  21. ↑ "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House". radio adaptation. Lux Radio Theater via the Internet Archive. October 10, 1949. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
  22. ↑ "Radio Programs - TODAY'S BEST BETS (9:00 pm)". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York). 1950-06-09. p. 27. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  23. ↑ Bundy, Jane (1951-02-03). "Television-Radio Reviews: Mr. and Mrs. Blandings". The Billboard. p. 8. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
  24. ↑ "Expansion at Four Star; to Add 3 Shows". The Billboard. 1955-05-14. p. 6. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  25. ↑ Hyatt, Wesley (2003). "The Man from Blackhawk". Short-Lived Television Series, 1948-1978: Thirty Years of More Than 1,000 Flops. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 102. ISBN 0-7864-1420-0. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  26. ↑ Goldberg, Lee (2015). "Screen Gems Production #403". Unsold Television Pilots: 1955-1989. Adventures in Television, Inc. ISBN 151159067X. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  27. ↑ Reed, Lloyd. "1950 House Inspired by "Mr. Blandings"". The Elizabethtown Journal. The Elizabethtown Journal. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
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