Penny Singleton (Mrs. Blondie Bumstead), Arthur Lake (Dagwood Bumstead), Larry Simms (Alexander Bumstead), Marjorie Kent (Cookie Bumstead), Adele Jergens (Gloria Stafford), Jerome Cowan (George Radcliffe), Grant Mitchell (Samuel Breckenbridge), William Frawley (Sharkey), Edmund MacDonald (Burley), Fred F. Sears (Dalton), Jack Rice (Ollie Merton), Eddie Acuff (mailman), Alyn Lockwood (Mary), Larry Steers (Parker), Frank Wilcox (Carter), Paul E. Burns (tramp), Al Zeidman (bit), and "Daisy".
Director: ABBY BERLIN. Original screenplay: Jack Henley. Based on the characters created by Chic Young. Photography: Vincent Farrar. Film editor: Al Clark. Art director: George Brooks. Set decorator: William R. Kiernan. Music director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Producer: Burt Kelly.
Copyright 18 December 1947 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 18 December 1947. U.K. release: 15 November 1948. Australian release: 26 August 1948. 7 reels. 5,977 feet. 66 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Dagwood's boss, hoping to obtain a large building contract from the local bank president, asks Dagwood to deliver a watch as a gift to the president's secretary. Complications arise when Blondie mistakes the watch for her own anniversary present.
NOTES: Number 22 of the 28-picture series.
COMMENT: Blondie's Anniversary continues the tradition established by "Blondie in the Dough" in that its title too is relevant to the plot. And it's nice to see our old sycophantic friend Jack Rice back in his accustomed role as Oliver Merton. It's also nice to see Fred F. Sears again, this time forsaking the role of the detective he played in "Blondie in the Dough" for a quite substantial part as one of a pair of get-rich-quick jerry builders (his partner Burley is the chief spokesman for the firm, well played by MacDonald).
Adele Jergens also has a meaty role and is photographed more attractively than Miss Singleton (a fact that Miss S. doubtless overlooked because Miss J.'s part is not a sympathetic one). And Grant Mitchell is back playing the same part he had in "Blondie's Holiday" — there is a slight reference to the fact in the dialogue, though Mitchell's attitude to Dagwood is not nearly as cordial as it should be.
Larry Simms has little to do and Miss Kent even less. But there are some further amusing variations on Eddie Acuff's mailman routine. William Frawley is also rather delightful as a loan shark. Cowan, however, tends to overact and thus over-emphasizes his slight material.
It all ends up much the same way as the previous film — no climax to speak of and Blondie seeing to it that Dagwood is re-instated. Still screenwriter Jack Henley has contrived a few samples of amusing dialogue with a sotto voce twist in the tail — "Only ten cents a day... on the dollar", "I told my wife everything... that's why she left me 20 years ago", and director Abby Berlin has given us (for him) a remarkably inventive montage sequence of Dagwood drafting plans — all tilted angles.
Otherwise the direction is as routinely competent as before (Fred F. Sears certainly didn't learn much about directing from working in Berlin's pictures), with the exception of a long tracking shot following Dagwood down the studio street. Other credits, and production values generally, rate okay.
Director: ABBY BERLIN. Original screenplay: Jack Henley. Based on the characters created by Chic Young. Photography: Vincent Farrar. Film editor: Al Clark. Art director: George Brooks. Set decorator: William R. Kiernan. Music director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Producer: Burt Kelly.
Copyright 18 December 1947 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 18 December 1947. U.K. release: 15 November 1948. Australian release: 26 August 1948. 7 reels. 5,977 feet. 66 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Dagwood's boss, hoping to obtain a large building contract from the local bank president, asks Dagwood to deliver a watch as a gift to the president's secretary. Complications arise when Blondie mistakes the watch for her own anniversary present.
NOTES: Number 22 of the 28-picture series.
COMMENT: Blondie's Anniversary continues the tradition established by "Blondie in the Dough" in that its title too is relevant to the plot. And it's nice to see our old sycophantic friend Jack Rice back in his accustomed role as Oliver Merton. It's also nice to see Fred F. Sears again, this time forsaking the role of the detective he played in "Blondie in the Dough" for a quite substantial part as one of a pair of get-rich-quick jerry builders (his partner Burley is the chief spokesman for the firm, well played by MacDonald).
Adele Jergens also has a meaty role and is photographed more attractively than Miss Singleton (a fact that Miss S. doubtless overlooked because Miss J.'s part is not a sympathetic one). And Grant Mitchell is back playing the same part he had in "Blondie's Holiday" — there is a slight reference to the fact in the dialogue, though Mitchell's attitude to Dagwood is not nearly as cordial as it should be.
Larry Simms has little to do and Miss Kent even less. But there are some further amusing variations on Eddie Acuff's mailman routine. William Frawley is also rather delightful as a loan shark. Cowan, however, tends to overact and thus over-emphasizes his slight material.
It all ends up much the same way as the previous film — no climax to speak of and Blondie seeing to it that Dagwood is re-instated. Still screenwriter Jack Henley has contrived a few samples of amusing dialogue with a sotto voce twist in the tail — "Only ten cents a day... on the dollar", "I told my wife everything... that's why she left me 20 years ago", and director Abby Berlin has given us (for him) a remarkably inventive montage sequence of Dagwood drafting plans — all tilted angles.
Otherwise the direction is as routinely competent as before (Fred F. Sears certainly didn't learn much about directing from working in Berlin's pictures), with the exception of a long tracking shot following Dagwood down the studio street. Other credits, and production values generally, rate okay.