Movie Review Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House

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1948 – Spoiler alerts Though this Cary Grant and Myrna Loy film is regarded by many as a classic screwball comedy, I found it dull, and utterly predictable throughout. The Blandings family live in a small over-cramped apartment, the kind that seem massive to most people. They dream of renovation but eventually settle on buying and restoring a dilapidated house on the outskirts of New York. Despite their lawyer warning them that it will cost more than it is worth, they buy it anyway and then have to demolish it and build their own house from scratch, being ripped off along the way by every shyster in town and running up enormous debts. They are only saved when Blandings comes up with a big money winning slogan for Wham Ham meats in his advertising work, and the lawyer congratulates the family for standing by its (American) dream all along. The Blandings just come across as annoying and idiotic. They win through just by believing and being American. Other characters are mostly just mercenary. Melvyn Douglas a their told you so lawyer gets most of the comedy lines in his commentary on what is self-evidently unfolding. One actor in a minor role went on to bigger things. Lex Barker went on to play Tarzan in some of the movies of the 1950’s. Overall though Mr Blandings is just bland. Arthur Chappell