Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Plot synopsis:
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 remodel their apartment. 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 dilapidated, two-hundred-year-old farmhouse. Blandings purchases the property for more than the going rate for land in the area, 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. The Blandings hire architect Simms (Reginald Denny) to design and supervise the construction of the new home. From the original purchase to the new house's completion, a long litany of unforeseen troubles and setbacks beset the hapless Blandings 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 Blandings 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 Blandings 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."

Tags: satire

Review:
The perils of buying and building a house have not changed (although the prices certainly have!)It's a delight to watch three seasoned professionals (Grant,Loy and Douglas)play against each other so well.
The Blandings, a 'typical New York family, on about 15,000 a year', decide to leave their four room apartment in the city and buy a 'dream house' in rural Connecticut.Of course, this being a comedy, you know it won't go smoothly (you get a good clue as well from Melvyn Douglas' laconic narration here and there, as the Blandings' long-suffering lawyer, and Mrs B's high school sweetheart).
ham.My particular favourite scenes involve Myrna Loy, perfect as Mrs B, instructing which colours of paint each room will have; and a little room at the top of the house which regularly traps Grant inside.
The film opens with Bill Coles (Melvyn Douglas) telling a story about how his best friend--make that client--Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) and his family are tightly packed into a small New York apartment, with not enough closet space and way too few bathrooms.
Once he's purchased the house, bills and frustration pile up incessantly as everything that can go wrong with the building of Jim's 'dream house' goes wrong.One of three collaborations between Grant and Loy, this is a charming little comedy--not very taxing, with no real great message, but a great way to spend an hour or two.
Every little problem that pops up for the Blandings renovation project--including petty jealousy and an ad campaign for 'Wham'--seems to bring together everything that *could* go wrong with building a new house but makes it believable and an enjoyable watch.
Some people who eat out all the time use their ranges and dishwashers as storage places because the closets are already full!Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, a great comedy writing team from that era, saw the potential in Eric Hodgins novel, whose hero, Jim Blandings, can't stand the cramped apartment where he and his wife Muriel, and two daughters, must share.Jim Blandings, a Madison Ave. executive, has had it!
Cary Grant and Myrna Loy are well-suited to this kind of material, and the script provides good dialogue and some amusing situations for them and the rest of the cast to work with.This is certainly of particular interest to anyone who has ever faced either the kind of home-buying experience that the Blandings family goes through, or one of the many other similar experiences that life offers.
The movie helps to point out some of the basic absurdities all of this, while providing some good humor.The two sub-plots - the one with Melvyn Douglas and the other with Grant looking for the new slogan - are worked in rather resourcefully, so as to parallel some of the basic themes of the main story about the house, while also providing comic complications in the main plot.Grant has the knack of making the wildest situations seem believable at the time, and even somewhat sophisticated.
In Manhattan, the American middle class Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) lives with his wife Muriel (Myrna Loy) and two teenage daughters in a four bedroom and one bathroom only leased apartment.
Jim checks the information with other engineers and all of them condemn the place and sooner he finds that he bought a "money pit" instead of a dream house."Mr. Blandings Builds his Own House" is an extremely funny comedy, with witty lines and top-notch screenplay.
Cary Grant is hilarious in the role of a man moved by the impulse of accomplishing with the American Dream of owning a huge house that finds that made bad choice, while losing his touch in his work and feeling jealous of his friend.
Jim (Cary Grant) and Muriel (Myrna Loy) Blandings live in a Manhattan apartment with their two daughters and Jim is an advertising executive.
So Jim and Muriel think it would be nice to live in the country on a big lot and buy - not sight unseen so much as site uninspected by professionals - a house in Connecticut that has been standing since the Continental Congress.Unfortunately, every engineer who inspects it says it is a wonder of the modern world that it has not fallen down on its own, but of course it is not going to do that and make the Blandings' life easy, so they have pay to have it knocked down.
From the windowless bedroom, the logistics problems of getting to and from work - Mrs. Blandings read the train schedule wrong, getting trapped in the upstairs closet, to being forced to move before the house is ready - as in not having windows - this thing is hilarious on so many levels.Jim Blandings' panic grows with the mounting bills, the misunderstandings that cost him thousands, and the ad campaign he must come up with to keep his job and have a chance at ever paying for any of this.
As a cinematic art form it is highly entertaining; and with major stars like Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas...
I know I did.Mr. Blandings, a New York ad executive, decides to move his family to the Connecticut suburbs and build himself a nice house there.
Yet only a short distance away, a few days later, the basement of his house-to-be floods!Cary Grant and Myrna Loy give believable performances as the harried Blandings couple overwhelmed by problems they never imagined, and Melvyn Douglas is even better as Blanding's lawyer and family friend.The only caveat is that social attitudes have changed a lot since 1948.
One of Cary Grant's most enduring comedies is Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.
Still Cary was making a good living in the advertising field even though he was having a devil of a time trying to come up with a slogan for ham with the brand name of Wham.What made this film so popular was the housing shortage of the post World War II years.
If you can imagine the Charles's moving to the country and William Powell having the headaches Cary Grant does, the film would still work just fine.Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House still works well as comedy because the situations are universal.
This film is no "guilty" pleasure.Three wonderful sophisticated leads actors - urbane Melvyn Douglas; bemused Cary Grant; daffily determined Myrna Loy - complement each other and a memorable team of characters.My favourite scenes - "It means we gotta blast" and "Miss Stellwaggen" and "This little piggy".Love it..
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House offers one particular way comedy might have developed.Ad man Jim Blandings, along with his wife and two daughters, are living in a nice but way too cramped New York City apartment, as one day he gets the bright idea that it might be fun to realize his dream of building a house in the suburbs.
Lead players Cary Grant and Myrna Loy plays Mr. and Mrs. Blandings to perfection; while Melvyn Douglas is fine as their pragmatic lawyer friend, who often has to bring up unpleasant topics, such as how the real world works.
Cary Grant is uncharacteristically grumpy throughout, Myrna Loy plays the little doormat wife to perfection and Melvyn Douglas is slyly humorous as their lawyer and friend.
Cary Grant, an advertising executive who makes $15K a year, wants to move his wife and two kids (and a sass-and-sweetness black maid) to the country, but building a new home rather than buying one proves to be a costly headache.
Myrna Loy doesn't have much to play as Grant's wife (she drawls out a few funny lines in her calm, cool-headed manner), but Melvyn Douglas out-acts them both as "a friend of the family" with a small crush on the Mrs. Director H.
Cary Grant and Myrna Loy put in a first rate job as Mr. and Mrs. Blandings along with Melvyn Douglas as the friend and former puppy love of Mrs. Blandings.
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House may be the best Frank Capra/Preston Sturges movie neither man ever made!
Portraying middle class New York couple Jim (Cary Grant) and Muriel Blandings (Myrna Loy) trying to build a house in Connecticut, this flick has something for everyone.Grant is his usual flippant self, while Loy does quite well as merely a wife.
The pitfalls of building a home are well chronicled and became the basis (loosely) for the more modern Tom Hanks vehicle, "The Money Pit".If you like good old fashioned comedy without the cursing and the gratuitous sex, this movie is a must see..
As much as I like Hanks, "Pit" was a pale imitation.Having just built an addition on my house, I can honestly say that there were moments when watching Grant & Loy in "Mr. Blandings" not only kept my sanity, but showed me that some things never change...
Otherwise, the film was a delightful joy and just perfect for a cheering up on a rainy day or after a hard one.The best thing about 'Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House' is the cast.
The comedy is sparkling in wit, pointed and full of sophistication, the social commentary is interesting regardless of how of the time it is and whether it holds up or not (was enjoying myself and invested in the film to care) and there is a depth that makes it easy to identify with the situation when it is a scenario that is relevant today.Story-wise, 'Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House' is slight but is never less than absorbing and there is enough going on to not make it too simple, neither does it get over-stuffed or too complicated.
Jim and Muriel Blandings (Cary Grant and Myrna Loy) are crowded in their NYC apartment with two children and a live in maid (???) and decide to buy a place in the country.
Few films of the late-40's are further from that noir cycle or more attuned to the coming consumer decade than this sassy little comedy.Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) works as an ad-man on Madison Ave. where in his little daughter's words-- he sells things to people that they don't need, at prices they can't afford.
Cary Grant and Myrna Loy are perfectly cast as a middle class couple who want to build the house of their dreams.
Cary Grant wants to take himself and his family out of the quickly-paced New York City and move to Connecticut where he'll have a larger house constructed to his specifications, along with what he hopes is a better lifestyle.
Grant shines in this delightful comedy with hidden sophistication...Yes, its dated, but view it as a charming fairy tale, and you cant go wrong...Myrna Loy is a riot in the scene with the paint samples, but a bit too cold as Mrs. Blandings...Irene Dunne did the Lux Radio Theater version with Grant and brought to Muriel an essence of daffiness to enhance her role as Grant's foil...Melvyn Douglas plays the lawyer/best friend to perfection...Grant very gracefully went from playboy/hero in the 30s to husband/dad in the 40s, and looked like a dreamboat at all times...definite 8/10....
It's a movie that's tailor made for Cary Grant.If you are familiar with him,you know that a comedy of errors involving the construction of a "dream house" that has Grant as a star is a winner from the get go.He is on fire here with the charm that is typical of him,and adding Myrna Loy as support was a genius idea,and it is evident that the entire supporting cast worked just as hard to make the film funny as Grant and Loy did.The humor and reactions are dead on perfect.There's just something about movies made in the 40's.It seems great films were churned out almost effortlessly throughout the entire decade,Mr. Blandings has a prominent place among them..
(Cary Grant) With his wife Muriel (Myrna Loy) in tow, they seek advice from their friend and lawyer Bill Cole (Melvyn Douglas) and wind up trading their New York Apartment and buy into a home in the country.
Frustrated sharing the bathroom and lacking a drawer for his socks, Manhattan advertising executive Cary Grant (as Jim Blandings) moves to a Connecticut country home with his lovely wife Myrna Loy (as Muriel) and their two cute daughters.
Future "Tarzan" Lex Barker makes a good impression and should have been stranded alone with Loy overnight, instead of Mr. Douglas.******* Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (3/25/48) H.C. Potter ~ Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas, Reginald Denny.
This movie, however, somehow survives the natural attrition of time and still entertains in all aspects despite its age.I am not sure if it's the clever script, the wise direction, the pacing, or the storyline but Mr. Blandings 1948 touches every base, involves and entertains without any need to retrogress one's tastes or standards.I've seen the leads in other movies and they were fine, but this is an exception.It isn't ranked very high on the list of great comedies but in my opinion it is superior as a work to The Philadelphia Story and the other also excellent comedies of the period.This movie works on many levels and despite my expectations (that I would have to condescend to enjoy it), I found that it exceeded them.There are many great scenes in here: the well digging, the cupboard, the breakfast in new york, the love scene, the drive, the bathroom scenes, the list goes on...and on.This is just a great movie that shines above all the remakes and truly shines in its own right as a great piece of film making.Even more than 50 years later...Definitely recommended..
Cary Grant and Myrna Loy are Jim and Muriel Blandings, and they have two daughters.
Jim Blandings (Grant) and his wife Muriel (Loy) have lived in their four-room Manhattan apartment for the better part of fifteen years.
Why not take the plunge?Since the existing structure is pretty much falling apart and not worth saving, the Blandings finally decide to purchase the property, tear down the house, and build their dream home (hence the title of the movie).
BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE ends in smiles and laughter.Though there were plenty of entertaining moments in the film, I thought it could have done with a bit more comedy.
Cary Grant was an actor with incredible comedic timing and in this film his performance seems a little bland.
As we meet Jim Blandings and his wife Muriel for the first time they are thinking of improving their living conditions, by trying to swap their confined New York City apartment for a lovely home out in the peaceful country.
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream HouseThe key to buying a fixer upper for your family to move in to is to not buy a fixer upper at all.Unfortunately, the advertising executive in this comedy got suckered into buying this money- pit.Fed up with the cramped confines of his crowded New York apartment, Mr. Blandings (Cary Grant) makes an executive decision to move his wife (Myrna Loy) and their daughters to a palatial Connecticut homestead.Blandings' dream house, however, becomes a nightmare when he must demolish the structure and rebuild anew.Compounding Blandings' situation is a new account and suspicion that his wife's having an affair.An overview of the tribulations attributed to renovating, including the toll it takes on marriage, Mr. Blandings' Dream House is both hilarious and frightening.However, the hardest part of renovating any decrepit country home is getting the squatters to hold off on their defecating until the kitchen's been retiled.
Having no frame of reference here (not read the book myself), I can't say if this adaptation to the screen does the source material justice, what I do know is that the film is charming, very funny in places, yet lacking in any sort of originality.Really it's probably down to the cast that the film still holds up today as an entertaining viewing, Cary Grant and Myrna Loy (the Blandings) team up again for the third time, with Melvyn Douglas stealing the picture as the wry and causticly funny friend, Bill Cole (the character arc written in to add a bit of spice to proceedings).
Having grown tired of the rat race and cramped living conditions of New York City, Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) finds a property in the country for his wife and children.
What makes this movie so special is the three main actors - Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas.
Although the two films have their moments, both are not as good as BLANDINGS, which was based on an autobiographical novel of the same name.Jim Blandings and his wife Muriel (Cary Grant and Myrna Loy) are noticing the tight corners of their apartment, which they share with their two daughters Joan and Betsy (Sharyn Moffett and Connie Marshall).
"Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" is a witty, charming little domestic comedy starring one of my favorite actors: the unforgettable Cary Grant.
His character - Jim Blandings, Manhattan advertising executive - lives with his lovely wife Muriel (Myrna Loy) and their two daughters in an overly cramped apartment.
Basically Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) and his wife Muriel (Myrna Loy) and two kids live in a tiny New York apartment, and they decide to buy and build their own "dream" house, easier said than done.
Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) made fifteen thousand dollars a year as a New York City ad executive, and managed to keep a maid on that salary!
William Cole is a lawyer who narrates the story of how the Blanding family have been living in their cramped New York City apartment and how Mr. Blanding had dreamed of moving out into the country to their own house.
Sure, an occasional good comedy will come along, but they're becoming rarer all the time."Mr. Blandings Buildings his Dream House" shows what 1940s Hollywood was capable of, and it's just screamingly funny.
Jim and Muriel Blandings (Cary Grant and Myrna Loy) decide to build a house in the Connecticut suburbs.