Despite its god-awful title, it’s a lovely and funny little movie. The humor isn’t madcap or frenzied, like in His Girl Friday or Bringing Up Baby. It’s a subtler brand of humor. All Cary Grant needs to do is just stare at someone who has just said something he thinks is ridiculous. Why the HELL is it so funny? I don’t know. It’s a kind of magic.
The movie tells the story (in a kind of trite way) of a married couple with 2 kids, who live in a cramped apartment in New York. He is an advertising executive. Their apartment is small. Mr. Blandings has (of course, because Cary Grant plays him) a rather cranky put-upon nature. (It’s interesting – that is where so much of Grant’s comedy comes from. The sense that the world around him is insane, and he is the only rational person in existence, and yet events move too quickly for him to control, and so he gets really cranky about it.)
His two children are girls, ages 12 and 10, and so he is hen-pecked. He can never get into the bathroom to shave. He tries to maintain his masculine dignity as “the man of the house” but he is completely over-ruled, and defeated by how many girlie-products fall out of the medicine cabinet every time he opens the door.
Myrna Loy plays his wife, who secretly wants to make “improvements” in their apartment, knock down walls, etc. She has hired an interior decorator behind her husband’s back. We never see the interior decorator, but his name is “Bunny”, and Cary Grant refers to him witheringly as: “Oh, that gentleman who wears open-toed sandals?”
Eventually, Mr. Blandings comes to the conclusion: Why should he spend money renovating what is, in essence, somebody else’s property – when he could buy a nice property all his own out in Connecticut and fix it up?
And so there you have it. The “dream house” is born. A money pit? You decide.
The movie is all about middle-class material aspirations, getting a slice of the American dream, etc. Cary Grant, in this phase of his career (the Bachelor and Bobby-Soxer phase, the POST Notorious phase), settled into playing these types of parts. He enjoyed them. As a Cockney runaway, with no real roots, he loved to embody middle-class Americans. It was very important to him. He loved America. He had escaped the strict class-conscious society of England, and he worked hard to change his voice, get rid of his accent, so that he could assimilate. But still, there was always something a little “off” about him. Always. He never assimilated completely. Which is part of his enduring appeal. Alfred Hitchcock was pretty much the only director who could challenge him yet again to leave that middle-class turf – in North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief. Hitchcock always saw Cary Grant as being appropriate for this more challenging material. He knew that the audiences had a great attraction to this man, and so he would set about making the audience uneasy, nervous, unsettled. Hitchcock never wanted to just accept Grant’s handsomeness as a fact of nature, he always wanted to mess with it, comment on it, admit that beauty like that is unusual, and that we, as regular people, have feelings about people who are that beautiful, and the feelings are not always admiration. Sometimes we envy them, we want to see them suffer. Hitchcock made beautiful people suffer in his movies better than anybody.
But after Notorious, Cary Grant (perhaps realizing how much he had revealed in that film?) retreated to safer ground for a time. The Bishop’s Wife, Mr. Blandings, Bachelor and Bobby-Soxer. I love all of these movies, but there is a lightness to Cary Grant in them, an ease, which Hitchcock never really allowed him. Or, if he did allow Cary Grant to move through the world with ease in the beginning of the films, he made Cary Grant PAY for that very ease by the end. (North by Northwest is the best example of that.)
In Blandings, Cary Grant is working his ass off so that his two daughters can go to a prestigious private school. The conversation he has during breakfast one morning with his daughters could be completely relevant in our society today: he learns that the teachers of the school are pretty close to Socialists, and decry capitalism, and decry advertising, in particular. The two girls parrot back the teachers pronouncements about the evils of advertising. Cary Grant, holding his knife and fork, sits frozen, listening to them. He finally says something like, “Well you tell Mrs. Sparrow that the evil money from advertising is paying her salary at the moment!”
They all sit down to breakfast, and one of the daughters starts to talk about one of her assignments. She goes on and on about the plight of the working man, and how she had to write an essay about it, etc. Cary Grant says, looking right at his wife, with that deadpan face I find so amusing, “Just once darling, I would like to have a breakfast without social significance.”
It’s that crankiness again which is so funny. Think of how eternally cranky he is in Bringing Up Baby … Yes, he is also a geek, but … he has enough of a sense of self-entitlement to get indignant and cranky over how Katherine Hepburn treats him. For whatever reason, that combination is hysterical!!
So of course, the Blandings buy their “dream house” and start to renovate it, but it rapidly turns into an enormous money pit – they don’t know what they’re doing, the construction foremen pretty much take over the entire operation, and the Blandings cannot tell if they are being cheated, swindled, etc.. The Blandings try to gain control, but they don’t even know the lingo.
“Hey, Mr. Blandings.” shouts one of the workers. “Do you want me to rabbit these lintels?”
Cary Grant, knowing he should know the answers, stands there, frozen. Not saying anything. Deadpan. Very funny.
He splutters, “Uhm – no. No rabbits will be necessary. No.”
The worker shouts up to his men: “TAKE ALL THE RABBITS OFF THE LINTELS!”
You begin to hear crashes up above as all the lintels are taken apart, and Cary Grant looks horrified, and frightened. He has no idea what is going on.
I can’t get over his naturalness, his beauty. I mean, it’s a ridiculous scene in the beginning – where the smallness of the urban apartment is established. You see Blandings and his wife fight for space in the bathroom, you see him open closet doors and have contents spill out immediately. In order to get from Point A to Point B, he has to step over two ottomans. The medicine cabinet is booby-trapped. All of this is cliched stuff, but – as always – Cary Grant underplays it. He is not acting as though he is in a comedy. And that’s why it’s so funny. I saw him open that medicine cabinet and deal with things falling out three times – and it’s hysterical each time. Because he is truly dealing with it on a real level, not a yuk-yuk condescending level.
Maybe that’s why he is so beloved. He never ever seems to condescend to the material. Even when he’s playing just a regular middle-class guy. I think audiences really respond to that in a positive way. If you get the feeling that the actor is “slumming” by playing a regular person, it’s insulting. You’re insulting the audience who actually live lives like that.
You never catch Cary Grant slumming.
He opens the closet in his apartment, and things cascade out all over him. His response to this is one of stifled rage, frustration, and thin-lipped aggravation. And – somehow – when Cary Grant is filled with stifled rage, we laugh.
The movie is realistic, in its own way, and maybe that’s why I found it so funny. I’ve lived in and around New York City for almost 10 years now. I laughed out loud in recognition at some of this stuff. I open closets and things fall out on my head, etc. I store items in completely counter-intuitive places, because there just isn’t room for them in the normal spots (my sewing kit kept in my underwear drawer for example. That really makes no sense. But there’s ROOM for it there. So that’s where I keep it.)
So Mr. Blandings Builds His Feckin’ Dream House confirms for me again what I have known all along. It confirms for me the TRUTH of the matter which is NON-NEGOTIABLE (at least on this blog): Cary Grant is the best film actor we have yet produced in this country. Nobody can touch the guy. He is absolute magic. I treasure him. I really do. In the same way I treasure the great works of literature, or the great works of art.
Gentleman should never wear open-toed sandals.
I’ll have to add this oen to the list.
hahaha And the contempt Cary Grant puts into those words … it’s just such a funny moment.
It is a god-awful title but a very funny movie.. and, it’s been a while since I watched it – as usual – isn’t there a friend of the family who pops up every now and then to get an update on The Dream House?.. as Mr Blandings drifts further and further away from ‘the dream’.
The Money Pit.. indeed. Wasn’t a certain Mr Hanks in that (rough) remake?
I wasn’t going to comment on what Archie Leach might say about “Cary Grant is the best film actor we have yet produced in this country”.. but.. I think he would probably agree.
I haven’t seen The Money Pit in years – I imagine it is a remake, right?
Well, there’s Bill Cole, played by Melvyn Douglas – he plays the exasperated lawyer of Mr. Blandings (and former boyfriend of Mrs. Blandings) … so there’s a strange three-way energy between them. The lawyer keeps begging with Cary Grant to consult him first before he makes any more plans … and slowly, as the situation gets out of control, Cary Grant defocuses his anxiety about the house onto anxiety and jealousy over his wife’s former relationship with Bill Cole. It’s very funny.
Oh, and I wouldn’t expect Cary Grant to agree with me. If he did agree with me, I would think he was an ass.
Mr Blandings’ lawyer.. yeah, that’s who I had in mind. As I said, it’s been a while.. isn’t there a point when the kids are scuttling to and fro reporting back to a paranoid Cary Grant holed up somewhere in the house???
I’m pretty certain Money Pit was intended as a remake, but I don’t remember how closely it followed the original.
There’s one fateful evening when the bridge is washed out – so Mr. Blandings has to stay in the city, the girls stay at a neighbor’s house, and Mrs. Blandings and the lawyer stay in “the dream house” alone, all night.
Horrors. Much comedy ensues.
Isn’t there a delightful performance by Louise Beavers as the Blandings’s housekeeper? I want to call her Gussie. Anyway, I just loved the rapport she had with Cary Grant. They obviously got a kick out of each other. Louise Beavers: her work in the original Imitation of Life with Claudette Colbert was one of the most miraculous performances. Those movies featuring servants “who knew their place” are like a glimpse to a tragic world. They’re disturbing in many ways, yet the quality of resigned acceptance to an undeserved plight coupled with a strength of character and dignity could be truly uplifting. As a child, it seemed to me that Louise Beavers was a queen, a bigger than life, magnetic presence who had been shoved into a maid’s uniform by mistake.
Stevie – I absolutely love you. Yes, her name is Gussie. And you’re so right – it’s a lovely performance and you love her. She may have been a servant in the house, but she completely ran the show.
I didn’t know anything about Louise Beavers, actually – thanks for sharing that, and your observations.
Yes, there is no reason that that life-force should have been compelled to only wear a maid’s uniform. Sad. But still, she managed to bring such joy and humor to the whole thing, God bless her.
“Rabbet” is a woodworking term for a type of join. I’m sure it was chosen for being a humorous homonym.
wheels – Awesome. So I was hearing it correctly, apparently. Even “lintel”?
Oh, and I forgot to mention: A very young (and unrecognizable) Jason Robards played the construction foreman who shouted these lines. I didn’t even know it was him until I saw the credits.
I don’t know who invented the idea, but I remember reading something supposedly said by Bob Newhart. To the effect that the best comedy was created when a normal, sane individual was placed in a situation and surrounded by people who weren’t quite as normal or sane.
It seems to work, whether Blandings, Newhart, or Arthur Dent.
homebru – totally! I remember hearing Gene Wilder say something to that effect, too.
You choose the objects of your obsessions very well, red. Grant was uniquely gifted, he left us an astounding body of work. I remember seeing this movie, but only on broadcast television a long time ago. I’ll have to try to watch it on DVD one of these days…
dare i say it? what the hell..i love this movie too..you know im a freak for the old school…but…the scorn of the “open-toed sandal” guy is just one of thousands of very very thinly veiled “fag” jokes that run through the history of cinema. We learn to accept and intrnalize the insults…but it always hurts my feelings…i should have thicker skin by now…but i dont…like i said, you cringe, overlook and move forward…but it sticks with us as we grow up…these seemingly little moments let those of us who may wear opened toed sandals exactly how the average middle-class man feels about us..im sorry to get emotional about somethinbg silly..but the collective of those moments throughout my life..fucked me up…curiously(for a reportedly very closeted man) Grant was also the first person to sue the word Gay in a film…and actually mean homosexual. Have u seen The Celluloid Closet? Its fecking brilliant..you’ll see what i mean. But i still love the movie..Myrna Loy is a forgotten goddess!!
Oh, I know Mitchell – and yeah, the Celluloid Closet did come to mind in that moment. It was obvious what was meant by the exchange and who Bunny was. I guess I just thought Cary G. delivered the line funnily. I am truly sorry if I upset you – You know I don’t agree with that nonsense.
oh goodness my love..u didnt upset me! You’d have to gun down Ste, Sandi and my nephew before i even thought about being upset by you…i just thought i’d point out those kinds of moments…Peter Lorre in the Maltese Falcon..David Wayne in Adam’s Rib…the two gay guys who were semi-regulars on Barney Miller…the guy tossed out the window in Braveheart…endless..but its part of our history..all of ours..and most people cant be faulted for not noticing..they don’t feel the same sting… so why notice?
Wow, now I’m gonna have to call off the whole gunning-down of Sandi and Ste extravaganza I had planned.
You know, I was just now desperately trying to remember that character in Adam’s Rib – that has to be one of the most hostile portrayals I’ve ever seen – and it almost ruins the movie for me. To me, that’s the most open example of it, at least that I can think of. I wince my way through those scenes as a viewer.
(It occurs to me as well that your comment kind of goes along with Stevie’s beautiful comment above about black actors and actresses too.)
Oh, and totally agreed about Myrna Loy. She doesn’t really get the props nowadays, does she? Forgotten, that’s all. It’s a shame, she’s lovely.
very true Sheila…makes one understand the whole Halle Berry won an Oscar hoopla..very deserved by the way…the impact of it on a under represented group cannot be dismissed. Yeah.. i just rewatched Adam’s Rib…i love it but that character is deliberately despicable so that we find Tracey’s weary, folksie masculinity even more sympathetic and desirable…yucky but effective.
And any sane person would feel completely justified with wringing that guy’s neck – there’s not one likable thing about him. He’s not portrayed as her “sympathetic gal pal”. Many women have a nice gay friend in their lives (ahem, Katherine Hepburn MARRIED hers!) – but this guy isn’t portrayed as a good friend, he’s a letch, a nuisance, he’s pathetic.
In a way, it’s sort of a free-floating image for people to focus their hostility on. Like: Oh, we know THAT, we can all collectively agree to laugh at and hate THAT.
i think Myrna Loy is sadly forgotten…also i think Doris Day(i know…silly movies) is way underrated too. She was a true triple threat! BTW did u ever find a copy of The Ghost and Mrs Muir?? You’ll love it!
Mitchell:
Haven’t had a chance to see it yet – it’s on the list!!
exactly…we can all agree to hate him…to be honest..id rather be hated than dismissed..ya know…those ball-less,ineffectual, faggy movie types that are used to get a laugh and confirm everyone elses superiority…dismissed as inconsequential..thats the worst. Like that ridiculous gay guy in the kimono , carrying a pink frothy drink in St. Elmo’s Fire..remember that moment? its like…i may be faggy or whatever..but DON’T dismiss me!
Yeah, I see what you mean. The gay guy in St. Elmo’s Fire was ridiculous, and I can see how that would be enraging.
But still – I think something else is going on in Adam’s Rib. There’s a heightened level of hatred going on there, it’s such a blatant stereotype, and we are meant to feel violently about him, we are meant to hate him. I don’t know – I hear what you’re saying, but that guy in Adams’ Rib, and what he represents, scares me.
But hm. I am hearing your point now on a deeper level. Right – “confirming everyone else’s superiority” – So of COURSE, anyone in their right mind would feel superior to that dick-less wonder in St. Elmo’s Fire. I see what you mean.
Your thoughts on Adam’s Rib? Do you think that the hostility in that one goes to another level? It was immediately what I thought of when you brought up Celluloid Closet
you are right…he represents some sort of threat…the threat of not being like a “guy”..it implies that it is evil..its the reason almost every Disney villian is either an effeminate male, bull-dyke or drag queen-esque.
a modern version of this call to hatred is the “cross-dressing” killer in Silence of the Lambs…what could be more abhorant to the general public than Hannibal..well..lets see.. how about a clearly homosexual monster! It still a great movie…well actaully not my fave. but not for that reason..but it uses his “sexuality” as a signifier for repulsion on the audiences part.
“Oh yes, he’s homosexual. So that explains everything!!”
Uhm, it does?
exactly…for most people sadly it does
“I just went GAY all of a sudden!!”
That moment is the antithesis, weirdly, of everything we’re talking about. Because it’s open and humorous, and not hateful.
oh i agree!! its almost joyful! Not an attack jsut an observation!
I mean, good Lord, he’s wearing a feathered negligee. Seeing him running around in that thing, trying to escape the dog … it’s so supremely ridiculous. And that dowager aunt who is so disapproving and also SO CONFUSED.
“Why are you wearing those clothes??”
i love how the aunt claps her hands for emphasis!! She kills me!
One of my favorite moments in the movie involves that aunt. She and that lion-hunter guy are standing outside, during the insane dinner party where Cary Grant keeps leaving the table.
She and lion-hunter finally go for a walk, and he starts to demonstrate different mating cries of leopards. He’s trying to teach her.
At one point, he’s not looking at her, but the REAL leopard answers the mating cry that he had made. Lion-hunter guy looks at the aunt, impressed.
“Very good! For just a beginner!”
She says something blunt like: “What are you talking about?”
He says, “You just did a mating cry.”
She replies, “Now don’t be rude, Horace.”
It KILLS me every time I see it.
Myrna Loy is something really special.
I need to watch The Thin Man again one of these days…
Sheila,
I remember seeing Gene Wilder (I think it was on The Actor’s Studio with that atrocious host…what do you call him? Mr. Cheese?) and he spoke about running into Cary Grant after SILVER STREAK, and Cary Grant complimented him, saying something like, “I just love it when a regular fellow like you or me get caught up in these crazy situations.” And Gene Wilder commented that what he found most amusing and ironic was Cary Grant referring to himself as a “regular fellow” when he was Cary Freekin’ Grant!
bill:
Oh, right!! Dammit, I was THERE that night. Gene Wilder’s seminar was on my birthday, I remember, strangely.
Right, Gene Wilder’s response to
1. Cary Grant comparing the two of them
2. Cary Grant saying that he was “a regular fellow”
was priceless!!
Yes, Mr. Lipton is a cheese-ball, but you know what? I love those seminars, so he’s done SOME good with them!
Sheila,
How funny that you were there! Next time I’ll start scouting you out when they do those earnest “listening young actor” cutaway shots!
I do like that show when he has a guest who counters all his suffocating pretense (invariably it seems like the most talented ones are the most low key).
Oh, no doubt about it, the guy can be insufferable. Especially when he continuously points out how much HE has in common with the guest.
“You are also into the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as I am. What a coincidence.”
Oh, it makes you wince. But still, he asks really good questions, and people are very forthcoming about the things that interest me: their training, how they work, how they deal with roadblocks in their creativity – I love that stuff, and nobody but Jim Lipton EVER asks these people those questions.
You can clearly see me many times in the audience at the Tommy Lee Jones one. I wear a black beret. There are so many shots of my face an old boyfriend left a message on my answering machine after seeing it: “Are you dating a cameraman or something?”
Also, you can clearly see me in the front row at the Anthony Hopkins one (which is incredible, if you haven’t seen it). I shake his hand at the end.
There are many more glimpses of me, but those are the clearest.
Go forth! See the redhead!
Oh wait – my former comment makes it sounds like I’m saying that it is incredible to see me in the front row at the seminar.
No. What I meant was: the Anthony Hopkins interview is particularly incredible.
Sheila,
No false modesty please! I’m sure you DO look fabulous in the front row, your proximity to Sir Tony only making you moreso (That WAS a great show!)
Your point about Mr. Lipton actually asking great questions (dead sea scrolls…that was too funny!) is very true (God, it kills me to admit that!). I will endeavor to stifle my own insufferable impatience with him to appreciate that.
That is so beautifully written. I could just picture Cary Grant in numerous movies as I was reading it. You truly captured him. Thanx.
bill: Oh believe me, I still cringe with embarrassment on occasion when I watch the things … Like: “Oh God, Jim, DON’T SAY THAT!!”
It’s just that even with all that, he has been responsible for creating this really cool archive.