Blondie Goes to College
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Frank R. Strayer
Penny Singleton
Arthur Lake
Larry Simms
Daisy
Janet Blair
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
While attending a college football game with his wife Blondie and son Baby Dumpling, bumbling draftsman Dagwood Bumstead decides that he wants to go back to school. Blondie, who frequently badgers her husband to ask his boss, Mr. J. C. Dithers, for a raise, not only approves of Dagwood's decision but decides to enroll with him at Leighton University. After sending their son to the Calhoun Military Academy, Blondie and Dagwood move into a boardinghouse near the campus and begin their studies at the university. In the hopes of reliving their youthful college days, Blondie and Dagwood decide to pretend that they are not married. The arrangement soon causes complications, however, when All-American football player Rusty Bryant begins a romantic pursuit of Blondie. After Blondie meets Rusty's friends, Marge Easton and Babs Connelly, Rusty arranges to have her move into their sorority house. Dagwood, meanwhile, unwittingly becomes the new boyfriend of Laura Wadsworth, the most popular girl on campus. Later, Dagwood and Blondie sneak off campus long enough to visit Baby Dumpling, who has been made a corporal at the military boarding school. Back at Leighton, Dithers visits Dagwood and tells him that he needs him back at the office to complete work on an important deal with J. J. Wadsworth. Dagwood agrees to leave Leighton until he learns that he has been drafted to replace Rusty on the school rowing team. During the rowing competition, Dagwood meets Wadsworth, who is Laura's father, but makes a terrible impression on him when he loses the rowing race for Leighton. Dithers, hoping to get Dagwood back to the office, takes Baby Dumpling to Leighton and instructs the child to beg his parents to return home. Dagwood quickly hides his son and dog Daisy in his boardinghouse room, but when the police arrive, he and Dithers are arrested and charged with kidnapping. While Blondie attends a college dance, Dagwood suffers through a police interrogation, and is unable to prove that Baby Dumpling is his son, or that Daisy is his dog. Dagwood insists that the police bring in Blondie to identify him, and Blondie soon clears up the confusion. After Blondie returns to the college dance with Dagwood and Baby Dumpling, she makes a public confession that she is a wife and mother. The students later cheer Dagwood for winning a crab-catching contest for the school, and the accomplishment changes Wadsworth's opinion of him for the better. Wadsworth shows his appreciation by signing a deal with Dithers, and, after Dithers agrees to reinstate Dagwood on Dagwood's terms, the Bumsteads leave Leighton and return home.
Director
Frank R. Strayer
Cast
Penny Singleton
Arthur Lake
Larry Simms
Daisy
Janet Blair
Jonathan Hale
Adele Mara
Danny Mummert
Larry Parks
Lloyd Bridges
Andrew Tombes
Sidney Melton
Esther Dale
Carol Adams
Lee Phelps
Buddy Pepper
Ralph Dunn
Cliff Nazarro
Boyd Davis
Tim Ryan
Maurice Cass
Emmett Vogan
Tony Hughes
Bertha Priestley
Lois Collier
Jane Patten
Eleanor Hansen
Marlo Dwyer
Bill Goodwin
Rodney Bell
Tom Fadden
Isabel Withers
Harrison Greene
Ed Chandler
Phillip Morris
Ken Christy
Charles C. Wilson
Byron Shores
Harry Bradley
Dick Jensen
Crew
Lionel Banks
Abby Berlin
Ed Bernds
Lou Breslow
Clyde Bruckman
Sammy Cahn
Saul Chaplin
Henry Freulich
Otto Meyer
Jerome Pycha Jr.
Robert Sparks
M. W. Stoloff
Warren Wilson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although onscreen credits list Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin as songwriters, and a Columbia publicity item in the AMPAS Library notes that Penny Singleton performed the song "Do I Need You" in the film, the number was cut from the viewed print. For additional information on the "Blondie" series, please consult the Series Index and see the entry in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.0391 for Blondie!
