Cary and Myrna House Hunt

Jim (Cary Grant) and Muriel Blandings (Myrna Loy) are a happily married couple living in a three bedroom apartment with their two daughters, Joan (Sharyn Moffett) and Betsy (Connie Marshall), and their maid, Gussie (Louise Beavers). Jim is a successful ad man, making a nice salary, and while he loves his family, he yearns for a home with more room. When he stumbles upon an ad for a farmhouse in Connecticut, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948).

If you’ve ever bought a house, redesigned your abode, or even picked out paint samples, this film is for you. The combination of Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas (Bill Cole) is a trio not to be missed. Add in a truly wonderfully supporting cast, and you have a VERY funny movie, which even today rings so true.

Cary Grant is delightful as a family man who is feeling the physical constraints of his crowded New York City apartment. It's very clear that the Blandings are well-off by contemporary standards. Jim makes a good salary, but there are limits, and Mr. Grant effectively pulls off the frustration of a man who is sinking his salary into a construction project that feels like a money pit. Some aspects of home buying have (thankfully) changed - no one today would dream of buying a home without a professional building inspection - but Jim's limitations as a home buyer add significantly to the humor in the film. Cary Grant and Myrna Loy did three films together (the other two are Wings in the Dark (1937) and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)); this would be their final film together (TCM article).

Myrna Loy has long proved her talent for comedy, and her fine touch is demonstrated perfectly here. Her rapport with Mr. Grant is wonderful - an early scene, in which he brings her an early morning cup on coffee is a sweet comment on the intimacy of their marriage. As Jim hands her the cup, he lightly strokes the top of her head; she sleepily smiles. Later, as they try to perform their morning ablutions in their tiny bathroom, Jim gently pushes her head down so he can adjust the mirror on the medicine cabinet. It's those little touches that make this very much the story of a marriage. As Jeanine Basinger says, Ms. Loy "always remained relaxed, natural...There was an honesty to her, and a subtext that put her quietly in charge of everything." (I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies). One of my favorite scenes in the film is her selection of paint for the house. Think about the plethora of paint chips in the local paint store today!

The last member of the trio is the realist in their midst - Jim's best friend and lawyer, Bill Cole - who, it turns out, was also one of Muriel's beaux in college. Melvyn Douglas is wry (if somewhat frustrated) by Jim's impetuosity, and the contrast is wonderful. Their regard for one another is clear - even when Jim shows moments of jealousy, the audience knows it can't possibly last. Mr. Douglas had already appeared with Ms. Loy in Third Finger, Left Hand (1940), however they were close friends due to their mutual interest in liberal politics (TCM article).

Louise Beavers is terrific as Gussie, the one calm, practical member of the family. When all else is falling apart, Gussie keeps the home humming.  Though her acting career was spent playing maids, she always brought warmth and dignity to the parts. She's best remembered today for films like Imitation of Life (1934), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), and was one of three actresses to portray Beulah on television - the first television series to star an African-American actress.  In her private life, she served as a board member for the Screen Actors' Guild (Hollywood Black: The Stars, The Films, The Filmakers by Donald Bogle). Her career is discussed in depth in African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960 by Charlene Regester. Ms. Beavers died of a heart attack in 1962, at the age of 60.

The Blandings daughters are ably portrayed by Sharyn Moffett and Connie Marshall. Both girls stopped acting as they approached adulthood; Ms. Marshall died of cancer in 2001. Ms. Moffett and her husband are clergy in the Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania.

Other notable appearances in the film include Reginald Denny as Mr. Simms, the unflappable architect who keeps the Blandings house going; Ian Wolfe has one short scene as realtor Smith - a conniver if ever there was one. Lex Barker is a carpentry foreman in another brief speaking part. Jason Robards, Sr appears as John Retch, the contractor.  But two actors stand out - Lurene Tuttle as Mary, Jim's loyal secretary (watch her as she waits for him to come up with an appropriate ad campaign for Wham!), and especially Harry Shannon as Mr. Tesander, who spends most of the movie looking for water. This exchange between Mr. Shannon and Mr. Grant and Mr. Douglas is priceless:

JIM: Water, Mr. Tesander. TESANDER: Yep. JIM: At six feet! TESANDER: Yep. JIM: And over there, just thirty-two yards away, you had to go down two hundred and twenty-seven feet to hit the same water. TESANDER: Yep. JIM: How do you account for that, Mr. Tesander? TESANDER: We-ll, way it seems to me, Mr. Blandings, over here the water's down around six feet and over there it's-- uh --  BILL AND TESANDER: down around two hundred and twenty-seven feet. (script).

The film was based on a book by Eric Hodkins and is a novelized account of a true story.  Bosley Crowther's New York Times review was generally positive. 

The story spawned an October 1949 Lux Radio Theatre production which starred Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, as well as a Screen Director's Playhouse production with Betsy Drake and Cary Grant in  June of 1950 (AFI catalog). Mr. Grant and Ms. Drake also were the stars of the Mr. and Mrs Blandings radio show in 1951.

New Yorkers all, we loved the introductory scenes of New York City, circa 1948. And we can certainly empathize with life in a NYC apartment. If you've never seen this movie, you'll find it a real treat (and if you have seen it, it's not a bad time to relax with the Blandings Family again). In the meantime, here's the trailer for a taste of what's to come: