Arthur Lake

Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.

Madcap couple George and Marion Kerby are killed in an automobile accident. They return as ghosts to try and liven up the regimented lifestyle of their friend and bank president, Cosmo Topper. When Topper starts to live it up, it strains relations with his stuffy wife.

Blondie and Dagwood are about to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary but this happy occasion is marred when the bumbling Dagwood gets himself involved in a scheme that is promising financial ruin for the Bumstead family.

In France during World War I, a charming farm girl keeps a squadron of English pilots in good spirits as best as she can. She falls for a handsome newcomer who is already engaged.

A collection of film clips profiling animal actors.

Things get under way when Blondie Bumstead demands that her husband request a raise from his boss Mr. Dithers, so that she can afford to hire a maid. But Dithers has no time for any salary disputes: his construction firm is currently stuck with an unsaleable old mansion that is rumored to be haunted. To disprove this theory, Dithers asks the Bumstead family to spend a night in the crumbling old house, throwing a retinue of servants into the bargain.

The adventures of three disparate cadets at the US Naval Academy--one the son of a Navy enlisted man, the other the scion of a wealthy family, the third decent but somewhat slow-witted--and their struggles with the rigors of the academy, women, and each other.

Older but no wiser, Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead enter a songwriting contest. It's all part of a plan to cover charity checks that they've signed separately but can't cover. Along the way, Blondie's blood boils when Dagwood gets innocently mixed up with beautiful music teacher Rita Rogers.

An heiress takes a job as a department store clerk.

Dagwood gets a raise due to a new contract with a bank manager. Blondie misunderstanding the amount of the raise pledges more than they can afford to Dagwood's high school reunion organizer who was also Dagwood's high school sweetheart. To make matters worse Dagwood becomes involved with a gang running a gambling establishment.

Dagwood accidentally discovers a non-flammable paint. Bad guys Dillon and Stack steal it before he can give it to his boss Radcliffe. To show off his invention, Dagwood paints Radcliffe's house with it and is disgraced when the house burns down!

Dagwood enters the Army Reserve and Blondie visits only to discover that he has caused all sorts of problems which lead to numerous conflicts.

Blondie and Dagwood are in charge of operations at a mountain motel. The elderly owners of the establishment are in danger of losing their life savings. Among other things, arson threatens.

Baby Dumpling, the six-year-old son of Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead disappears from sight during his first day at school. While Dagwood frantically combs the city in search of the boy, Baby Dumpling spents a nice, safe afternoon with poor little rich girl Melinda Mason, who with her new playmate's help arises from her sickbed to walk across the room for the first time in months.

Dagwood Bumstead, intending to buy a house, buys a horse instead. However, Dagwood quickly gets mixed up in a fox hunt, and Blondie must save the day.

Blondie decides she wants to be a star and nearly turns her household upside down in this entry in the long-running domestic comedy series. Dagwood has mixed emotions about his wife's theatrical aspirations and eventually he decides to get her to quit. As usual - disaster ensues.

Created for the US Navy in World War II. The Mr. Hook character was created by Hank Ketcham while at Walter Lantz Studios, where the first- and only color- Mr. Hook cartoon was produced. A wartime propaganda film about Japan and war bonds. The loudspeaker grille is in the shape of a peace sign as it shouts at Mr. Hook.

Daisy, the Bumstead's mischievous mutt, makes the family a little extra cash when she wins a contest to become a model for the Navy. From there she becomes the favorite calendar gal. All the attention to the dog, makes Dagwood feel that his position as master of the house is jeopardized. Meanwhile all the attention catches the greedy eyes of gangsters who try and abduct Daisy!

After bungling a real-estate transaction, Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) is demoted to office boy by his flustered boss Radcliffe (Jerome Cowan). Number 23 in the long-running Blondie series.

Cookie is born, producing unmitigated joy in the Bumstead household. Adding to the chaos a new baby always creates is the appearance of Hans Conried as a cynical author who becomes caught up in the Bumstead lifestyle.

Dagwood wants to join the trout club and Blondie wants a fur coat. Jealousy reigns when Dag's old girlfriend Joan shows up, but nothing else matters when a drawing at the movie theatre provides money for the coat.

Blondie organizes Housewives of America to perform home-front wartime duties, including guarding the local dam... Blondie for Victory was twelfth in Columbia's series of comedy films based on Chic Young's popular comic strip Blondie. Anxious to do her bit for the war effort, Blondie joins the Housewives of America, a home defense league. Husband Dagwood soon finds that Blondie is neglecting her responsibilities at home in favor of her war work; also disgruntled are Dagwood's chauvinistic boss Mr. Dithers and a newlywed husband whose wife is never home thanks to the defense league.

A promising young prizefighter sees his career start to go down the drain after he gets married and allows his wife's father and no-good brother to move in with them.

Farmboy Harold moves to the city and there attends high school. Soon he is very popular, his spirited nature causing much excitement on the campus. He joins a fraternity, goes out for football, and directs his class theatrical effort. Instead of a school play, Harold suggests doing a western motion picture. Part of the plot requires them to blow up the dam that has cut off the water supply to Harold's homestead in the country. After the explosion Harold runs away because he is afraid of being arrested, but he returns just in time to win a football game for his team.

Army training Sgt. Gray makes a bet that he can get himself invited to breakfast with his commanding officer, General Markley. But he gets into an unhappy tangle with a couple of enemy spies (and a happy tangle with the general's daughter) before the bet is finally decided.

A writer takes a job as a secretary because her scrupulous husband isn't bringing in the dough as an attorney. When her new employer is murdered, she can't seem to make up her mind as to whether she "dunnit" or not.

With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the leading lady refuses to appear. Can the show be saved?

Gangsters are attempting to control the solutions (and winning) of the puzzles in a national newspapers picture puzzles contest craze.

Honey Skinner is proud of her successful husband. When he tells her he's going to ask for a raise, she knows he'll get it. He asks his boss just as their big client announces he's not renewing his contract. He doesn't get the raise, but he's too embarrassed to tell his wife the truth. She starts making plans to spend that extra $10 a week; the first thing is a new dress suit for him and a new outfit for her so they can fit in at a swanky party. They're the hit of the party, and Honey is embraced by the 'smart set.' Meanwhile, business is bad and Skinner loses his job. The tailor is after him for payment on the suit, and Honey is still spending the salary he doesn't have.

BBlondie opens a bakery in her home to help fill the family cookie jar. Her tasty cookies become so popular that a cookie magnate makes her an offer that is difficult to refuse. Unfortunately, this creates all kinds of problems for the Bumsteads.

Dagwood brings home a pedigreed Great Dane which an important company client wants and which Blondie enters in the big dog show.

Not only must Blondie put on a brave face when her husband Dagwood is fired for the umpteenth time by Mr. Dithers, but she must also tolerate the attention paid to Dagwood by pretty WAC Mary Jane McDermott. A whiz in business matters, Mary Jane sets up Dag in his own business, which replenishes the Bumstead coffers but which drives Blondie into a jealous frenzy.

Wealthy racing driver Tom Hayden loses his inheritance and his fiancé due to a wacky mishap on his wedding day.

Based on a play by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, "3 Is a Family" is a 1940s farce. Charlie Ruggles plays a hubby whose bungled business schemes force his wife to enter the workplace. The couple's daughter shows up with her twin babies in tow. Son Arthur Lake arrives with his pregnant wife. And overbearing maiden aunt Helen Broderick also decides to move in. Because his wife is away at work, poor old Charlie Ruggles is not only housekeeper, but nursemaid and servant as well.

Dagwood Bumstead must receive a college diploma or lose his job with the Dithers Construction Company. Not wishing to be separated from her husband, Blondie enrolls in college as well. But Leighton College rules stipulate "No Married Couples", forcing Blondie and Dagwood to pretend that they're not married. This causes quite a dilemma when coed Laura Wadsworth begins flirting with Dagwood and Rusty Bryant does the same with Blondie. And Blondie's discovery of a very pleasant secret threatens to expose her and Dagwood's marital status too.

Mr. Dithers invites the Bumsteads on a South American cruise. Somehow Dagwood winds up as the female drummer in the ship's band, while Penny Singleton gets to show off her Broadway background in some lively musical numbers.

A series of vignettes with a loose plot. Featured are Frank Morgan, Groucho Marx, Frank McHugh, Robert Benchley and The Brian Sisters. Not bad, more interesting for the historical significance than for entertainment.

Fired for messing up an important contract, Dagwood takes a job as a manual laborer for a construction firm while trying to get his old job back.

Dagwood Bumstead poses as his boss Mr. Dithers so that a big business deal can be consummated while Dithers avoids nearsighted process server Jim Gray. The upshot of all this is that Dagwood ends up in a lunatic asylum, forcing Blondie to come to the rescue.

J. Harrison Gray, a wealthy playboy and notorious womanizer, finally decides to find the "right" girl and settle down. He finds the right girl, Betty, who is a policeman's daughter. However, in his pursuit of her he is hit by a car, knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital, where a steady stream of ex-girlfriends visits to "take care" of him--which doesn't leave a particularly good impression on the woman he really loves.

Jack exchanges his cow for some magic beans. The beans grow overnight into a beanstalk, which Jack climbs, arriving at a castle that is his. Jack sets a deal with the giant in exchange for their fortune.

Dagwood inadvertently gets cornered in to resigning. When his wife Blondie tries to ask Dagwoods boss Mr. Dithers for his job back, he ends up hiring her instead. This doesn't sit too well with Dagwood. Blondie's sister comes to visit, and Dagwood is put in a compromising situation with another woman.

A sweet-natured young Irish woman is courted by a romantic poet and a local country gentleman. Which man will she choose?

Mr. Dithers is trying to encourage a businessman to build a war-time manufacturing plant on land he owns while Dagwood tries to prevent the businessman from learning his daughter is involved in a local theatre production.

A girl is caught between two suitors and a land deal that can make or break her marriage to her true love.

Dagwood prepares for a long-delayed vacation with the family. His boss Mr. Radcliffe has promised the Bumsteads that there'll be no more postponements for their holiday. But when something comes up that requires Dagwood's presence, Radcliffe hires a couple of thugs to steal Blondie and Dagwood's luggage so that they'll have to stay in town. And that's only the beginning of the frantic fun.

Basically this is a commercial for Hollywood's Lido Lounge and for MGM contract players. The Lido is a large watering hole; we visit one afternoon with an orchestra playing, all sorts of stars and would-be stars sitting at tables near the pool alongside paying customers, and bathing beauties parading and diving. The Lido's manager, Reggy Denny, introduces the stars in the audience. He's sometimes interrupted by someone who does a bit, sings a song, or otherwise entertains: most of these are novelty acts. By the end, everyone's having a swell time.

When a popular radio singer is knocked unconscious during a robbery, a squeaky-voiced college boy fills in for him. To everyone's amazement, especially his recent girlfriend, who just broke up with him, he becomes an overnight sensation.

Blondie finds a valuable watch that has been hidden by hubby Dagwood. She assumes that it's a surprise wedding gift, but the truth is that Dagwood has been guarding the watch on behalf of a client who bought the gift for his own wife, which soon leads to trouble with his boss, a loan shark, and crooked building contractors.

A love affair blossoms between two pairs of shoes after a couple purchases the shoes.

A tour guide in Chinatown and his girlfriend get mixed up with jewel thieves and murder.

Honeymooners find a dead radio producer in their suite.

A shy songwriter (Arthur Lake) pretends to be a championship wrestler known as "The Devil" in order to impress a pretty nightclub singer (Dale Evans).

A man who works for a sporting-supply company mistakenly orders surfboards instead of surfballs and must find a way to sell them.

Mr. Dithers leaves Dagwood in charge of the office for a short period. Poor old Dagwood manages to gum things up when he falls for a confidence scam engineered by the duplicitous Toby Clifton. He even finds himself in a compromising position that seriously endangers his future connubial happiness with his wife Blondie. Once again, it's up to Blondie to straighten out the mess.

To cure their flirtatious husbands of consorting with flappers, three wives-- Susan Martin, Ethel Drake, and Kitty Ladd-- arrange with three college boys-- Henry Winton, Oscar, and Joe Valley-- to flirt with them at a house party. Joe Valley, who poses as a hot-blooded Spaniard, is vamped by Ginsberg in female attire, and Oscar, a bashful Swede, uses caveman methods when aroused. During a rehearsal of the party, the three husbands arrive, followed by their flapper friends, leading to comic complications.

Seaman Hook has big plans for after the war, mostly involving rushing home and marrying his sweetie. So do his fellow seaman, but theirs involve buying bonds.

An unlikely courtroom romance blooms between a flower-shop owner and her unscrupulous landlord's married attorney.

A conceited college track star, used to being "big man on campus", gets a jolt when he loses an election to see who is the most popular man in the school.

Peggy and Bill are high society lovebirds, but their marriage plans are put on hold while Peggy spends most of her summer straightening out her wayward parents and her unlucky-in-love sister Janet. Mama and Papa are set to rights fairly quickly, but Janet's the one with real problems. It seems she sent some compromising love letters to a worthless cad, and now the bounder wants to use the letters for blackmail. Peggy's friend Roger and his flapper sweetheart Tootie hatch an elaborate plan to retrieve the incriminating letters and salvage Janet's reputation.

A young man gets engaged to a business competitor's daughter.

A dance trophy winning young couple is temporarily split up when a playboy aviator leads the girl to believe he's in love with her.

A young British nobleman, impoverished and desperate, clings to the hope that either a prizefighter or a racehorse in which he holds interests can save his fortunes.

A high-speed train becomes the star of the film as it rushes from Chicago to Hoover Dam to transport an iron lung to a needy patient.

In this comedy, three merchant marines get into all kinds of trouble. Two of the salts have just broken off their engagements after meeting other, more desirable women.

Navy seaman Mr. Hook is convinced of the value of holding on to his war bonds.

Lost film. Two eager young pilots at flight school compete over their flight instructor's aviatrix sister.

State College is a coeducational school where the athletics are more important than academics. All there are preparing for a big multi-sport match with arch rival Dale College. Students Arthur and Florence are brother and sister, each with love troubles. Their romantic problems are resolved against a background of leggy singing, dancing coeds in this 2 reel musical.

A divorced woman finds success as a fashion designer.

The Bumstead family is off to see relatives in the country when Blondie runs into Charlie and Millie, an eloping couple needing her help.

Director Christy Cabanne's 1933 film dramatizes one year in the lives of four midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy.

A young woman jeopardizes the relationship with the man she loves when a no-account from her past shows up.

A fired cameraman by way of a girl's mistaken identity wins back his job through pioneering work in television.

Two young beautiful starlets use the Griffith Observatory telescope to find stars in Hollywood.

A bitterly jealous sponge fisherman tries to sabotage a fellow diver.

A crime novelist devises a scheme to catch the thief who has stolen the valuable "Konjer Diamonds". Director Lew Landers' 1938 B-film stars Preston Foster, Whitney Bourne, Cecil Kellaway, Donald Meek, Samuel S. Hinds, Arthur Lake, Paul Guilfoyle and June Johnson.

Two starstruck visitors to Hollywood sneak into the famous nightclub and end up in a Conga contest and get more than they expected.