Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse

1948 comedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: The Blandings live in a stuffed New York City apartment with not enough bathrooms and not enough closet space. While Mr. Blandings is shaving one day, a thought crosses his mind--he should kill his family for the insurance money. His wife is cheating on him with a 17 year old kid who dresses up like Uncle Sam and waves to people, and his two daughters, he suspects, are secretly plotting his death. The only thing stopping them, he imagines, is that they haven't found a method that will be both clean and excruciating. By the time he's finished shaving, he's abandoned the idea to kill his family and realizes that what the they actually need is a goat. A really good goat. Then he abandons that idea as well (for a while) and decides to buy an old fixer-upper in Connecticut. A house that needs fixed up. Not a goat. Problems with the new house and property arise and snowball, leading to what can only be described as a cliched 1940's Hollywood comedy murder/suicide. R.I.P. Mr. Blandings. R.I.P. goat.

This is one of several movies my father claims is his favorite. It's cute enough and there are some mildly funny moments. I thought the entire subplot involving his suspicions of infidelity were superfluous. If my neck didn't hurt, I'd give this movie a 15.