Arthur Lake Filmography

Blondie's Hero

Synopsis: This film, which is one of a series based on the characters from the Blondie comic strip, finds Dagwood entering the Army Reserve. Blondie visits, only to discover that he has caused all sorts of problems which lead to numerous conflicts. The ORC Training Center, Fort MacArthur, California was Read More

Beware of Blondie

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Adele Jergens

Synopsis: After 12 years and 28 films, Columbia's Blondie series came to a close with 1950's Beware of Blondie. The plot is "business as usual," with Mr. Dithers leaving Dagwood (Arthur Lake) in charge of the office for a short period. Poor old Dag manages to gum things up when he falls for a confidence Read More

Blondie Hits the Jackpot

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: The "Blondie" series reaches Number 25 with Blondie Hits the Jackpot. Fired for messing up an important contract, Dagwood (Arthur Lake) takes a job as a manual laborer for a construction firm. He is rescued from penury when Blondie (Penny Singleton) wins a radio contest. Of slender interest is the Read More

Blondie's Big Deal

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: Blondie's Big Deal was the 24th entry in Columbia's popular "Blondie" series. Since the actors were getting a bit too long-in-tooth to be thoroughly convincing in their characterizations, Big Deal is for the most part played on a farcical level. This time around, Dagwood (Arthur Lake) invents a Read More

Blondie's Secret

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: This 23rd entry in the "Blondie" film series stars, as ever, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake as Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead respectively. It all begins as Dagwood prepares for a long-delayed vacation with the family. His boss Mr. Radcliffe (Jerome Cowan) has promised the Bumsteads that there'll Read More

Blondie's Reward

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent

Synopsis: The long-running "Blondie" series was slowly heading into the homestretch when Blondie's Reward came out in 1948. After bungling a real-estate transaction, Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) is demoted to office boy by his flustered boss Radcliffe (Jerome Cowan). Nor does Dagwood improve the situation Read More

16 Fathoms Deep

Actors: Lon Chaney, Jr., Arthur Lake, Lloyd Bridges, Eric Feldary

Synopsis: 16 Fathoms Deep was a curious choice as the first effort from Arthur Lake Productions. Heretofore known best as Dagwood Bumstead in Columbia's Blondie series, Arthur Lake not only elected to produce this remake of the 1934 melodrama of the same name but also to play the film's comedy-relief Read More

Blondie's Holiday

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: This 20th entry in Columbia's long-running "Blondie" series finds poor Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) in financial trouble once again. Unable to obtain a raise from boss Radcliffe (Jerome Cowan), Dagwood begins "playing the ponies" at the race track, which gets him in trouble with the Law-not to Read More

Blondie's Anniversary

Synopsis: Blondie's Anniversary invades territory already mapped out by Columbia's two-reel Hugh Herbert comedies. Blondie (Penny Singleton) finds a valuable watch that has been hidden by hubby Dagwood (Arthur Lake). She assumes that it's a surprise wedding gift, but the truth is that Dagwood has been Read More

Blondie in the Dough

Synopsis: Blondie opens a bakery in her home to help fill the family cookie jar in this entry in the long-running domestic comedy series based on the popular comic strip. Her tasty cookies become so popular that a cookie magnate makes her an offer that is difficult to refuse. Unfortunately, this creates all Read More

Blondie's Big Moment

Synopsis: 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. Disaster ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

Life with Blondie

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Blondie Knows Best

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Steven Geray

Synopsis: Blondie Knows Best was writer/director Edward Bernds' first entry in the long-running "Blondie" series, and arguably his funniest. The story contrives to have Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) pose as his boss Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale) so that a big business deal can be consummated while Dithers Read More

Blondie's Lucky Day

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Robert Stanton

Synopsis: Blondie's Lucky Day, indeed! Not only must Blondie Bumstead (Penny Singleton) put on a brave face when her husband Dagwood (Arthur Lake) is fired for the umpteenth time by Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), but she must also tolerate the attentions paid to Dagwood by pretty WAC Mary Jane McDermott (Angelyn Orr Read More

The Big Show-Off

Actors: Arthur Lake, Dale Evans, Lionel Stander, Paul Hurst

Synopsis: Arthur Lake took time off from his Blondie duties at Columbia to star in Republic's The Big Show-Off. Lake plays an obnoxious pianist who has eyes for beautiful Dale Evans (the same), but she is put off by his ceaseless boasting. Only when Lake is taken down a peg or two in a wrestling match does Evans Read More

Leave It to Blondie

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Weaver, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: After a two-year layoff, Columbia revived its moneymaking "Blondie" series with 1945's Leave It to Blondie. Older but no wiser, Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead (Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake) enter a songwriting contest. It's all part of a plan to cover charity checks that they've signed separately Read More

Saller's Holiday

Actors: Arthur Lake, Jane Lawrence, Bob Haymes, Shelley Winters, Lewis Wilson

Three is a Family

Actors: Marjorie Reynolds, Charlie Ruggles, Helen Broderick, Arthur Lake

Synopsis: Based on a play by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, Three Is a Family is a 1940s farce that frequently substitutes noise for humor. Charlie Ruggles plays a hubby whose bungled business schemes force his wife Fay Bainter to enter the workplace. The couple's daughter Marjorie Reynolds shows up with her twin Read More

The Ghost That Walks Alone

Synopsis: A radio sound-effects man finds his honeymoon plans interrupted by the pesky presence of a corpse in his honeymoon suite. This comedy follows the way in which he and his bride deal with the puzzling mystery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Sailor's Holiday

Synopsis: Arthur Lake takes a break from his Dagwood Bumstead duties in the "Blondie" series to star as furloughed sailor Marble Head Tomkins in Columbia's Sailor's Holiday. The plot is the old one about an engagement being broken because both male and female have fallen in love with someone else. In this Read More

Footlight Glamour

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Ann Savage, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: Footlight Glamour is one of two "Blondie" series entries in which Blondie's name isn't included in the credits. Otherwise, the film adheres strictly to formula, with Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) getting into a mess and Dagwood's wife Blondie (Penny Singleton) getting him out of it. This time Read More

It's a Great Life

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Hugh Herbert, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: When the profits of their various film series began slumping in the mid-1940s, Columbia Pictures tried to broaden the appeal of these films by disguing the fact that they were indeed series entries. Thus it was that Columbia's 12th "Blondie" picture was shipped out as It's a Great Life. The comic Read More

Blondie for Victory

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Majelle White

Synopsis: Anxious to do her bit for the war effort, Blondie (Penny Singleton) joins the Housewives of America, a home defense league. Husband Dagwood (Arthur Lake) soon finds that Blondie is neglecting her responsibilities at home in favor of her war work; also disgruntled are Dagwood's chauvinistic boss Read More

Blondie's Blessed Event

Synopsis: An historical entry in Columbia's Blondie series, Blondie's Blessed Event recreates the moment in Chic Young's original comic strip wherein Blondie and Dagwood were blessed with baby daughter Cookie. The first portion of the film involves the tribulations of Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) as he Read More

Blondie Goes to College

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Janet Blair

Synopsis: One of the most fondly remembered of the "Blondie" series entries, Blondie Goes to College is predicated on the notion that Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) must receive a college diploma or lose his job with the Dithers Construction Company. Not wishing to be separated from her husband, Blondie (Penny Singleton Read More

The Daring Young Man

Synopsis: In this war comedy, an army reject becomes a war hero by rounding up a ring of Nazi spies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Blondie in Society

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: Blondie in Society is another delightful excursion into comic insanity for Blondie (Penny Singleton), Dagwood (Arthur Lake) and Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms). The trouble begins when Dagwood brings home a huge Great Dane as a favor to an old friend. It turns out that the gigantic hound is a Read More

Congo Swing

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Ruth Terry, Tito Guizar

Synopsis: Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) is invited by his boss Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale) to accompany Dithers on an ocean cruise to South America. Dagwood's whole family comes along, including wife Blondie (Penny Singleton), son Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) and Daisy the dog and her pups. Just before Read More

Blondie Plays Cupid

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: The Bumstead family-Blondie (Penny Singleton), Dagwood (Arthur Lake) and Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms)-embark on a long-delayed vacation in this series entry. While en route to their out-of-town relatives, the Bumsteads are forced to make an emergency stopover in a small town, where they get mixed Read More

Blondie on a Budget

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Rita Hayworth

Synopsis: This is the celebrated Blondie episode that costars Rita Hayworth, who in 1940 was still just another Columbia contract actress. Hayworth plays an old flame of Dagwood Bumstead's (Arthur Lake), who moves into the Bumstead household when wife Blondie (Penny Singleton) advertises for a boarder. Read More

Blondie Has Servant Trouble

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Danny Mummert, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: Few of Columbia's "Blondie" films went as far off the beaten path as the bizarre Blondie Has Servant Trouble. Things get under way when Blondie Bumstead (Penny Singleton) demands that her husband Dagwood (Arthur Lake) request a raise from his boss Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale), so that Blondie can Read More

Blondie and the Other Woman

Synopsis: The discovery of a photo of her husband with an unknown woman leads Blondie to think he is having an affair. This movie is one of a series based on characters from the Blondie comic strip. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Blondie Brings up Baby

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Danny Mummert

Synopsis: Columbia's new "Blondie" series continued its winning streak with its fourth entry, Blondie Brings Up Baby. So much happens within the film's 67 minutes that it's best to boil things down to the central storyline. Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms), the six-year-old son of Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead (Penny Singleton Read More

Blondie Takes a Vacation

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Danny Mummert

Synopsis: This third entry in Columbia's "Blondie" series retains the freshness and laugh quotient of the first two, which is more than can be said for the series' later offerings. Taking a well-deserved rest, the Bumstead family-Dagwood (Arthur Lake), Blondie (Penny Singleton), Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) Read More

Blondie Meets the Boss

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: This second entry in Columbia's new "Blondie" series is every bit as delightful as the first. When Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) heads off for a long-awaited fishing trip, his loving wife Blondie (Penny Singleton) assumes Dag's duties at the offices of J. C. Dithers (Jonathan Hale). Read More

I Cover Chinatown

Actors: Norman Foster, Elaine Shepard, Theodore Von Eltz, Polly Ann Young, Arthur Lake

Synopsis: A woman is brutally strangled and her body stuffed into a suitcase in this otherwise rather frivolous low-budget thriller. The unfortunate woman is one Myra Duryea (Polly Ann Young), who has discovered that her husband Clark (Theodore von Eltz) and his equally unsavory brother Victor (Edward Read More

Everybody's Doing It

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Sally Eilers, Cecil Kellaway, Lorraine Krueger, William Brisbane

Synopsis: In this comedy, designed to exploit the then current national craze for picture puzzles, an alcoholic advertising exec becomes addicted to inventing puzzles. Trouble ensues when he goes off on a major drunk and forgets to leave the answers to a national breakfast cereal contest. His colleague is Read More

Blondie

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Gene Lockhart, Ann Doran

Synopsis: When Columbia Pictures secured the movie rights to Chic Young's popular comic strip Blondie, the studio executives probably never imagined that the ensuing "Blondie" series would last for 12 years and 28 episodes! Part of the series' charm was Columbia's wisdom in casting the ideal actors for the Read More

Double Danger

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Whitney Bourne, Samuel S. Hinds, Donald Meek, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: It's Double Danger for detective-story writer Robert Crane (Preston Foster) whenever he pursues his "secret life" as a suave jewel thief. Eluding police commissioner David Theron (Samuel S. Hinds) at every turn, Crane intends to snatch the famed Konjer diamonds from under the nose of jeweler Read More

There Goes My Heart

Actors: Fredric March, Virginia Bruce, Patsy Kelly, Alan Mowbray, Nancy Carroll

Synopsis: Heiress Virginia Bruce tries to prove her worth by taking a job as a shopgirl in the store owned by her family. The pampered young lady is given a crash course in pragmatism by her worldly roommates Patsy Kelly and Nancy Carroll. Reporter Fredric March learns of Bruce's ruse and plans to tell all Read More

True Confession

Actors: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, John Barrymore, Una Merkel, Porter Hall

Synopsis: Carole Lombard stars as Helen Bartlett, a compulsive liar who always tips the audience to an oncoming whopper by sticking her tongue in her cheek. Helen is married to a Kenneth Bartlett, a scrupulously honest lawyer whose integrity has always held him back professionally. Hoping to help Kenneth Read More

23 1/2 Hours Leave

Actors: James Ellison, Terry Walker, Morgan Hill, Arthur Lake, Paul Harvey

Synopsis: Douglas MacLean, who starred in the original 1919 version of this World War I comedy, produced this remake starring James Ellison as Sgt. Gray. One day at training camp, Gray bets his buddies that he'll be having breakfast with the General (Paul Harvey) the next morning. Through a series of comic Read More

Topper

Actors: Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Billie Burke, Roland Young, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: By 1937, producer Hal Roach was hoping to wean himself away from the Laurel & Hardy-Our Gang slapstick on which he had built his studio's reputation by delving into the "screwball comedy" genre. Roach selected the racy Thorne Smith fantasy novel Topper for adaptation, and the result was one of the Read More

Exiled to Shanghai

Actors: Wallace Ford, June Travis, Dean Jagger, William Bakewell, Arthur Lake

Synopsis: Exiled to Shanghai uses the then-waging wars in Spain and China as backdrops for a familiar "rival reporters" yarn. Wallace Ford plays Ted Young, a brash newsreel cameraman who is fired by his dyspeptic editor Fred Sears (Dean Jagger) for photographing the wrong general during the Spanish Civil Read More

Annapolis Salute

Actors: James Ellison, Marsha Hunt, Harry Carey, Anne Hovey

Synopsis: Annapolis Salute is the 1937 remake of RKO's 1933 film Midshipman Jack. Lensed on location at the Annapolis Naval Academy, the film alternates scenes of cadet training with a sentimental romantic story. Essentially, midshipman James Ellison wants to romance officer's daughter Marsha Hunt. He is Read More

It's a Great Life

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Joe Morrison, Paul Kelly, Charles "Chic" Sale, Rosalind Keith, Baby Le Roy

Synopsis: It's a Great Life served as a vehicle for once-popular radio singer Joe Morrison (who can also be seen in W.C. Fields' It's the Old Fashioned Way). Morrison plays a young unemployed fellow who joins the Civilian Conservation Corps. Enjoying the twin euphoria of steady work and fresh air, Morrison Read More

Orchids to You

Actors: John Boles, Jean Muir, Charles Butterworth, Ruthelma Stevens, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: The title may be Orchids to You, but the plot is motivated by a camellia -- to be exact, Camelia Rand (Jean Muir). About to be ejected from her thriving flower shop when a developer plans to tear down the building, Camelia confronts Thomas Bentley (John Boles), the lawyer representing the Read More

Girl of My Dreams

Actors: Mary Carlisle, Sterling Holloway, Eddie Nugent, Arthur Lake, Creighton Chaney

Synopsis: Long before its "Teen Agers" series of the 1940s, Monogram Pictures went to college in the minor musical Girl of My Dreams. Heading the somewhat over-aged student body are BMOC Larry Haynes (Edward Nugent) and track-star Don Cooper (a handsome young Lon Chaney Jr., here still billed as Creighton Chaney Read More

Women Must Dress

Actors: Minna Gombell, Gavin Gordon, Hardie Albright, Suzanne Kaaren, Lenita Lane

Synopsis: A homely woman gets the best kind of revenge upon her philandering husband in this drama. Tired of his constant cheating, the woman puts on make up, takes their daughter, and starts a new, more modern life. She becomes an acclaimed dress designer while her daughter falls in love with a stodgy Read More

The Silver Streak

Actors: Sally Blane, Charles Starrett, William Farnum, Irving Pichel

Synopsis: Beyond the fact that both films shared a "railroad" background, RKO Radio's 1935 actioner The Silver Streak bore no relation to the 1976 Gene Wilder vehicle of the same name. The earlier film stars Charles Starrett as Tom Caldwell, the dynamic young designer of a streamlined, high-speed passenger Read More

Midshipman Jack

Actors: Bruce Cabot, Betty Furness, Frank Albertson, Arthur Lake, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: In this romance, an enrollee at the US Naval Academy finds it difficulty adjusting to the unending rules and regulations. Then he falls in lover with the commandant's daughter and almost loses his chance for a commission. Fortunately, he turns it all around, does well, and becomes an instructor Read More

Indiscreet

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Ben Lyon, Monroe Owsley, Barbara Kent, Arthur Lake

Synopsis: Divesting herself of her own production company, silent-screen queen Gloria Swanson entered into a two-picture deal with producer Joseph M. Schenck, which paid her a straight (and very hefty) salary for both productions. The first film completed under this arrangement was the trivial romantic Read More

She's My Weakness

Actors: Arthur Lake, William Collier, Sr., Lucien Littlefield, Alan Bunce

Synopsis: Two former Fox contractees star in RKO Radio's She's My Weakness, a flat adaptation of Howard Lindsay and Bertrand Robinson's play Tommy. Hero Tommy Mills (Arthur Lake) would like to marry his sweetie Marie Thurber (Sue Carol), but first he's got to get on his feet financially. Attempting to sell Read More

Cheer up and Smile

Actors: Dixie Lee, Arthur Lake, Olga Baclanova, Charles Judels, Whispering Jack Smith

Synopsis: A pre-Dagwood Arthur Lake plays a hapless hayseed who becomes a popular crooner in this fluffy musical comedy that begins during the robbery of a big-city radio station. There the gunman forces him to sing on the air. The audience loves him and he is an instant star. Delighted with his sudden Read More

Dance Hall

Actors: Olive Borden, Arthur Lake, Margaret Seddon, Ralph Emerson, Joseph Cawthorn

Synopsis: Taxi dancing provides the framework for this romantic drama that chronicles the attempted love affair between a shipping clerk and a taxi dancer. Try as he might, he cannot distract the lovely dancer from her fixation upon a dashing aviator. The pilot seems to return her affection. The shipping Read More

On with the Show

Actors: Betty Compson, Louise Fazenda, Sally O'Neil, Joe E. Brown, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: This early talkie antique is a backstage musical from Warner Bros. The plot involves the out-of-town tryout of a new musical comedy, and the people who perform therein: a bitchy leading lady (Betty Compson), an arrogant comedy lead (Joe E. Brown), and a starstruck chorus kid (Sally O'Neil). At the Read More

Tanned Legs

Actors: Ann Pennington, Arthur Lake, Dorothy Revier, Sally Blane, June Clyde

Synopsis: The aforementioned appendages appear aplenty in this musical comedy that centers on a husband and wife seeking to recapture their youth by wooing younger partners. More mayhem ensues when their eldest daughter falls in love with the con artist who is involved with her father's new girl friend. The Read More

Count of Ten

Actors: James Gleason, Charles Ray, Jobyna Ralston, Edythe Chapman, Arthur Lake

Synopsis: Veteran stage actor/playwright James Gleason made his film debut in the Universal comedy The Count of Ten. In fact, Gleason received top billing over onetime screen favorite Charles Ray, an indication that Ray's days of prominence were numbered. Returning to the "yokel" characterization that won Read More

Harold Teen

Actors: Mary Brian, Arthur Lake, Lucien Littlefield, Jack Duffy

Synopsis: Based on the comic strip by Carl Ed, Harold Teen stars future "Dagwood Bumstead" Arthur Lake in the title role. Upon arriving in the big city to attend high school, the bumptious Harold soon becomes the most popular boy in class. This gives our hero carte blanche to indulge in all sorts of comic Read More