Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Based on a popular novel of a few years before. Cary Grant and Myrna Loy and their two young daughters are feeling the pinch in their two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, and decide to buy a house in Connecticut. Melvyn Douglas as their friend and lawyer tries to dissuade them from being in too much of a hurry, but they are too gaga with excitement to be very cautious. So they end up with a ramshackle structure that will surely blow over in a high wind. They have to tear it down and start over. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong, in comical fashion, and a place that was going to cost $12,000 (!!) ends up in the astronomical $38,000 range. Ad-exec Cary pulls down fifteen grand a year. Still, he managed to buy his wife a $3,500 mink coat (!!). I guess minks were seen as a necessity for upper middle class women in 1948. It’s interesting to see what things cost way back then, and the whole movie is just a ton of fun.