ANNOUNCING The Favorite Film and TV Homes Blogathon!!!!

Have you ever watched a movie and found yourself looking at the house instead of listening to the dialogue?

Do you find yourself taking screenshots of living rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms in a movie, and trying to NOT get the actor in the shot?

Do you ever find yourself trying to draw a floor plan of a movie or television home you would like to live in?

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

If you answered yes to any of these questions then this Blogathon is for you!!!

For quite some time now, I have been wanting to host a blogathon dedicated to those film and TV homes that we know almost as well as our own. When I saw Love Letter's To Old Hollywood's post on The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with all of its screenshots of Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple's house in the film, I knew I had found the perfect co-host.

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

The fun will begin on May 5, 2017 and run through May 7, with a wrap-up day for late entries. I will be hosting Days 1 and 3 and Michaela will host Days 2 and the wrap-up day.

Here are the rules Michaela and I came up with:

1. Films must be pre-1970 and television shows pre-1975 (must have started its first season before then). Both houses and apartments are acceptable.

2. NO DUPLICATES! There are plenty of gorgeous homes and apartments to go around. We can't have everyone choosing Bringing Up Baby or Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House!

3. Please try to include screenshots of the house or apartment you have chosen (if anyone needs help figuring out how to take a screenshot, please let me know).

4. Let me know what movie you would like to do in the comments below or over at Michaela's blog Love Letter's To Old Hollywood. Make sure you include the link to your blog so I don't have to hunt for it!

5. Take one of the awesome banners Michaela made and share it on your blog. And lastly, have fun!!!



The Roster:

Phyllis Loves Classic Movies: A Few Favorite Movie Rooms, Jean Arthur's apartment in The More the Merrier (1943) & Franchot Tone's country house in Dangerous (1935)

Love Letters to Old Hollywood: Mansion from The Addams Family & Gene Tierney's apartment in Laura (1944)

Hamlette's Soliloquy: Gene Kelly's apartment in An American in Paris (1951)

An Ode to Dust: The Beatles' flat from Help! (1965)

The Flapper Dame: Norma Desmond's mansion in Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Elizabeth Grace Foley: The Browns' cottage in National Velvet (1944)

Bewitched with Classic TV: The Cleaver's house from season 1 & 2 of Leave it to Beaver

In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood: TBA

Caftan Woman: Ray Milland and Grace Kelly's flat in Dial M for Murder (1954)

Realweegiemidget Reviews: The Von Trapps home from The Sound of Music (1965)

Silver Screenings: Apartment from How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

Taking Up Room: The Banks' house in Father of the Bride (1951)

The Midnite Drive-In: The Village from the British TV/ Patrick McGoohan series The Prisoner

Critica Retro: Buster Keaton's houses in The Scarecrow (1918) and The Electric House (1922)

Champagne for Lunch: The Smith family home in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movie Reviews: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1947)

Whimsically Classic: The Brady Bunch's house & Brian Keith's Monterey, CA ranch in The Parent Trap (1961)

Old Hollywood Films: Xanadu from Citizen Kane (1941)

Silver Scenes: The water-wheel house from When Ladies Meet (1941) & the cliff mansion in The Chalk Garden (1964)

Crimson Kimono: The dwellings in Vertigo (1958)

Thoughts All Sorts: The tree house in The Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

Movie House Love

Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn in Holiday (1938).

Do you often catch yourself drooling over the houses in classic films? Do you take screenshots of rooms when watching a movie because you can't help yourself. Do you find yourself liking a film more for the house than for the plot? Then Hooked on Houses is a site you need to check out!

I discovered Hooked on Houses early on in my blogging experience (which has only been a few years) and it is one that I have gone to time and time again. Julia's site, which has updates on movie houses up for sale (movie star homes and houses that were used in films), has a page dedicated especially to movie homes. Each house featured has screenshots galore as well as interesting tidbits, like what other films it was used for or what it looks like now (if it's an actual house and not a set). Here are just some of the films she has covered (new ones added all the time):

Bringing Up Baby

Christmas in Connecticut

Leave Her to Heaven

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Mrs. Miniver

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Meet Me in St. Louis

Pollyanna

Holiday Inn

White Christmas

It's a Wonderful Life

Mr. Blanding's Builds His Dream House

 

And more!!!

 

I hope you will check out her site soon! You will be glad you did :)

The 'House Plan' Scene in "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"

 

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) is one of my favorite movies, in part due to this scene. I have always enjoyed looking at house plans. When I was younger I would tear them out of magazines and check out house plan books at the library, making copies of my favorite ones. Watching this movie for the first time a few years ago, caused  me to pull them out again.

 

The premise of the film is, Mr. Blandings, played to perfection by Cary Grant, is in advertising. He lives in an apartment with his perfect wife, played by none other than the perfect Myrna Loy, his two daughters, their bird, and their maid/cook. It's very crowded.

 

Mr. Blandings, getting sick and tired of living in such a cramped space, purchases a house in Connecticut. However, upon viewing the house, everyone tells him to "Tear it down." Then someone suggests, "Why not look at some floor plans?" Mr. and Mrs. Blandings think this is a marvelous idea.

 

 

 

They visit Mr. Simms, the architect (played by Reginald Denny). He show them a sample plan.

 

Simms: First floor - living room, dining room, study, kitchen, breakfast room, service porch, maids rooms.

Second floor - three family bedrooms; two with joining baths.

 

Mrs. Blandings: Don't you think it's a little conventional?

 

Simms: Of course, this is just a point of departure; you don't have to adhere to any of this.

 

Then the fun starts.

 

 

Grant and Loy get ahold of pens and begin adding on to the "point of departure." The dialogue goes something like this:

 

If this were my house...

Now, here for instance...

If we could just push this wall a little...

 

And closets, Mr. Simms, plenty of closets! One thing this family needs is closets.

 

And bathrooms, Mr. Simms. Each bedroom must have at least one bathroom.

 

Do you think we could manage a little playroom

in the basement? You know, nothing tremendous...

 

And I've always wanted a little sewing room, a little utility room

upstairs where I can be alone and sew, or sulk, on a rainy day.

 

Now, Mr. Simms, about that playroom, not too small you know.

Plenty of room for dodge, ping-pong, nice big poker table...

The result:

 

Mr. Simms tries to talk some sense into the Blandings, who are still happily drawing rooms for their dream home.

 

Simms: In the first place, I'm afraid you've got the upstairs

about twice as big as the downstairs.

 

It's all those bathrooms!

 

It's all those closets.

 

Simms tries talking to Mr. Blandings.

 

Simms: By extending that breakfast room, you've eliminated the possibility of any stairs going up to the second floor.

 

Blandings: Oh, I've allowed for that. You can put them in behind the pantry.

 

So he tries Mrs. Blandings.

 

Simms: Mrs. Blandings, on that sewing room. The way you have it there, the chimney stack would come right up through the middle of the room, leaving you with something in the shape of a square donut, which of course may be very warm in winter, but otherwise a on utility.

 

Mrs. Blandings: Can't you put the chimney somewhere else?

 

Ten screen minutes later, they are back for the estimates, which end up being twice as much as they thought.

 

Mrs. Blandings: But we've only asked for the barest necessities!

Needless to say, after many more (hilarious) problems, the Blandings family finally get their dream house. To see more screenshots of the house and learn some trivia about the film, check out this (and other) amazing post(s) on Hooked on Houses. It's a treasure trove of classic movie houses.

Several "Mr. Blandings" houses, 73 to be exact, were built all over the country to promote the film. Here is an article that ran about one built in Spokane, Washington - the only one that followed the plans exactly.

The floorplan sent out to 100 cities by RKO

Article that appeared in a Portland, Oregon newspaper about one of the open houses. Source.

 

Click here to view a magazine spread with completed views on the house.

Kellogg's even made a cardboard version of the house!

 

Also, here is some interesting info on the promotional side of the film. It's the latter half of the post.

Drop in and see us sometime!

 

  

This post is part of the "...And Scene!" Blogathon hosted by Sister Celluloid. Be sure and check out all of the other fantastic entries here!

All screenshots by Phyl