Showing posts with label romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label romance. Show all posts

Monday, February 02, 2026

Mr. Blandings builds his dream house (1948)

 Tonight's movie at the Estates almost didn't happen. "Mr. Blandings builds his dream house" is a post WWII tale of "affordability" and "housing crises" that seems made for today's 21st century housing  woes. Many scenes reminded me of the tales of apartment dwellers in NYC--tiny living spaces, high costs and inconvenience. And it seems that teachers ridiculing capitalism and the lifestyle of their students' parents (who pay their salaries) is not new to our age.

It was supposed to be shown on Saturday, but there was no one to set it up because one of our buildings had a broken pipe and flooded due to record cold. All the staff had rushed across the street to help on clean up. So, Connie our sweet activity director rescheduled it for Monday which usually doesn't have a movie. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Our morning (Feb. 2) didn't have a good start either. Due to a water leak, our building also had the water shut off about 3 a.m., which few but the early risers (like me) found out until trying to flush.

"Cary Grant and Myrna Loy played a Manhattan couple who, tired of city life, decide to build a house in the country. The process, however, is marred by numerous problems, including cost overruns and shoddy workmanship. Grant’s character, a harried ad executive, discovers his dream home is more like a nightmare, all while having to deal with a hellish commute. The situation is further complicated by troubles at work and his suspicion that his wife is having an affair with his best friend (played by Melvyn Douglas).

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, which was adapted from Eric Hodgins’s popular novel of the same name, was timely, given the post-World War II housing-construction boom. To promote the film, the studio built 73 exact replicas of Mr. Blandings’s “Dream House” across the country, which they sold or gave away in raffles." Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House | Comedy, Cary Grant, Romance | Britannica

Monday, April 28, 2025

Settling in with a good movie

It was a quiet Sunday evening, I'd finished my book club reading for the month, I didn't want more politics, so I clicked on Spark TV and got a Candlelight Media film which are similar to Hallmark--romantic, family friendly and no bodice ripping or smash mouth kissing. It was a charming film about a travel blogger and a travel package marketer who meet by accident while on location on a beautiful pacific island. I got to see some great scenery, and we had visited the four places (if the islands were Hawaii) that are featured in the romance--Turkey (Cappadocia), Scotland, and Finland which included dog sleds and aurora borealis. 

So today I looked up the company. It's based in Utah, so I suspected the "team" are Morman/LDS, and from the surname (Brough), they all seem to be related. They also seem to own Spark TV. Here's a list of current or upcoming films: https://www.candlelightmedia.com/all-movies

I continued to poke around the internet and found a 10 year old blog of a novice screen writer who had an unpleasant experience with the Brough family and felt they saw their business as an LDS mission. I know nothing about legal contracts for screenwriters and found nothing evangelistic in the story line unless you think decency, honor and truth telling offensive.

Trailer for Passport to Love (2024), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29270596/?