Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

1948
Approved
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

13K

YOUR RATING

Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

Play trailer1:37

1 Video

24 Photos

Romantic Comedy Satire Comedy Romance

A man and his wife decide they can afford to have a house in the country built to their specifications. It's a lot more trouble than they think.A man and his wife decide they can afford to have a house in the country built to their specifications. It's a lot more trouble than they think.A man and his wife decide they can afford to have a house in the country built to their specifications. It's a lot more trouble than they think.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

13K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Trivia
Mr. Blandings' yearly salary of $15,000 would be (adjusted for inflation) approximately $193,000 in 2024. The screenwriters had originally given him a salary of $10,000, but postwar inflation forced them to give him a raise before shooting began.

Goofs
The foreman asks Mr. Blandings if the "lintels between the lally columns" should be rabbeted. However, the lintels are on the second floor of a two-story house. Lally columns are used in the basement or the first floor to provide support to the middle of long beams. They are not needed on the second floor.

Quotes
Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin's egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don't let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. Now, the dining room. I'd like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can't go wrong! Now, this is the paper we're going to use in the hall. It's flowered, but I don't want the ceiling to match any of the colors of the flowers. There's some little dots in the background, and it's these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room - in here - I want you to match this thread, and don't lose it. It's the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it! As you can see, it's practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me...
Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?
Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.
Mr. PeDelford: Check.

Crazy credits
Opening credits are shown on an architect's blueprints.

Alternate versions
Also available in colorized version.

Connections
Featured in Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home to (1990)

Soundtracks
Home on the Range
(uncredited)
Written by Brewster M. Higley
Sung by Cary Grant and then Myrna Loy as they shower

User reviews104

Review

Featured review

Delightful comedy

I saw this movie when it was first released in 1948. Now 50 years later I watch it again. The comedy holds up remarkably well. Say what you like about the Hollywood studios of the forties but they could turn out these pleasant entertainments seemingly without effort. The perils of buying and building a house have not changed (although the prices certainly have!)It's a delight to watch three seasoned professionals (Grant,Loy and Douglas)play against each other so well. All the minor characters are well cast. The touches of sentiment are never over done. A movie well worth seeing more than once.