Andy Hardy Series - Films 9 - 12
                                                                              
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) – 6.0




This is the ninth film in the MGM Andy Hardy series. One of the amazing things about this series isn't just the number of films in the series - 16 - or the span of the series from 1937 to 1946 (excluding the 1955 Andy Hardy Comes Home), but that after the first film the same main actors played the same characters throughout. The power of the studio. In all but two films Judge Hardy is played by Lewis Stone, Mother Hardy by Faye Holden in all but the first film including the 1955 one, the sister is portrayed by Cecilia Parker in the first film and the last and most of the ones in between, Sara Haden is Aunt Milly in all but two films, Ann Rutherford is Polly, the off and on girlfriend of Andy in 10 of the films and of course Mickey Rooney is in all 16 of them. George Seitz directed 14 of them. This was one of the reasons that the series was held in such affection by the American public. Another reason is its portrayal of small town Americana, the sense of egalitarianism of the common man and a quiet patriotism that pops up from time to time.




Nowhere more so than in this film - it is a clash of classes and a paean to American values. Kind of hokey in today's era but very much a part of the culture in 1940. At one point to teach Andy a lesson about American upward mobility, the Judge takes him on a tour of the statues of great men (hard not to think about what is going on now) - Hamilton, Jackson, Grant and Lincoln and told him that they started from nothing and became great men and so could he. Andy replies that their problems were nothing compared to his. To which the Judge mutters, "When a boy's stupid... he's just stupid, that's all." It is all perspective.



Because as usual Andy gets himself in trouble all of his own doing - which he never ever quite understands. The Judge has to go to New York City to save the orphanage in Carvel, their hometown, and the family goes along. Mother worries that she won't know how to behave properly in NYC, Andy calls it a city of sin. Andy has told Polly that he is dating a Debutante in NYC that is on all the social magazines that Andy collects secretly like most boys at that age did porn (pre-Internet). Now he has to provide proof in a photo or his name is mud in Carville. She is high class, he is Middle America.




In New York is his old friend Betsy who we met in an earlier film. They are chums - she hero worshipping him, Andy treating her like a child. That is until she sings at a swell shindig - I'm Nobody's Baby - and suddenly he realizes what has been in front of him all the time. That being Judy Garland. She sings one other song as well and is the highlight of the film. Andy is a complete downer in this one - feeling sorry for himself, being ridiculously stupid or naïve (he goes to the fanciest restaurant in the city and orders all the specialties and expects to be able to cover the bill with $8 (it was still only $35!) and a bit tiresome. Garland is great - a huge star now after The Wizard of Oz and the first of her musical pairings with Rooney (Babes in Arms). In the end of course the Judge and Betsy make everything ok.



Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary (1941) – 5.0




This is the tenth in the Andy Hardy series and not one of the best. At 100 minutes it is like a guest who hangs around way past dinner. This series was enormously popular and profitable. Cheap to make since the actors were all signed to the studio anyways and the same basic sets were used from film to film. Mickey Rooney was one of the biggest box office draws during this period until he went into the army during the war for two years. After he got out he was 25 and only made one more Andy Hardy film until a final one in 1958. No Andy Hardy films were made while he was away. His career was never the same after he returned but back in 1941 he was on the top of the roost.

 



MGM used this series to introduce young actors that they had hopes for - many didn't make it but a few who did were Judy Garland, Lana Turner and later Esther Williams. This one is the debut for Kathryn Grayson who went on to a fine career in musicals. Here she sings two songs - one an opera number and the other a song from Cole Porter, I Have My Eyes on You. She was 19.

 


This is a mess of a film as they try to shoehorn too many plots into it thus needing all that time to resolve them happily. Andy sulks, screws up and is a general dick through the film. It gets a little tiresome. Judge Hardy needs to put him into solitary. There is only one lovely Andy moment - when he hears some good news and breaks into the Judge's quarters and does a happy dance. That is Rooney showing his great talent all in one minute. He was enormously talented and had starred along with Garland in their first musical, Strike Up the Band in 1940. In this same year as this film he also starred in Young Tom Edison and Babes on Broadway (again with Garland).

 

Andy and his pals including Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) and Kathryn (Grayson) are graduating high school. Finally. Andy is ahead of every committee there is giving orders to all and basically acting like the school hot shot. One plot line has the Judge lecturing Andy on reaching out to the poor and not ignoring them - this being Kathryn whose father works in a garage. Another has Kathryn's father trying to get a job in South America that Andy screws up. Another all the graduation activities. Another Polly getting jealous of Kathryn who Andy makes his private secretary.  Another Andy screwing up his English final and not graduating. And the usual man to man talks between father and son. It really drags at times but good to see Grayson in her debut. Some musicals she would go on to star in were Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate, Anchors Away and Thousands Cheer.

 
Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941) – 6.0




The Andy Hardy films were still a valuable commodity for MGM in this 11th film in the series. They were still A films unlike most series that might begin as the main feature but by the 3rd or fourth have slipped down to being the second feature. Another series from MGM also stayed at the top of the heap - The Thin Man series - but when Song of the Thin Man lost money, that was it. The series was finished. But the Hardy films were still making money. This one made over $1.3 million in profit - that paid for a lot of salaries in 1941. To a lot of Americans, the Hardy family was like their own and they wanted to see what was happening to them now.

 

It is interesting to me that from time to time the films veered from the usual fun loving hijinks, teenage problems and light romances to be serious and rather glum. This one is downright dour. Depressing. The films usually had a life lesson within delivered by the father at some point to a reluctant Andy. Here the lesson seems to be that life is tough, it is hard getting a break, it can be really hard - and at the core it seems to say your heart is where your home is, where your family is, where everyone knows you. The city will eat you up and spit you out like a piece of gnarly fat. The father also tells Andy that he has to show fidelity to his future wife, the one he hasn't met yet. Even Andy is like, what are you talking about? What happened to wild oats.

 

Changes are taking place in Andy's life. He has just graduated from High School. Polly leaves for college and they officially break up. His father (the perfect Lewis Stone) wants him to go to college to study law. Andy sees that as a life sentence and isn't ready to commit. First he wants a taste of life and work - but not in Carvel - but in the Big Apple, NYC. I kind of identified with this because in my mid 20's I moved to NYC with $2,000 in my pockets, no job, no place to stay. I just got on Amtrak and went and wished for the best. It worked out better for me than it did for Andy. Everything goes wrong. He can't find a job, his money is running out, he falls for an older man eating dame that could make anyone swoon like the moon in June. Played by Patricia Dane, she pumps heat like a radiator. In real life too apparently. A party girl. Married Tommy Dorsey and their brawls were bigger than anything on the Friday Night Fights from Madison Sq. Garden.  This part of the film is just weird - we are used to Andy falling for the wrong girl - but this woman is miles ahead of him. And wants to sleep with him. Virgin territory.

 

And he has Betsy at his side the whole film who adores him and saves him. Judy Garland in her third and last appearance in the series. Every time she comes on the screen it is like a small warm glow. She and her teenage slang steal the show. Nineteen at the time and becoming too famous for Andy Hardy after The Wizard of Oz and the two musicals she made with Rooney. Too bad because she is great in these films in her small parts. They don't even let her sing here. Every one in the audiences was I am sure thinking would you just kiss Betsy and be done with it, but he never does. And he never got another chance.

 
The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942) – 7.0




The 12th film in the Andy Hardy series.

Andy to Judge Hardy "When you were young didn't you neck with girls"

Judge Hardy to his son "We called it spooning".

 

What the hell Judge? Was that before or after sex?

 This is a nice bounce back from a couple of dour Andy Hardy films in which his world collapsed. Yes, there are numerous father-son conversations and Andy has his share of trouble and so does mom and the sister but none of it feels serious enough that the Judge can't fix it. There is a lot of humor in this one and few laugh out loud bits. And another young female actress is introduced. Kind of a tradition. MGM had them pass the Andy Hardy test and see how audiences reacted to them. Pretty well in the past with Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson and Lana Turner passing just fine. So does this one. Donna Reed. My father once told me he danced with Donna Reed - I think she must have been touring military bases during WW2 - though he tried to build it up a bit. But I have always had a soft spot for her.


 

This picks up right where the last one left off. Andy is working at the garage before he goes off to college and his longtime girlfriend Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) who he broke off with is out of town till she returns at the end of the film. Andy has grown up about love since an older woman gave him the brush-off. The sister Marian (Cecilia Parker) comes home from living in the big city and now finds Carvel a boring unsophisticated town. You know she is heading for a comeuppance.  The mother almost gets conned into paying for something or go to court - but the main story revolves around Andy and Melodie (Donna Reed). Oh. and Andy gets in trouble with the FBI for stealing a car but hell his father is the Judge.

 

In a very odd almost pimpish move the Judge asks Andy to date Melodie because she is in the middle of her parents having a bang up fight over her. Andy goes but dad she is a little droopy and unpopular. She has no friends and no guys are interested in her. Again, we are talking about Donna Reed. But he owes his father a favor and agrees to ask her out. They put her in this awful dress and make her look . . . well a little droopy. She falls for him and in the next dance she goes into the cloak room and comes out in a sleek backless black dress and she is definitely no longer droopy. She is stunning. In four years Reed would be playing a wife and mother in this little film called It's a Wonderful Life. This group of actors have been together for years now and are getting a little older. Ann Rutherford is 25 and smashing looking, Cecilia is 28, Rooney is 22, the Judge is 63 and looks older, the mother Faye Holden is only 49 and hasn't changed a bit since her first Hardy film, the aunt Sara Haden was 43. But the films were still very popular and MGM wanted a few more of them - but WW2 was here.