Life Begins for Andy Hardy

Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941)

*** (out of 4)

Eleventh film in the series is a pure delight as Andy (Mickey Rooney) decides to put off going to college even though Judge (Lewis Stone) feels that would be his best bet. Instead Andy travels to New York City to get a job and see what all life has to offer. He meets up with his old friend (Judy Garland) but quickly falls for a woman (Patricia Dane) who might not have his best interest in mind. I've read some critics who said this series handled dark subjects too lightly and perhaps that's true but that doesn't apply here. This film really shocked me at how mature it was and it even hit some rather dark subjects including suicide and what really makes a man. The movie has plenty of great laughs, some wonderful performances and an all around charm that makes this irresistible to fans of classic cinema. I'm still rather new to the series but the chemistry between Rooney and Stone is just marvelous and the two really come off as a real father and son. I'm not sure if it was just luck or if the two actors really did their homework but they are perfect together and really seem to know how to work off one another. This is certainly true during a brief scene at a table after Judge has come to visit Andy at work. The supporting cast is equally good and that includes Garland in her third and final appearance in the series. I've read she had four songs cut from the film but she doesn't have too much to work with except playing shoulder to Andy. Dane is the one who really surprised me because I thought she made for an excellent femme fatale years before that term would really take off. I think even those who aren't fans of the series would get a kick out of this one because it really does bring those "coming of age" issues up front and looks at them in a pretty serious manor. Even though there are laughs scattered throughout, for the most part the film is looked at in a serious way and this is a major plus.

This movie is worth seeing just for the advice Judge Hardy gives Andy. He explains beautifully why every unmarried person should be faithful to his or her future spouse, even before they ever meet each other.

It is interesting that the Legion of Decency objected to this speech. In 1941 such parental advice was so well known that it was not helpful to hear it in a movie, and it was dangerous to display sexual advice in the public setting of a movie. Keep in mind that the speech is so tasteful that we would not even call it sexual at all. Yet to them it was good, sound advice but far too personal to publicize.

In our time we have fallen so far from those wholesome principles that it would be very helpful to publicize them broadly. I am seeking a copy of this movie to show to my children and friends.

LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1941), directed by George B. Seitz, the eleventh installment to the "Andy Hardy" family series, and possibly the most dramatic and adult of all the episodes thus far. With the recurring cast headed by Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Fay Holden, Ann Rutherford and Sara Haden in their regular roles, Judy Garland, who previous appeared in LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY (1938) and ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE (1940), returns for the third and final time to Carvel as Andy's companion and "playmate," Betsy Booth, who, in spite of her now advanced age and mature looks, is still looked upon her by Andy as a "child,"

Continuing where the last segment of ANDY HARDY'S PRIVATE SECRETARY (1941) left off, Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney), now 18 and a high school graduate, has broken up with his girlfriend, Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford), whose about to start her new life in college. Betsy Booth (Judy Garland) of New York City telephones Judge James K. Hardy (Lewis Stone) that she is returning to Carvel for a visit, and not to tell Andy. The following morning after returning home very late from his high school graduation dance, Andy decides that before he could make a decision about attending college or getting a job, he wants to have his experimental month during summer break by experiencing life in the outside world living on his own in New York City without any help nor financial support by his parents or anybody, for that what Andy tells his father, "Today, I am a man!" With Betsy to guide him through through big city living, the two drive in Andy's new roadster to New York to begin his new life adventure. He first registers and boards at the City House Residence for Young Men. Acquiring a room # 808, he meets Jimmy Frobisher (Ray McDonald), a tenant with tap dancing ambitions, about to leave. Learning he's quit his job as office boy at the Consolidated Stocks and Bonds Corporation at 5 West 48th Street, Andy decides to grab this position before it is taken. While waiting for an interview, Andy meets and becomes interested in its secretary, Jennit Hicks (Patricia Dane). After learning from its supervisor, Eric J. Maddox (Lester Mattjhews) that the position has been filled by his nephew, Andy spends the next few days job hunting, struggling to survive with money low and lack of food. He does offer assistance to Jimmy, homeless and living in Central Park, and has Jimmy move in with him. Things begin to look brighter when Jennit Hicks offers Andy a job at the firm after the boss's nephew gets fired. As Betsy telephones Andy's activities to his father, problems arise as Jimmy is discovered living in his apartment without permission from the management, followed by learning the true facts of life by woman of the world Jennit, adding to the worries for both Betsy and Judge Hardy. Others featured in the cast are: John Eldredge (Paul McWilliams); Pierre Watkin (Bob Waggoner); Joseph Crehan (Peter Dugan) and Sidney Miller.

Aside from being quite dramatic, LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY is leisurely paced and lacks mood scoring during its long 101 minutes, There are those who regard this to be a "sleeper." Regardless of its excessive length for a film series, the story is quite interesting, finding this installment going against format material from the past. Scenes involving Judge Hardy, Emily and Aunt Milly are few and far between during Andy's venture to New York, though Judge Hardy still finds time to have his man-to-man talk with his son. Ann Rutherford's Polly gets only one scene here while older sister, Marian, played by Cecilia Parker, doesn't appear with no explanation given. Humor is very limited yet one wonders how the film itself might have worked had the situations been more comical.

As much as film historians claim THE CLOCK (1945) to be Judy Garland's first non-musical, it is actually LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY. According to Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, where the movie has been shown often since 1994, that "Garland recorded four songs for the movie, but none were used in the finished print." The only time Judy sings anything is briefly to the traditional tune to "Happy Birthday." There is a short night club conga dance between Andy Hardy and Jennit (Dane), but other than that, no scoring is used. Had there been songs and added material. maybe the story itself might have gone beyond two hours. Rooney, Garland and McDonald would reunite again for the highly entertaining musical, BABES ON BROADWAY (1941).

In spite of its outcome, LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY stands out among others in the series for daring to be different with realistic situations that could actually occur for someone wanting to experience what life is all about in New York City. Formerly distributed on video cassette in the 1990s, its also available on DVD. Next in the series: THE COURTSHIP OF ANDY HARDY (1942). (**1/2)

Following his graduation from high school, a small-town teenager decides to try his luck learning about life and making it on his own in New York City. Where he encounters the death of a disillusioned, penniless young friend and the seductive wiles of a glamorous "older woman" he encounters at his office job. Not to mention the wrath of the censors (who forced the studio the change the cause of death from a suicide to a heart attack) as well as the Catholic church (whose Legion of Decency damned the film with an "objectionable for children" rating). Hard to believe that an episode in the ebullient Andy Hardy series caused such controversy, but it is this film's commendable attempt to portray the dilemmas of youth with honesty and candor (incredible for 1941) that make it the most durable and disarming entry of the entire series. As contemporary today as it was 60 years ago, "Life Begins for Andy Hardy" is blessed with, besides a refreshingly adult screenplay that evokes emotions unchanged by the passage of time, astoundingly "mature" performances by Mickey Rooney (for once underplaying) and Judy Garland (displaying a sincerity and warmth without ever singing a note).

Rooney's portrayal of a good-hearted teenager who decent instincts hardly prepare him for the brutal reality of survival in the "Big City" will strike resonant chords with anyone in a similar situation 60 years later. And, in addition to Rooney and Ms. Garland, sterling performances are contributed by the Hardy regulars (Lewis Stone, never more sage or heartrending as Andy's concerned father); the lovely Patricia Dane, as Andy's office co-worker and would-be seducer; and Ray McDonald, heartbreaking as a penniless aspiring actor reduced to living (and starving) in Central Park. A tacked-on happy ending and jarring lapses in continuity (indicating heavy studio re-cutting and re-shooting) fail to undermine the sweet sadness of this most unusual MGM drama--flirting with themes that would be dealt with far more candidly and cruelly some 20 years later in such innocents-lost-in-the-city classics as "The Rat Race" and "Breakfast at Tiffanys," of which "Life Begins for Andy Hardy" is a most poignant pre-cursor.

Having just graduated from high school, Andy has to make some big decisions about his life. Judge Hardy wants him to enroll in his old college and study law. Andy's not so sure what he wants so, with the Judge's blessing, he decides to spend a month alone in New York City to experience life. But he quickly finds being a grown-up isn't all it's cracked up to be. He struggles at his new job, falls in with an older woman, and has to deal with the shocking death of a friend.

Atypical entry in the Andy Hardy series is more "adult" and serious. While I enjoy all of the Hardy movies and don't feel the need to put down on them for their homespun Americana, this one is a nice change of pace. It's also almost entirely Mickey Rooney, with Judge Hardy and the rest of the cast having relatively minor roles. Mickey Rooney is fantastic, though. Patricia Dane is good as the worldly gold digger. Ray McDonald is great as Andy's friend. Last of the Andy Hardy movies to have Judy Garland as a guest star. She sang some songs for this but they were cut, much to the horror of today's classic film fans. But I think I can understand why they were cut, given the tone of the film.

There are light moments throughout the movie, don't get me wrong. It's just more cynical and less innocent than other entries in the series. The writing's very good, as is the acting. Not your typical Andy Hardy movie but one of the most interesting. If they hadn't chickened out and changed the cause of death for Andy's friend I would bump it up a notch.