Anecdotes

This is the first of 16 Andy Hardy films starring Mickey Rooney, but the only one to feature Lionel Barrymore as Judge Hardy; Barrymore had to withdraw from the series because of mobility issues which confined him to a wheelchair for most of the remainder of his film career..

After Lionel Barrymore's health confined him to a wheelchair and he was unable to continue playing the father in subsequent Hardy family films, M-G-M studio head Louis B. Mayer instead cast him as the irascible hospital administrator Dr. Gillespie in the studio's second most popular franchise, the Doctor Kildare movies.

This film proved profitable enough to justify an entire series of Hardy family movies, the on-going popularity of which propelled adolescent Mickey Rooney to the #1 position on the annual Top Ten Box Office Stars list for several years running.

Not only the sole appearance of Lionel Barrymore as Judge Hardy, but Spring Byington as Mrs. Hardy, as well as daughter Joan Hardy, played by Julie Haydon.

You may recognize Charley Grapewin, who plays Frank Redmond here. He appeared as a secondary character in more than 100 films, but is best remembered for his portrayal of Judy Garland's farm-owning Uncle Henry in one of the most widely seen films ever made, Le Magicien d'Oz (1939).