André Hardy va dans le monde

Andy's got a crush on famous New York socialite Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis) and brags to Polly and Beezy that he knows her. Judge Hardy has to go to New York to save the Carvel orphanage and decides to bring the family along. When Andy's friends hear about this, they expect him to bring back photographic proof of his romance with Daphne. Once in New York, he gets help from his friend Betsy Booth (Judy Garland), who's grown up some and still in love with Andy.

The ninth entry in the MGM Andy Hardy film series is a good one. Probably the most quotable of the Hardy movies. Lots of funny lines ("We're not hillbillies. We wear shoes every day."). Mickey Rooney is terrific. Andy always had to learn life lessons in these movies but here he learns them all the hard way and Mickey does a fantastic job making Andy sympathetic while making us shake our heads at him at the same time. Judy Garland reprises her role as Betsy Booth from earlier in the series. She's a joy to watch and has great chemistry with Mickey. She gets to sing a couple of nice songs, too. Clyde Wilson steals his few scenes as the orphan Francis, who gets man-to-man advice from Andy. Cy Kendall has a good part as the owner of a fancy restaurant who gives Andy a tongue lashing for running up a bill pretending to be a big shot ("I've got eight dollars in my bankroll and with eight dollars I could buy the Club Sirocco."). A really good entry in the series with quality writing and solid performances from everybody.

Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) has been bragging again, claiming that New York debutante Daphne Fowler is somebody that he knows, that she likes him, and that he must break up with Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) because of this attachment. When Judge Hardy must go to New York City to take care of an issue involving the estate of the benefactor of the Carvel Orphanage having stopped funding, the entire family is going with him. So Polly plans to embarrass Andy with the cover of the next copy of the High School magazine unless Andy returns with a photo of himself and Daphne together. Complications ensue.

Andy pulls a bunch of bone-headed stunts trying to meet Ms. Fowler, the result being that rather than him being angry at himself for trying to plunge headlong into the adult world of New York society without the wisdom or knowledge to do so, he feels the problem is that he and his entire family are a bunch of "nobodies" who have no position in a place like New York, and therefore will always be nobodies. Has Andy's reticence to read prices on a menu turned him into a Marxist? The judge takes him to task and even more complications ensue.

The real attraction here is Judy Garland who returns as Betsy Booth, a younger girl who has always had a crush on Andy. She's a better friend than he deserves and a real sticking point for me is that he doesn't seem to really appreciate her, even if he says that he does.

Highlights include a couple of numbers by the effervescent Judy Garland, when she was a young fresh face at MGM. Also, the judge and Aunty Milly have a word over a conspiracy they have going to get Mrs. Hardy to accept a fur coat, showing that they really had a very good friendship going.

Just by the title alone you know that Mickey Rooney is once again going to have some woman trouble. Andy Hardy Meets Debutante has the Hardy family going to New York to make a holiday of it because Lewis Stone has a court case there. Judge Hardy is stepping off the bench in Carvel and going to New York to represent an orphanage in Carvel that is in danger of closing due to a loophole in a trust agreement the Judge drew up while he was still in private practice.

Rooney is once again putting his steady girlfriend Ann Rutherford on hold again while he fantasizes about Diana Lewis who is a Paris Hilton type débutante. When the Hardys arrive in New York they stay with Judy Garland's family whom we met in a previous Hardy film. And of course Andy in his naive way makes a huge fool of himself a few different ways in the film.

Judy Garland's two songs are the highlight of the film. She sings I'm Nobody's Baby written for this film and Alone which MGM owned the copyright for having been sung most memorably by Allan Jones in A Night At The Opera. As it turns out she knows Diana Lewis and Judy plays little Miss Fixit and cures Rooney of his puppy love. Of course you know the next Hardy film, he'll be back and involved in some other romantic mess. Why Ann Rutherford just didn't give that boy the heave-ho is one of the screen's greatest mysteries.

There is also a very touching scene one of the best father and son moments with Lewis Stone and Mickey Rooney when they visit New York City's Hall Of Fame at New York University Bronx campus. Rooney is wishing that the Hardys who are big-shots in Carvel had a little more class and were mixing easily in society with Diana Lewis's crowd. Stone gives him a most stern lecture about all the people in that Hall of Fame who started from nothing and made the country what it is. It was one of the best patriotic moments in an era where the screen was starting to fill with such sentiments I've ever seen.

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante still holds up well and should be seen for Judy Garland's singing and Lewis Stone's very unsentimental but very real lecture on the spirit of America.

The Judy Garland many venerate today is the post-Plaza Theater (c.1951) Judy --damaged, pill-popping, alcoholic, overweight--the inspiration for female-impersonators everywhere because of her unique way of pouring out a broken heart in song while living life on the brink as Liza's mother. But the real Judy, the Judy who won America's heart back in the late 1930s is this incandescent teenager, eighteen years old at the time of this film. Those who find the later Judy's manner of acting and singing over-the-top, a bit vulgar, should listen here to the sheer beauty and purity of her soprano voice, her flawless enunciation and phrasing, her feeling for jazz, her utter simplicity. What's more she was a superb actress; witness the scene in the Central Park hansom cab with Mickey, so touchingly real and affecting. It is said that Stella Adler, who was to become Marlon Brando's teacher, but working for Arthur Freed at MGM at that time, was a great supporter of her amazing talent; perhaps Stella coached her acting. The story of this film is typically silly and dated but Judy and Mickey together are as always wonderful!

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The ninth film in the series (if you don't count the two shorts) has the Hardy family going to New York so that the Judge (Lewis Stone) can help keep an orphanage open. Andy (Mickey Rooney) has gotten into some trouble because he told people back home that he knows a famous model (Diana Lewis) and that she has the hots for him. While he tries to track her down he's too stupid to realize that there's one young woman (Judy Garland) who really does care for him. Outside the two shorts, this here was my first film from the series and it was pretty much what I expected even though I've read this wasn't nearly one of the best of the series. There's enough charm and good will for two movies so it's hard to imagine someone not getting some entertainment out of the film. I think it goes without saying that this film, and the series for that matter, was built around moral lessons for young people as Andy has a problem and then Judge is there to help him. The problem here is Andy being poor and from a small town feeling as if he isn't good enough to be around those who might look down on him. The importance of social standing and money is something Judge has to explain and this scene, while over-dramatic, does deliver a nice message. Rooney is in top form and delivers another winning performance. His comic timing is just right and his attitude perfectly mixes in with the stern Stone. The two of them work well together but that's to be expected considering how long this series ran. Garland is also pretty good here and manages to get off two songs. Rutherford, Fay Holden and Cecilia Parker are also winning in their roles. The scene stealer is the young Clyde Willson who plays one of the orphans and gets a big laugh each time he says a line given to him by Andy.