atlantic965

This film came out during the Summer of 1941, a few months before Pearl Harbor. This is the last Hardy picture with Judy Garland as Betsy Booth. Bandleader Tommy Dorsey's wife Patricia Dane is lovely in this film as the streetwise big city girl Andy falls for. Lots of wisdom from Andy's father Lewis Stone comes with any Andy Hardy film and of course a great deal of New Deal era political correctness. It was said Louis B Mayer paid more attention to the development of these films that any film at MGM. It has been written Andy Hardy was the childhood Mayer always wanted. Depression era audiences loved the series. This film cost. $401,100 to make and it took in $2,494,000. At the box office, a huge amount at the time. Life Begins for Andy Hardy is my favorite of the original Andy Hardy series. One last Hardy film was made in 1958 called Andy Hardy Comes Home.