La vita comincia per Andy Hardy

If one accepts the proposition that life really does begin a high school graduation than Life Begins For Andy Hardy in this film. This marked the third and last appearance of Judy Garland in the Andy Hardy series as Betsy Booth.

Mickey Rooney has just graduated high school and he's been offered a scholarship at Lewis Stone's old alma mater. But as he always is in these films, the Mick's at loose ends and he wants to go to New York to experience life. He and Polly Benedict have once again broken things off so Judy Garland does have a shot with him.

But Mickey's wanting to be independent and not sponge off Judy Garland's hospitality. He gets a room at a male single's hotel and actually meets the guy he inherits the room from, Ray McDonald a talented dancer. Mickey goes looking for a job and eventually does get hired as an office boy in a brokerage firm. That's through the intervention of Patricia Dane who figures he might be good for a fling.

With Polly Benedict in Carvel which you know will get going in the next film of the series, Betsy Booth in New York, and Patricia Dane leaving him with his tongue hanging out, Mickey Rooney is once again in romantic complications. Of course these are all typical for an Andy Hardy film.

What's not typical is someone dying in the film. Ray McDonald who was supposed to commit suicide because of his despondency at not finding work of his choosing had his death changed to heart failure. That was a bit freaky because Ray McDonald, a most talented dancer with his sister Grace died of just that at the age of 37 in the Fifties. Mickey dealing with that was definitely a growing up experience.

One thing I really did like was as McDonald and Rooney are discussing their lack of job prospects, Mickey starts thinking back to some of his high school friends who were working and he comes to the conclusion that these kids knew what they wanted at an early age and were career oriented which he wasn't. I know I wasn't when I was in school and that's something that is desirable, but it doesn't occur in a lot of us. Hopefully the kids in 1941 watching this film took note and it ain't a bad lesson for today.

Judy Garland had a bunch of songs written for the film and they all ended up on the cutting room floor. That's my big complaint with Life Begins For Andy Hardy. I'll bet the movie-going public was disappointed in 1941 when Judy did not offer a note.

In the Citadel Film Series Book, The Films Of Judy Garland L.B. Mayer said this was the best of the Andy Hardy series. It might have been better if Judy's songs had been left in, but it's a bit more serious than most of the Hardy series and holds up well.

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.

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.

Andy Hardy has just graduated high school, and so he ponders what comes next. His father has dreams of him attending his own alma mater, Wainwright college, and going into law. Looking at the long journey that would be - seven years of college - he decides to break out on his own and see what life on his own would be like. So he drives to New York City in search of a job.

He gets a room in a kind of high-rise boarding house for guys, back when women were not allowed past the front desk. His search for a job, though, is arduous until he finally lands one as an office boy at a stock brokerage concern.

Before he gets the job though, he runs out of money, can't get his car out of hock in storage, and goes hungry for a few days. At one point, his roommate, unable to get a job in what he wants to do, even kills himself in the bathroom, with Andy discovering the body! So this is not your average Andy Hardy film.

There is one really odd scene between Andy and his father, the judge. Usually I can easily see the rather timeless lessons the judge is trying to teach, but this one seems mid Victorian. The judge has noticed the flirting going on between Andy and the woman a few years older - she's probably 25 or so - who also works at the brokerage. The judge says that people should be faithful to their spouses before they even meet them, because lots of casual "dating" - to be euphemistic about it - makes it hard to be faithful to a spouse once you have one. So much for sowing one's wild oats!

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.