The Courtship of Andy Hardy

Courtship of Andy Hardy, The (1942)

*** (out of 4)

The twelfth entry in the series finds Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) in all sorts of trouble. For starters, he decides to open his own towing company but after a freak accident he's accused of stealing the man's car, which gets him a date in court. He's also got two or three different women he wants but Judge (Lewis Stone) asks him to take a less popular girl (Donna Reed) to a dance so that she can try and forget her parents rocky divorce. Also troubling the Hardy's the the sisters desire to wear more liberal clothing. I had heard mixed things about this entry but for the most part I found it to be entertaining even if it didn't have as many laughs as previous entries that I've seen. I think, for the most part, the film is a straight drama as there are some pretty dark elements scattered throughout. Not only to we have the ugly divorce harming a child but we even have a drunk scene where Judge gets to tell everything a moral story about it. The majority of the film is centered around the "ugly girl turned pretty" storyline, which doesn't really work here too well as Donna Reed looked good in both forms of her character. They really didn't try to ugly her up very much so it's hard to really understand why no one wanted her already. The performances are all what you'd expect with Rooney being as jumpy and lively as ever and Stone coming through with that stern but fair approach. Reed makes quite an impression in her early appearance.

In The Courtship Of Andy Hardy, Lewis Stone gets Andy to actually help him out with one of his troubling domestic cases. In small town Carvel where everybody knows everybody and everybody's business, I guess this extralegal activity is expected especially from one who takes his obligations of office seriously as Judge Hardy did.

The ongoing battles between divorced parents Harvey Stephens and Frieda Inescourt are having deleterious effect on their daughter Donna Reed. Donna plays a plain Jane sort who doesn't socialize much. As Stone knows the parents he fixes Andy up with Reed. He can do so because Andy's steady girl Ann Rutherford is out of town. That's a running Hardy series gimmick, Polly Benedict goes out of town and Andy gets to play around.

Not all the family problems are with Andy in this film. Cecelia Parker as sister Marian has herself involved with William Lundigan, a decent enough fellow, but with a severe drinking problem. Again the personal and professional roles of Judge Hardy get kind of mixed in this situation as well.

The Courtship Of Andy Hardy is not a bad example of what this series was all about. But were families ever as wholesome as the Hardys?

THE COURTSHIP OF ANDY HARDY (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1942), directed by George B. Seitz, marks the 12th installment to the popular "Judge Hardy's Family/Andy Hardy" series featuring series regulars of Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden, Sara Haden and Ann Rutherford. With the series success being more on star quality and family values, and sometimes an introduction to the screen of future major stars as Kathryn Grayson as ANDY HARDY'S PRIVATE SECRETARY (1941) or Esther Williams in ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE (1942), THE COURTSHIP OF ANDY HARDY is a stepping ground for Donna Reed. Though not her introduction to the screen, having few prior movies roles since 1941, it would be her showcase for her as a troubled teenager caught in the middle of her parent's divorce custody.

Resuming its standard location to the small town of Carvel, the story opens traditionally in Judge Hardy's courtroom where the judge (Lewis Stone) is handling a maritial separation case for Roderick O. (Harvey Stephens) and Olivia Nesbit (Frieda Inescort), whose young daughter, Melodie (Donna Reed), known to high school students as a "droop," wants nothing to do with them, even confessing to the judge that even she hates her father, leading to the judge to look deeper into the case. Next plot development shifts to Hardy's son, Andrew (Mickey Rooney), a high school graduate now working at Pete Dugan's (Joseph Crehan) garage, using his jalopy to help a stranded visiting businessman, Stewart Willis (Steve Cornell), to toll his car to the garage for service, only to unwittingly lose his customer who later accuses him of stealing his auto, and file charges. This only after Andy gets a ticket from a policeman for driving his car without license plates. In the meantime, the family gets together at the train station welcoming home their eldest daughter, Marian (Cecilia Parker) following her trip to New York City, only to find her personality changed to big city girl with culture snubbing Carvel. She encounters Jefferson Willis (William Lundigan), a man-about-town, at the station, unaware of his serious boozing habits. While Aunt Milly (Sara Haden) has no problems to speak of, it's her sister, Emily (Fay Holden) who becomes involved in a mail-order swindle of $61.60 which she must pay or the collection agency will assume charges against her. As a favor for his father, Andy gets talked into taking the lonely and embittered Melodie out for a good time. While she actually knows of his intentions, Melodie becomes his date anyway at the high school alumni dance where Harry Land (Todd Karns) become interested in her, and being the only one among Andy's friends not to get paid for dancing with her. Further problems arise when Melodie overhears something to want to leave Carvel and parents altogether. Others in the cast include Erville Alderson (The Bailiff); Georgie Breakston ("Beezy" Anderson), Betty Wells (Susie), Floyd Schackelford (Joe) and Junior Coughlan ("Red"). Interestingly, series regular, Ann Rutherford as Polly Benedict, Andy's girlfriend, would only get a few minutes into the story while the sentence for drunk-driving Lundigan's character would actually get settled by the judge into the next installment, ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE (1942).

Unlike the previous and very melodramatic effort of LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY (1941), THE COURTSHIP OF ANDY HARDY resumes to formula material with some humor with enough individual plot situations for one movie for its 95 minutes. Aside from a 15 minute segment involving individual family members of Marion, Aunt Milly, Andy and Mrs. Hardy getting to converse their problems with the wise old judge in his den, and the judge getting adjusted to the more modern slang terms, Donna Reed gets her moment assuming the role of two basic characters, that of a homely quiet and unpopular girl who spends time alone listening to opera , to an attractive down-to-earth girl with dynamic personality. Reed and Mickey Rooney would share another movie together, THE HUMAN COMEDY (1943), though their scenes in that classic, and Rooney's best film, are limited.

Never distributed to home video, THE COURTSHIP OF ANDY HARDY often plays on cable television's Turner Classic Movies and available on DVD as part of the Andy Hardy collection for fans of the series. (**1/2)

Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) is in charge of the contentious Nesbit divorce. Their daughter Melodie Nesbit (Donna Reed) had become a ward of the state. The Judge orders that she sees her father but she refuses. Marian Hardy (Cecilia Parker) is back home from the big city. Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) is operating a tow truck and gets mistaken in a car theft. He's also not happy with Marian's new city style.

The franchise seems to be going back to the basics. It's back to the family. It's back to the small town of Carvel. It's back to the comfort of the all-knowing Judge. It does try to deal with the changing styles and divorce. It also has newcomer Donna Reed in one of her early roles. I do wonder if the franchise is getting stale. It's the 12th of 16 movies in the series.

The Courtship of Andy Hardy might be my absolute favorite in the entire Andy Hardy series. It's not silly, but instead offers serious lessons to the audience as Judge Hardy tries to do good both in the courtroom and within the entire town. In this one, Lewis Stone asks his son Mickey Rooney to date young Donna Reed to give her some happiness while her parents are involved in a difficult divorce case, but as you might suspect-because Andy Hardy is hormone-crazed and because Donna is very beautiful-what starts out as a fake romance turns into real feelings. At the end of their first date, during which Mickey has to literally pay other fellas to dance with her, she tells him how wonderful a time she's had. Her face lights up, she smiles, she looks like Kiera Knightley, and you can actually see Mickey fall in love with her in the seconds before he kisses her.

Meanwhile, Marian-aka Cecilia Parker-returns from New York sophisticated and modern, and she shocks her family with her new makeup and clothing. She wears a nightgown as a dress, and everyone gives their own little quips as to how improper it is. The judge says it's "dizzy", Mama Hardy claims she thought her daughter was only joking, Aunt Millie quotes philosophy, and Andy rattles off everything from "Is that your stomach staring at me?" to "I can see right through you, old girl." Yes, she has her hair dolled up and quotes the got-it-flaunt-it mantra, but doesn't anyone remember her party dress five years earlier in You're Only Young Once? It was a very revealing, practically see-through number, and Lewis Stone told her she looked beautiful. Their revenge is hilarious: when Marian's fancy gentleman caller comes to dinner, everyone dresses in their nightclothes. "Hot diggity dog!" Fay Holden grins after rattling off a slew of modern slang.

The theme of this movie seems to be the generational clash, and during one of their man-to-man talks, Mickey and Lewis compare slang. "You can say that again," Mickey mutters, and immediately Lewis bristles. "Why should I say it again? I just said it!" The clash within the Hardy family reflects the clash between Donna's parents, and anyone else in the audience whose home might be or about to become broken. Rather than being outwardly comical, The Courtship of Andy Hardy is witty and clever, with somber lessons and wise words from Judge Hardy. Plus, it introduces Donna Reed to Hollywood audiences! If you've never seen an Andy Hardy movie, you'll love this one-but it'll probably spoil you for the rest of them.