The Courtship of Andy Hardy

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)

When this film was first screened, viewers were aware of two major changes since the last Andy Hardy film. First, Mickey Rooney had married Ava Gardner. Secondly, the country had just entered World War II after the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor. One might surmise that they were curious to see Rooney and they yearned for the comfort of an Andy Hardy film to remind them of life before the harsh realities of wartime.

The stories in this film have to do with the return of sister Marian to the small-town life of Carvel and a divorce case being handled by Judge Hardy.

Marian rebels against the provincial ways of Carvel, trying to assert her new-found sensibilities and her freedom as an adult.

Meanwhile, Judge Hardy involves Andy in his case, asking him to date the socially awkward daughter of the bitterly divorcing parents. The daughter, Melodie, is played by Donna Reed in her sixth film role. At age twenty or twenty-one, Miss Reed plays a younger girl who has never been on a date. Her performance is excellent. In only four years, she will appear in "It's A Wonderful Life'.

As always, this Hardy family film delivers morals to warm the heart and, perhaps, to remind America of its central values. The virtues of the family unit and sobriety are promoted quite strongly.

The central themes compete. An ancillary story about a mail order purchase by Mrs. Hardy serves to further complicate the narrative. Still, this is a satisfying Hardy story with a pleasant resolution.

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.

Many skeptics scoff at these types of movies, where America is great, clean and pure, where problems have simply solutions. Simply, yes, we complicate things and movies like this remind us how fine life can be.

Andy Hardy movies are just this, fine and simple.

Melodie nesbitt--donna reed accused of stealing car--odd how family handled it asks andy to take melodie out company suing mrs hardy'

"The Courtship of Andy Hardy" is generally a good addition to the franchise. Sadly, though, one of the storylines just makes no sense...hence the score is only 6.

When the story begins, Judge Hardy is presiding over a case involving two horrible parents whose divorce proceedings have drug on for years...all to the detriment of their daughter, Melodie (Donna Reed). Melodie parrots her mother's hatred for the father and she's a lonely, sad young lady. Later in the story, Judge Hardy asks Andy for a favor....to ask Melodie out to the upcoming dance. It turns out that she's never dated anyone and Andy is willing...even though she is shunned by her peers.

There are other parts to the story--such as Marian dating a loser and Mrs. Hardy being harassed by a dishonest company. But the one that stood out for me involved Andy being accused of stealing a car...this and the resolution to it made no sense at all nor did Judge Hardy's reaction to it. Bizarre to say the least...though the rest of the film is the usual nice, wholesome sort of fair fans of the series have come to expect.