Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble

Andy Hardy is going to college! If you've never seen any of the Andy Hardy movies, this isn't a good one to start with, for the sole reason that it's a bit different from the other movies. Usually, Mickey Rooney is a goofy teenager, his older sister Cecilia Parker gets into boy trouble, his mother Fay Holden is ditzy and harmless, and his father Lewis Stone fixes everyone's problems. You've got to watch a few movies to get used to the family before checking this one out, and when you do, you'll be in for a wonderful, heartwarming treat. This installment ends at Thanksgiving, so feel free to check this out with your family at the start of the holiday season.

This is a fantastic addition to the Andy Hardy collection. Mickey is more mature as he leaves for college for the first time. If you're sick of seeing him as an open-mouthed lunatic, you'll love seeing the new side of him. Yes, he has to juggle a set of beautiful twins who make him jump through a couple of hoops, but he grows up immensely. The beautiful twins are Lyn and Lee Wilde, and the fact that Mickey is more interested in the mature Bonita Granville shows his own maturity. Bonita is perfectly cast, a former child star herself who shows the audience a new, calm version as well. She's extremely mature and classy without being snobby, and Mickey is given a great role model of how he should behave during college. Can you imagine how silly he could have become with hazing and fraternity games? Instead, he's introduced to Bonita on the train before school starts and we get to see the positive results.

Also on the train is Herbert Marshall, this volume's guest star. He has a bit of a mysterious persona, so rather than ruin his purpose in the movie, I'll simply give this recommendation: If you liked him in Girls' Dormitory, you'll like him in this.

Don't be surprised if you tear up during the classic man-to-man talks; since they're separated across the miles, Lewis Stone and Mickey Rooney give voice overs to their thoughts, imagining what the other would say. This is a great movie showing how a young person goes to college to prove him or herself independent, but then wishes Mom and Dad were there to help. It's scary going out on your own, and in some ways, this doesn't really feel like an Andy Hardy movie at all. It's very solemn, ending in a somewhat cliffhanger, and picking right up the next movie where it left off. WWII interrupted the series a bit, and it's sobering to know that Mickey joined the army and fought for his country after this movie.

This Andy Hardy film has the titular character on the train to Wainwright to start his freshman year at his father's alma mater. The problem is that he's on that train for a full 45 minutes of the movie's running time. This sets the pace of the entire film as being sluggish and claustrophobic.

While on the train, Andy meets up with a girl who is also on the way to Wainwright, Kay Wilson (Bonita Granville). It's the first year Wainwright has gone coed. It looks like something might be developing between the two, but Kay also seems to have eyes for a doctor Standish (Herbert Marshall). He's older and sophisticated, and Kay is taken with him. Also on the train there are twin blondes trying to stay together in spite of their father's plan to separate them based on the belief that their psyche's will best be adjusted if they spend their young adulthood apart. One of the twins is enrolled at Wainwright, but she has to come up with the money for both of them to live until the non-student can get a job.

The solution? These horrible sociopathic young women con Andy out of a grand total of 38 dollars by having him believe lies about how freshmen at Wainwright are mistreated if they dare have any money on them. They use tears, fears, sweet-talk to keep that money in their hot little hands. By the time I knew the full story of their dilemma it's impossible for me to like them or feel for them given how they've been behaving. The only other girl Andy's age is the mute Katy Anderson, back in Carvel, who is a compulsive car thief. If this is what Andy has to put up with, I'm surprised he didn't change his mind and join the Army. The Germans and the Japanese couldn't be any worse than these awful twins and the car thief!

Another thing that keeps this film from working is that there is very little of the actual Hardy family in the film. The judge gets tonsilitis, but that just seems to be a vehicle for introducing "special guest" Keye Luke as the temporary town doctor, playing the exact same role he plays over in the Dr. Gillespie series of movies. I will admit he does liven up the short Carvel section of a pretty dead film.

I was pretty bored during most of this, and just stuck with it so I could write this review. Perhaps you can find something better to do with your time, like watch the earlier episodes in the series. It really did seem that the Hardy family did not translate well to the war years and beyond.

Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble (1944)

** (out of 4)

Overlong, boring and overall disappointing fourteenth entry in the series finds Andy (Mickey Rooney) going to college at Wainright. On the train ride there he meets a woman (Bonita Granville) who is more mature than him and feels that Andy needs to grow up. Also on the train are a couple twins (Lee and Lyn Wilde) who Andy ends up helping. Back in Carver, the rest of the Hardy clan must try and come to terms with Andy being gone. At 107-minutes, this entry runs a good thirty-minutes too long but I'm going to guess part of the blame is on the pre-production. Originally this was meant to be a Rooney-less entry as the star was fighting in WWII so the studio did a screenplay without him. I'm going to guess that the stuff here dealing with the Hardy family on their own was from it and the stuff with Andy was added after he returned. The first thirty-minutes here were actually pretty good as Rooney and Granville had some nice chemistry and their relationship was an interesting one. I thought we also got some funny moments with the twins and a running joke of one constantly flirting with Andy while the other slaps him around; poor Andy not realizing they are twins. We even have another interesting subplot involving an older doctor (Herbert Marshall) and his questionable dealings with Granville. What doesn't work is when they finally arrive at college and things just get stretched out. The screenplay goes in so many directions that it's just downright silly, naive and in the end very boring. Things back in Carver aren't any better as the running joke comes from a Chinese doctor (Keye Luke) filling in for a sick doctor and everyone being shocked that he is a doctor due to his race. We see Judge (Lewis Stone) deal with a sore throat as well as a few more stories involving the broken down car that Andy started selling in the previous film, ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE. It goes without saying that the entire cast is good and once again it was a real pleasure seeing Granville, best remembered for her Nancy Drew roles at Warner. The cast is certainly up to a high level but it's a shame the screenplay didn't try to do more.

ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1944), directed by George B. Seitz, marks the 14th installment to the popular "Judge Hardy's Family/Andy Hardy" comedy series that all began as A FAMILY AFFAIR in 1937. Having graduated from Carvel High School with his classmates back in 1941, three years have lapsed since graduation day from ANDY HARDY'S PRIVATE SECRETARY (1941), followed by a few installments before Andy finally heads out for college by the end of ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE (1942). Rather than titling this as ANDY HARDY GOES TO COLLEGE, it becomes ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE, meaning the usual antics involving Andy and more girl trouble along the way to college.

Starting off where the previous film, ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE (1942) left off (over a year since its last release), Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) leaves parents, Judge James K. Hardy (Lewis Stone) and Emily (Fay Holden), his Aunt Milly (Sara Haden) and his hometown of Carvel on a train bound for Wainwright College, now a co-ed university. (The train sequence which follows lasts nearly 40 minutes). While on board, Andy meets Kay Wilson (Bonita Granville), a girl raised by her guardian; Doctor M.J. Standish (Herbert Marshall), a middle-aged gentleman who not only winds up being a former student at Wainwright College, and his father's old classmate, but to be his college dean; and blonde sisters, the flirtatious Lee (Lee Wilde) and serious-minded Lynn Walker (Lynn Wilde). It so happens that the Walker girls are identical twins traveling separately so not to give away their secret that their father, believing Lee is heading for Vermont, that his daughters should be spending more time apart than always together. Yet complications ensue as the confused Andy believes one of the girls to be an individual and not a twin, especially after having loaned one of them money needed for his college expenses. While back in Carvel, Judge Hardy is treated for his tonsilectomy by by Lee Wong How (Keye Luke), a Japanese doctor from Brooklyn (New York). After his recovery, Judge Hardy visits Wainwright College to see how his son is doing, with some surprises ahead.

Other members in the cast are: Jean Porter (Kathy, Beezy Anderson's sister, who dumps her $8 car in the custody of Judge Hardy); Marta Linden (Mrs. Townsend); Connie Gilchrist (Mrs. Gordon); Tommy Dix (Mark); Jackie Moran (Spud); Irving Bacon, Eddie Acuff and Frank Sully (The Taxi Drivers). Series regulars as Marion Hardy (Cecilia Parker); Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) and Beezy Anderson (Georgie Breakstone) do not appear. With this strictly Andy Hardy material, Lewis Stone still resumes his star-billing over Mickey Rooney's name in the casting credits. A classic Cole Porter tune, "Easy to Love" is vocalized by The Wilde Twins.

Aside from being the longest (107 minutes) of the entire 16-film series, ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE simply takes time resolving situations involved. The big surprise comes by the appearance of British-American actor, Herbert Marshall, known for his many movie roles dating back to 1930, in notable support, along with Keye Luke (of the "Charlie Chan" series) carrying on his role of Doctor Lee Wong How from the "Doctor Kildare" movie series starring Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. While its extreme length might cause the movie to drag in spots, at least the cast members and Andy Hardy's blonde trouble simply add to its enjoyment.

Never distributed on video cassette but available on DVD, ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE can be found broadcast on cable television's Turner Classic Movies. Next installment: LOVE LAUGHS AT ANDY HARDY (1946) reuniting Mickey with Bonita Granville and their further adventures at Wainwright College. (***)

"Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble" begins with Andy on a train bound for Wainwright College, as he just graduated high school in the previous film. The filmmakers made a poor choice here, as way too much of the story takes place aboard the train....making for a rather slow portion of the film. The bottom line is that he meets a lovely girl (Bonita Granville) and her guardian (Herbert Marshall) and strikes up a friendship....and not knowing that the guardian already knows Andy...or at least knows of him. Additionally, he meets two lovely blondes...not realizing they are identical twins and thinking they are one very odd girl. There's more to it than this but overall the story, while enjoyable, drags and certainly could have been better. Worth seeing if you love the series but not exactly a high point in the series.

By the way, if you do watch it note the character Dr. Lee (Keye Luke)...he plays the same exact character in another long-running MGM series...the Dr. Kildare/Dr. Gillespie films.