Judge Hardy's Children

Judge hardy, still wrangling over the Carvel Aquaduct project is sent to Washington D.C. and of course is joined by his family. Andy has girl trouble (surprise?) and sister Marion is led on by a political hack. Nothing here that a "man to man talk" can't fix!! Of course it is all good fun.

It's the third movie in the Hardy family saga. Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) has been recruited to chair a committee in Washington. His daughter Marian (Cecilia Parker) is taken with the high society. His son Andy (Mickey Rooney) falls for a French diplomat's daughter.

The family foursome has returned for this installment. The kids get into romantic troubles. Father still knows best. There is a dash of politics considering the Washington location. It does stay in the patriotic mainstream of its day. It is Rockwellian middle America. Rooney does a bit of toe tapping and swinging. It is strictly coloring within the lines and the actors' return really helps.

In the third film in the series, the Hardy family take their act on the road--to Washington D.C. Judge Hardy, being an esteemed jurist, is serving on a commission which is to make a ruling regarding a utility company's monopolistic intentions.

Meanwhile, Andy tries to woo the daughter of the French ambassador, under the constant scrutiny of a dedicated chaperone.

The capital setting provides an opportunity for Judge Hardy to school Andy in the principles of freedom and democracy (as they were commonly perceived in the thirties).

The other Hardy child--Marian (Cecilia Parker)--falls for the sophisticated ways of a questionable crowd, but the judge finds a way to set everything straight, natch.

Judge Hardy's Children follows the Hardy family to Washington, DC. It's the third movie in the series, and there are a few references to the previous movie's vacation to Catalina. Mickey Rooney vows he's learned his lesson about falling for bad girls, and Cecilia Parker has made up with her boyfriend Robert Trent after her brief dalliance. Lewis Stone, as head of the household, is offered a first-row seat to a political court deal, but the offer seems too good to be true, as his wife Fay Holden is quick to warn him. Once the family is at the nation's capital, everyone gets into their usual amount of trouble.

In one of their classic "man to man" talks, Mickey asks his father if he was as girl-crazy when he was young. "I want to kiss all the pretty girls. Do you think I'm normal?" The usually stoic dad who always knows what to say become so overcome with the urge to laugh, he actually covers his face with his hands. When he lowers his hands, he still can't cover up his smirk as he says, "Yes, you're normal." As you might suspect, Mickey leaves behind Ann Rutherford when he goes on another vacation and falls for the first skirt who gives him the eye. Jacqueline Laurent is the French ambassador's daughter, but is she batting her eyelashes for the wrong reasons? And is Cecilia Parker getting too involved in politics for her own good? As usual, Lewis takes on the burdens of his children's problems, and when they grow out of control, his integrity, social standing, and entire career come into jeopardy. What will happen to Judge Hardy? You'll have to watch this installment, which is one of the best ones, to find out. As a bonus, it was filmed on location, so you'll see the movie stars frolicking around all the monuments!

Because of an opinion rendered in a case involving public utilities Judge Hardy gets an offer he can't refuse, counsel to a Congressional committee investigating public utilities. So the whole family gets packed up to Washington, DC where they get exposed to a far more sophisticated crowd.

This was a very topical topic in those New Deal years with among other things the founding of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Private utility companies resented being put under a microscope. The president of one such company became a candidate for president, that would be Wendell Wilkie. Audiences watching this on TCM can't appreciate that now in the way that ticket buyers could and did.

Judge Hardy's iron integrity and homespun values from Carvel come up against a real DC operator in Jonathan Hale. Even daughter Cecilia Parker who spills some information unknowingly about the investigation gets dragged into a potential scandal.

As for Mickey Rooney he gets involved with the French Ambassador's daughter Jacqueline Laurent and at a cotillion he's invited to shows that crowd what swing and the Big Apple is all about. Chaperone Janet Beecher is not amused.

In the end the whole family thinks that Carvel is the place for them. They sure went back in time for the next Hardy family feature from MGM.