André Hardy s'enflamme

Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)

*** (out of 4)

The seventh film in the series finds Andy (Mickey Rooney) heartbroken after Polly (Ann Rutherford) refuses to see him because she gets a crush on a Navy guy. Andy's heartache quickly turns around when he gets a new drama teacher (Helen Gilbert) and quickly falls for her. Meanwhile, Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) finds himself in trouble when he gives his life savings for a business plan, which turns out to be a scam. If the innocence of the Andy Hardy series is something that's going to bother you then I'm sure this entry isn't going to change your opinion but fans of the series should find enough good things here to make it worth viewing. I was actually quick shocked to see how much more drama there is rather than comedy. When you think 1939 and hearing a plot about Andy getting a crush on his teacher you pretty much expect it to be handled in a slapstick, silly manor but that's not the case. The film is extremely serious about Andy's love for this teacher and there are a couple quite dark scenes where the two talk about certain boundaries that shouldn't be crossed with a teacher and her student. I thought the screenplay handled the drama extremely well and this is especially true towards the end of the film when the kids are putting on a play written by Andy and he gets to spill his emotions out for everyone to see. Rooney's performance during this dramatic sequence is actually some of the best acting I've seen from him as the power is certainly there. With that said, Rooney also gets to show off his comic timing early on and no one could ever say he didn't bring fire and energy to the role. Rutherford is also excellent here and thankfully her character is given a much more important role than what she had previous seen. The two of them make for a great team and really sell the film well. Stone, as you'd expect, delivers another very strong performance as does the other regulars like Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden and Sara Haden. Gilbert didn't have a very large career but I found her to be very good here as well. ANDY HARDY GETS SPRING FEVER isn't the best of the MGM series but it has enough charm and good will to make it worth viewing.

I certainly watched the wrong Andy Hardy movies first. Love Finds Andy Hardy and Andy Hardy Meets Debutante are so silly, all ridiculous pantomimes of a teenage boy's hormones, but the other fourteen films aren't like that. They're supposed to be about the patriarch, Lewis Stone, who helps his children through their problems, a precursor to television shows like Father Knows Best. The series even uses the same theme music during the opening credits in every film, like a television theme-only these movies were made before television. Much of Mickey Rooney's character is how he tries to handle his raging hormones, but much of it isn't. In this one, he falls for his drama teacher, Helen Gilbert, and while sometimes he's goofy when trying to act like a grown-up and speaking in a different, theatrical voice, sometimes he's heartbreakingly real and insecure in his feelings. He talks it out with Helen and with his dad, and they both help him through it.

Mickey makes his character human, and even though he does his signature whooping, he gives a lesson to his teenage audience: it's okay to want to grow up, but don't rush it. Learning to take responsibility should be a slow process, and you should be able to enjoy being a kid without complications ruining things. In this one, he gets chosen by Helen to write the school play, and that's enough responsibility for any high schooler. "He's a regular T.A. Edison!" Lewis Stone exclaims proudly, a foreshadowing-and perhaps plugging-of Mickey's next year's film Young Thomas Edison, because his play has volcano pyrotechnics incorporated in the script. Fay Holden and Cecilia Parker are in this one, of course, but they're not prominently featured. If Mama Hardy and Marian are your favorites, check out You're Only Young Once and Love Laughs at Andy Hardy.

It's spring and everybody has a corresponding spring in their step. But Andy (Mickey Rooney) quickly loses that spring when he sees that the fleet has landed in Carvel and that Polly Benedict is now keeping company with a member of the US Navy. As an aside, I hope that Andy and Polly never marry - at least not to each other, because both of them have a big problem with arguing, gunny sacking, and fidelity. But I digress.

Then along comes a substitute drama teacher for the last few weeks of the school year. She's beautiful, and she instantly makes Andy forget all about Polly. She asks each member of the class to try their hand at writing a play for the class to perform at the end of the school year, and Andy ends up writing the winning entry. It's a very silly thing in which Polly is a south sea island girl who jumps into a volcano because Andy's character rejects her. So you see, Andy hasn't completely forgotten about Polly!

Meanwhile there is a rather odd side plot in which Judge Hardy gets taken in by a couple of con-men claiming they are going to build an aluminum factory in Carvel because the surrounding land - land that the judge owns - is loaded with bauxite, the precursor to aluminum. Unfortunately, the judge also gets his friends to invest before the bad guys leave town.

So this time both the judge and Andy are in a jam. Andy is in love with the drama teacher. Judge Hardy, who by virtue of his job description is supposed to have sound judgment, has fallen for an obvious ruse. So this time Judge Hardy doesn't hide a knowing smile when Andy comes to him for a "man-to-man talk" and tells him how much in love he is with this 23-year-old drama teacher. After all, they are both in hot water because they saw what they wanted to see.

There's some really good acting by Rooney when he's playing his final scene in the school play. He's supposed to be speaking his lines to Polly, but it's more like he's speaking his lines AT Polly. His bitter lines are instead delivered to the drama teacher, who he feels has led him on (she has not!).

It's springtime. Judge Hardy gets tricked into a crooked business deal. Polly continues to try making Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) jealous. Instead, he falls for his new drama teacher, Miss Rose Meredith.

It's the seventh film in the Hardy family franchise. This one is mostly an Andy Hardy film. The Judge's story is almost secondary and Marian gets folded into it. I don't really care about that story. The rest of the family becomes support characters. It's Andy and his teenage hormones. I would have made Polly much more jealous. This is a silly puppy love crush but the movie loses me when Andy starts planning their future together. I know people got married much younger back in the day and Rose is young enough to not look that creepy. Andy is crushing too hard. I just want more distancing with the crush and do more with Polly. It's a little awkward. The twist ending is an excuse to let Andy off the hook. Rose could have mentioned the surprise a lot sooner.

I think the title says it all. Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever occurs when after seeing his on and off girl friend Ann Rutherford entertaining a young naval officer, Mickey Rooney gets down in the dumps. But he perks up after seeing the new drama teacher Helen Gilbert and she's got a project for the kids at Carvel High School. She wants to do an original play and the one she picks was written by the love struck Andy Hardy.

The older generation of the Hardys has its problems too. Of all people Lewis Stone gets himself conned by a pair of grifters, Stanley Andrews and Byron Foulger, who tell him that some land he owns has a nice deposit of bauxite on it from which aluminum comes. Using the Judge's well known reputation for integrity to work for them, they fleece a lot of potential investors.

Of course business and financial problems do kind of sort themselves out for both generations of Hardy men. They always do.

Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever is a better than average feature from the series. It has the presence of Woody Van Dyke who usually was assigned to A list films for MGM and he did right by his cast. I guess Louis B. Mayer must have had nothing else for him at the moment and the moguls never liked for their contract people to be idle.

Whatever it was, it worked.