Le retour d'André Hardy

I finally managed to watch this movie. I had seen every other movie in the Hardy family series and this would, fittingly I thought, close out the series for me.

I must admit I was disappointed in the movie. Perhaps I missed it, but I thought that a little more background should have been provided. There were a few people that were noticeably absent, particularly Andy's father, James Hardy (Lewis Stone). His long-time flame, Polly Benedict (played by Ann Rutherford) was also given little mention beyond seeing her in a clip and seeing her picture.

The Hardy movies made me feel like a part of the family. However in the 12 years since the previous film a lot had obviously happened and there was little or no recap. How did Judge Hardy die? What happened to Marion's husband? How did Marion and Jimmy come to live in the Hardy house? Where was Polly Benedict?

To me the movie seemed to not know whether to stand on its own or to be simply a nostalgia picture. It tries to capitalize on the past movies but is content to introduce several major new characters with little or no explanation. I would have loved to know where he'd met Jane, or how he came to go to California. A theme that seemed to run through the movie was Andy turning into his father: he is asked by his son for "a man to man talk", Andy doesn't understand the new "buzzwords" of his nephew Jimmy's generation. Andy is now a part of the awkward older generation.

I suspect that this movie was intended to relaunch Mickey Rooney's career. That is only my guess, however at the conclusion the words "To Be Continued" seemed pretty obvious that there were to be additional sequels - sequels never made. I imagine when this movie came out movie audiences no longer felt the chemistry that had existed with the original Hardy family. Andy had been the main focus of most of the earlier Hardy movies but now he was the anachronism. He was no longer an idol for younger, hipper audiences. At the same time the supporting cast wasn't up to carrying the lead. Like so many remakes that never really re-capture the magic of the original, Andy Hardy Comes Home just made me appreciate that the producers had been able to capture magic in a bottle in the original movies.

In short, this is the last movie in the series. It doesn't completely close out the series and leaves a lot of questions unanswered, however for Hardy fans, it is still a film worth seeking out. It will make the original movies all that much more special.

As a way to tie up the loose ends of the series this average entry is a passable movie but the old spark is gone. Easy to see why this was the final film of the run.

The clips hearkening back to previous Hardy adventures (really just an excuse to remind the viewer that Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Esther Williams had appeared in the films) only emphasizes how modest this one is. Nothing against the actress who plays Andy's wife but it is too bad that they couldn't convince Ann Rutherford to return as Polly Benedict as Mrs. Hardy which any fan of the series expected.

For series fans a nice piece of nostalgia but that's about it.

Andy Hardy Comes Home is pretty terrible. You know you're old when you can remember having seen an Andy Hardy film in the theater. I saw this with full knowledge of the Andy Hardy lore having seen them on TV. If anything this picture proves what Thomas Wolfe said about not being able to go home again.

However what is so interesting about this film is the default story about Andy Hardy wanting to bring an aircraft plant to Carvel against the objection of most of the town. This was done in the light of the complete faith of the time in favor of "progress". The objections of the towns people now seem eminently reasonable. What seemed to be progress now seems suicidal. The Carvels of this world were destroyed by exactly this type of development. Maybe sometimes the most bland film can be a significant social document over and above its quality as a film. Excruciating as drama or comedy, fascinating as social history.

Like another person who commented, I feel this film leaves too many unanswered questions as to what happened in the years between 1947 and 1958. It was fun to see a few of the original characters (Fay Holden, as Mrs. Hardy, had aged very well!), but the original flavor of the Hardy series was completely lost. The film does come to a satisfying conclusion, however.

One comment regarding archive footage used in the film: I've seen it said repeatedly that the footage of Mickey and Judy was from "Love Finds Andy Hardy", when actually the footage was taken from "Babes in Arms" and adapted with "dubbed-over" names. The footage seems to indicate that Andy and Betsy Booth were more romantically involved than they were in the earlier Hardy films. However, Mickey and Judy are always a treat to watch, whatever the film clip.

Although this film provides some closure, it seems it was intended to begin a new generation of Andy Hardy films; thankfully, film makers left well enough alone after this entry.

This could've been the perfect Hardy reunion film, but there are several things wrong or missing here. Andy Hardy is coming home to Carvel from out west 12 years after the last Hardy film. Hardy's dad Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) is absent but Lewis Stone passed away in 1953, 5 years before this film. But nothing is mentioned in the film about what happened to Andy's dad. Polly (Ann Rutherford) is not in this film, and she was a major character in the series as Andy's on again off again girlfriend. Betsy Booth (Judy Garland) is not in this film either, but that's most likely due to Judy having been fired from MGM in 1951 and the Hardy films are all MGM. I still wished Judy would've come back for "Andy Hardy comes home" considering all the years she and Mickey did films together. Then the flashback of Andy and Betsy(Judy) that Andy had on the plane was actually a clip from "Babes in arms", which was a Judy/Mickey film but not a Hardy film. There are a number of good clips with Judy they could've used from " Love finds Andy Hardy" or "Life begins for Andy Hardy". Patricia Breslin (Andy's mom) and Fay Holden really looked older here, but so did Mickey. 12+ years is enough time for noticeable aging. The juvenile, energized, rambunctious Mickey from the late 30s and 40s was gone. So was his slick womanizing ways, Andy always was a real girl magnet in all his earlier pictures. When Andy returns to Carvel, we see him in a soda shop trying to dance with the late 1950s teens and tire out a lot more easy than he would've 12-20 years earlier. I've realized here how Mickey, Judy Garland, Ann Rutherford, etc. are a level earlier to the late 50s jukebox generation and have passed by their heyday now. They were the late 30s and 40s "swing" generation. It's almost kind of sad to see Mickey here compared to how he was. There's a plot about plans for an aircraft plant being built in town and a lot of the townspeople objecting to it. That part was sorta OK. But a lot of the spirit from the earlier films seemed to have passed by now.