LOVE LAUGHS AT ANDY HARDY
US, 1946, 95 minutes, Black and white.
Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, Bonita Granville, Sara Haden, Lina Romay, Dorothy Ford, Hal Hackett.
Directed by Willis Goldbeck.
Love Laughs at Andy Hardy is the last of the popular series from the 30s into the 40s. It is post-war Andy Hardy, he returns from active service. His mother, always anxious and fearing the worst, thinks that he is married. His father, the wise and retired judge, realises that he has been separated from military service. Andy arrives home, is in love with a young woman, is going off to college, experiences the usual things that college films provide, the fraternity, the dance, falling in love – but very few lectures. His girlfriend marries her guardian and he is dismayed, wants to run away to South America, finds that the husband is the boss and he listens to his father, is attracted towards the Hispanic girl in the town, waits for his future.
There was a 1958 of a Hardy family reunion with Mickey Rooney, Fay Holden and Sara Haden – Lewis Stone had died five years earlier.
Mickey Rooney is full of vitality and keeps the film alive. Lewis Stone is, as always, the wise judge and has plenty of wise conversations with his son, full of advice about life.
The film recreates the period after the war, the GIs coming home and taking up studies, settling down – and the prospects of marriage.
The film is very slight, has some amusing moments – but does not keep up with the standard of the earlier Andy Hardy films.
1.The popularity of the series? Andy Hardy as a character? The Hardy family, the judge, the anxious mother, the unmarried aunt? The background of the earlier films?
2.Black and white photography, MGM studios and sets, the values of the 1940s? Conventional material? Music, popular songs? The irony of the title?
3.Andy, Mickey Rooney’s presence, his age, the jokes about his height, especially with the very tall Dorothy Ford as Coffee Smith? In love, Bonita Granville as the heroine? Studies, organiser at college, his bonds with his parents? The jokes about getting the telegram during the social at the beginning? Disguised in his mother’s dressing gown with the police? The dancing with the tall girl? The pathos of Kay getting married, his being the best man? The comedy about his winning the competition – and the women’s lingerie? His wanting the coat …?
4.Lewis Stone as the judge, in retirement, respected, his wise advice, pacifying his wife? Mrs Hardy and her perennial worrying, nobody good enough for her son? Aunt Millie, her new outfit, the unmarried aunt, always in the background?
5.Kay, nice, friendly with Andy, getting his advice? Going home, not at the dance? The announcement about her wedding, the wedding itself?
6.Coffee, Duke and the jokes, her height, Duke setting her up with Andy, the girls laughing, going to the dance together, not judging by appearances, their getting on well, the dance – and Duke then wanting to dance with Coffee? Her good advice, the leotards and her business sense?
7.Isobel, her singing and dancing, throwing herself at Andy?
8.The comparison of the high jinks of young adults, college students of the 1940s with later decades? A world of innocence?
