This Month

The thirteenth film in a hugely popular series, Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) didn't veer from its successful proven formula: Andy finds himself in a jam with one girl too many, cooks up a wacky scheme to bail himself out of his ever-present financial dilemma, and goes to his wise, kindly father, Judge Hardy, for advice. The original Hardy family cast was back, as was Ann Rutherford as Andy's long-suffering sweetheart, Polly. The setting was, of course, the perfect middle-America town of Carvel, where such nuisances as war, depression, and racial strife rarely intruded on daily life. But after five years, and with a world war raging, it was obviously time for the hapless kid to grow up, and this edition finds Andy preparing to go off to college. In a February 1943 article in the New York Times, film reviewer Bosley Crowther bid "adieu to that bumptious boy," expressing his belief that with Andy leaving the family fold this likely would be the last picture in the series. Crowther was mistaken; four more movies followed. But in a sense, he was right; the year he wrote the article would be the first since 1937 in which no Hardy picture was released. And the remaining installments, while still popular to varying degrees, failed to capture the charm and appeal of the originals.

The Hardy series was a pet project of MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer, who fancied himself the guardian of American values and homespun morals. Several years earlier, the studio released a film adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's play Ah, Wilderness! (1935), a bittersweet comedy of coming of age in small-town America. The prestige production featured Lionel Barrymore and Spring Byington as the parents, Eric Linden as the teenaged son, Mickey Rooney as his little brother, and Cecilia Parker as a friend. The film was a critical and commercial success and helped boost Rooney's standing in MGM's stable of adolescent stars. It also served as a template for the kind of family picture Mayer wanted to make. Two years later, the studio acquired the rights to a second-rate Broadway play called Skidding, a courtroom drama centered on a Judge Hardy, to be played by Barrymore. Rounding out the Hardy family were many from the cast of the O'Neill adaptation: Byington as Mom, Parker as big sister Marion, and Rooney as son Andy. (Linden was also on board, but not as a Hardy kid.) George Seitz, who would direct all but three of the series, was brought on as director, and the order was given to beef up both the comedy and Rooney's role. Released as A Family Affair (1937), it proved to be a hit, and the studio decided to extend the franchise. Barrymore and Byington were unable to commit to a regular series, so Lewis Stone and Fay Holden were signed to portray Judge and Mrs. Hardy; the rest of the cast remained the same (except for an older sister, played by Julie Haydon, who disappeared after the first installment). The Hardy series became the most profitable in Hollywood history, made more so by its relative inexpensiveness to produce. And Mayer frequently used the movies as a benchmark, as when he held the programmers up against the top-grade Garbo vehicle Ninotchka (1939). "A Hardy picture cost $25,000 less than Lubitsch was paid alone [to direct the Garbo film]," Mayer carped. "But any good Hardy picture made $500,000 more than Ninotchka."

As the series went on and Rooney - thanks to his popularity as Andy and his big musicals with Judy Garland - became the country's number-one box-office attraction, the stories became more and more geared toward the son, with the Judge and family serving as sounding board to his teen crises. The Hardy pictures were also found to be great testing grounds for a parade of ingenues and newcomers under contract to the studio. Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Kathryn Grayson, and Donna Reed were all trotted through the streets of Carvel at one time or another. Andy Hardy's Double Life introduced another new face in what would become a familiar on-screen environment for her. Swimming champ Esther Williams was cast as one of Andy's love interests and given the obligatory swimming pool scene. Although reviewers noted she was a bit tall for Rooney and not much of an actress, she looked great in a bathing suit. MGM took note; within two years, Williams was starring in her own aquatic film extravaganzas, a series that proved equally popular with audiences of the 1940s. The film also featured a young lad named Bobby Blake, who became a popular child star and much later the adult star of In Cold Blood (1967) and the 1970s TV series Baretta.

In his "So Long, Andy" article of 1943, Bosley Crowther conceded there might well be more Hardy pictures after this one but insisted the next step "would seem to demand some realization of the big world in which he is now tossed." The follow-up, Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble (1944), while featuring Andy as a college student, did little to acknowledge the big world outside. The penultimate in the series, Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946), at least made a nod to reality by depicting the young man as a war veteran returning to complete his education, but the bloom was definitely off the rose by that point. Perhaps the most significant change was that an older Andy no longer relied on the wise counsel of his father. One more picture followed, Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958), in which the character, now grown up and married with kids of his own, returns to Carvel and gets caught up in local politics. Judge Hardy did not appear in that picture at all.

Director: George B. Seitz
Screenplay: Agnes Christine Johnston
Cinematography: George J. Folsey, John J. Mescall
Editing: Gene Ruggiero
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons
Original Music: Daniele Amfitheatrof
Principal Cast: Mickey Rooney (Andy Hardy), Lewis Stone (Judge Hardy), Cecilia Parker (Marian Hardy), Fay Holden (Mrs. Emily Hardy), Ann Rutherford (Polly Benedict), Esther Williams (Sheila Brooks)
BW-93m. Closed captioning.

By Rob Nixon