Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Polly Benedict is leaving poor Andy alone for Christmas. Andy is also short the money he needs to buy a car from Mr. Dugan. So, for a fee, Andy agrees to date his friend Beezy's girl (Lana Turner) while he's away. The plan is that Andy will date her to keep other guys away, then when Beezy returns Andy will dump her and she'll go back to Beezy. At the same time, a slightly younger girl (Judy Garland) has moved in next door. She falls for Andy (naturally) but Andy sees her as just a kid. As usual, things start to go wrong for Andy and he has to have one of those famous talks with Judge Hardy.The regulars are all pitch-perfect. The writing is great, managing to juggle several plot lines, big & small, and tie them all together nicely. Of course, what would an Andy Hardy movie be without the lovely girls that were always infatuated with him? Here we have the ever-adorable Ann Rutherford, a beautiful and fun young Lana Turner, and the immensely likable Judy Garland in her first of three Andy Hardy appearances. She gets to sing too and is terrific, as one would expect. Highly enjoyable entry in the series. One of the best.

If you're counting, "Love Finds Andy Hardy" is the fourth entry in the long-running Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Andy Hardy franchise which ran from 1937 until 1948 with 16 films. This time around our clean-scrubbed but calculating protagonist is bursting at the seams to buy himself a car so he can dress up in his tuxedo and drive a smashing dame to a Christmas dance. He finds himself torn between two girls while admired from afar by another one. Mickey Rooney played the youngster from a teenage bachelor to an adult father with a wife and children. These family-oriented films presents a strong, morally-stable family unit with Andy respecting his stern but indulgent dad, the venerable Judge James K. Hardy (Lewis Stone of "The Prisoner of Zenda"), and his mother Emily (Fay Holden of "Guns of the Pecos") while enduring a contentious relationship with his older sister, Marion Hardy (Cecilia Parker of "Riders of Destiny") who never misses an opportunity to take him to task for something. "Last of the Mohicans" director George B. Seitz helms this romantic comedy focuses on the predicament that Andy finds himself in when he puts down $12 dollars on a roadster but must still pay off the balance of the cost $8 dollars in time to take his girlfriend Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford of "Gone with the Wind") to the Christmas dance. Meanwhile, Andy's mother Emily receives bad news from her own mother in Canada that she isn't feeling well. Naturally, Emily rushes to his mother's bedside while the Judge hires an experienced cook Augusta (Marie Blake of "The Best Man"), to take over cooking and cleaning duties when Marian cannot pass muster. The predicament that Andy's mom finds herself in constitutes the most dramatic thread in "Oklahoma!" scenarist William Ludwig's plot while Andy tries to extract himself from his own difficulties. The theme of responsibility and behaving like a grown-up pervades this adaptation of Vivien R. Bretherton's wholesome stories and characters. The action also involves Andy's temporary next door neighbor, Betsy Booth (Judy Garland of "Broadway Melody of 1938"), who is visiting Carvel while her mother rehearses for a musical comedy in Chicago. Predictably, Betsy falls head over heels for Andy. Andy tries to help another school pal, Francis Bacon Anderson (George P. Breakston of "Geisha Girl ") who learns that his parents plan to take him out of town for three weeks. The problem is that Beezy--as he is called--has just hooked up with a beautiful, but haughty girl, Cynthia Potter (Lana Turner of "They Won't Forget") and he wants Andy to date her until he can return. Beezy promises to pay Andy the amount of $8.50 for serving as his stand-in while he is gone. Andy learns to his chagrin that all Cynthia likes to do is kiss, kiss, and kiss some more. She is a afraid to play tennis for fear of developing unsightly muscles and afraid to swim because of what is will do to her coiffure. This quaint, old-fashioned entertainment provides a snapshot of American values during the late 1930s as World War II swept over the rest of the world. Of course, there is a happy ending in this sappy nonsense and all crisis are resolved.

It was the late 1930s and the US had not entered the world war yet. This movie features many of the upcoming stars that were still teenagers.Mickey Rooney is Andy Hardy, always up to something. This time he has decided he needs a car for the upcoming Christmas dance and finds a real fixer-upper for all of $20. But he only has $12 and doesn't want to ask dad for money, so he arranges for the salesman to hold the car with a promise to pay the other $8 by December 23rd. His girl, Ann Rutherford as Polly Benedict, is going out of town for the holidays.Fortunately a guy friend of Andy's is also going out of town with his family and asks Andy to "watch his girl", a teenage Lana Turner as Cynthia Potter, while he is gone, and Andy agrees for $8. But later when the friends finds a new girl out of town, and welches on the deal, Andy is left scrambling.Meanwhile Judy Garland as Betsy Booth is visiting next door for the holidays. Since Betsy is only "13 or 14" (she really was 14 or 15) Andy didn't pay too much attention to the "kid." But Betsy had her sights set on Andy.Garland had been performing for several years already, and in this movie is the daughter of an entertainer, and at the Christmas dance Betsy gets on stage to sing a couple of songs, much to the enjoyment of Andy who was her date for the evening.A very cute, entertaining movie. Especially when we consider what all those teenage actors grew up to become in the entertainment world.

I simply love this Andy Hardy film. I found it at Wal-mart one day and just had to get it. I've seen Mickey Rooney in films before, but never was he so funny as in this. Mickey and Judy Garland were great together. In fact, they are my favorite on screen couple of all time. The whole movie is funny and entertaining. I wish they would put all of the Andy Hardy movies out on DVD. Another movie I like with Mickey and Judy is Girl Crazy. It's a great musical, if you like musicals. This one isn't boring and simply entertaining all the way through. For a great laugh and a lot of fun check out Love Finds Andy Hardy....you will not be disappointed.