Andy Hardy Movies

From the late 1930s to the middle 1940s, the fictional character of Andy Hardy was the most popular teenager in American motion pictures. Andy, an energetic and wholesome-living teenager, first appeared in a 1928 stage play, Skidding, by Aurania Rouverol (c. 1886–1955). This play was purchased by the MGM (see entry under 1920s—Film and Theater in volume 2) studio and made into a low-budget film called A Family Affair (1937). When that film proved popular with audiences, studio executives planned two additional Hardy family feature films, You're Only Young Once (1938) and Judge Hardy's Children (1938). By 1939, it was clear that the Hardy family, and Andy in particular, were appealing to large audiences. To make sure that filmgoers recognized the releases of new films about the Hardy family, each title in the series began to include the family's last name. Most of the titles contained the name of Andy Hardy, who was the standout character and the focus of each story line.

The films depict a loving family living in an idealized American small town called Carvel. In most of the stories, Andy attends high school, experiences puppy love, and learns practical lessons about friendship, dating, and managing money. The titles suggest the youth-oriented subject matter contained in the scripts: Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939), Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940), Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941), and Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946). No matter how complex Andy's problems are, he never fails to benefit from a heart-to-heart chat with his stern but devoted father, Judge Hardy, played in all but the first film of the series by veteran film actor Lewis Stone (1879–1953). In the first film, Lionel Barrymore (1888–1954) played Judge Hardy.

Juvenile MGM star Mickey Rooney (1920–) played Andy Hardy in the sixteen feature-length films that compose the series. Rooney's portayal of Andy shows the outward cockiness and inner vulnerability of teenagers of the period, who were pursuing innocent adventures in communities across the country. Because these films were high in entertainment value and featured plot elements to which the majority of American families could relate, the films were very popular fare. Only the last film in the series, a belated sequel called Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958), was not a success. This story presents a middle-aged Andy who is the head of his own family. Sadly, the beloved character of Judge Hardy had to be written out of the script because Stone had died several years earlier. Moviegoers were disappointed to see a movie about a rather squat, older-looking Andy Hardy weighed down by adult concerns of business and politics. Most fans of the series wanted to freeze their favorite screen teen in a Peter Pan time warp so that he never would get old.

In 1942, at the height of the series popularity and in a wave of World War II (1939–45) patriotism, a special Academy Award was given to the MGM studio for "its achievement in representing the American Way of Life in the production of the Andy Hardy series of films."

—Audrey Kupferberg

For More Information

Parish, James Robert, and Ronald L. Bowers. The MGM Stock Company. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1973.

Ray, Robert B. The Avant-Garde Finds Andy Hardy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.

Rooney, Mickey. Life is Too Short. New York: Villard Books, 1991.