I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Just what I expected

best movie i've ever seen.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I have found that the Andy Hardy films are enjoyable light entertainment--certainly not great films but likable nonetheless. However, this installment is the first I've seen from the series in which I didn't like Andy...a serious problem. While he's always been rather sweet and likable, here he seems like a phony--a social- climber who often disregards those around him. It all begins with Andy (Mickey Rooney) creating a lie to impress his friends. He tells them that he's friends with a famous New York débutante, Daphne Fowler. But when his father announces that they family is going to New York because he has business, Andy panics. Instead of just telling the truth, he just tells one lie after another. When the family arrives in the city, they are met by Betsy (Judy Garland) and she plans on doing her best to make sure the family has a great visit. She also helps Andy without question in his scheme to meet Daphne...and it's obvious she's doing it because she is in love with Andy. How is it obvious? She sings a song all about it...which is what most young adults do when they are faced with problems. Despite her help, Andy digs a hole for himself because he's much more concerned about looking big in society instead of caring for everyone around him. At one point, a restaurant owner tells Andy "I think you need a good spanking"...and I heartily agree! He has been a complete jerk throughout the film. Can he possibly redeem himself or will he just digging his self-absorbed hole even deeper?There is a HUGE problem with a sense of perspective in this film. Andy whines and mopes and complains that his family isn't rich instead of just telling the truth and being a stand-up guy...and it's made worse since Judge Hardy is in New York because the local orphanage has lost its funding...a far, far, far more important problem. Again and again, I just wanted to see someone bust Andy in the mouth and tell him to grow up and shut up! Eventually he learns his lesson in this heavy-handed film but he's simply insufferable in the meantime...making it one of the worst films in the series. Had they had more balance and made Andy not quite so awful, it would have worked much, much better.

The Judy Garland many venerate today is the post-Plaza Theater (c.1951) Judy --damaged, pill-popping, alcoholic, overweight--the inspiration for female-impersonators everywhere because of her unique way of pouring out a broken heart in song while living life on the brink as Liza's mother. But the real Judy, the Judy who won America's heart back in the late 1930s is this incandescent teenager, eighteen years old at the time of this film. Those who find the later Judy's manner of acting and singing over-the-top, a bit vulgar, should listen here to the sheer beauty and purity of her soprano voice, her flawless enunciation and phrasing, her feeling for jazz, her utter simplicity. What's more she was a superb actress; witness the scene in the Central Park hansom cab with Mickey, so touchingly real and affecting. It is said that Stella Adler, who was to become Marlon Brando's teacher, but working for Arthur Freed at MGM at that time, was a great supporter of her amazing talent; perhaps Stella coached her acting. The story of this film is typically silly and dated but Judy and Mickey together are as always wonderful!

ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE (1940) is the ninth (9th) film of the series and it shows the direction it was inevitably headed into. Characters ANDY HARDY (Mickey Rooney) and JUDGE HARDY (Lewis Stone) were going to be front and center. The rest of the cast was going too just punch the clock and collect their checks. The series would rise to the occasion again and have its moments but a fatal decline had set in.Lewis Stone throughout the series would continue too portray the character of JUDGE HARDY in a sympathetic manner. The rest of the cast would be professional even though given less and less to do. Mickey Rooney on the other hand would continue his character as if there was no learning curve. ANDYs' reaction to any situation was in a naive and unbelievable way. Even after he returned as a veteran of World War II service in LOVE LAUGHS AT ANDY HARDY (1946) his reaction to any 'teapot tempest' was the same, juvenile.In this film it is clearly illustrated. ANDY gets himself into several unbelievable situations that with a simple explanation would have been resolved. This screen writing device was known as the 'idiot plot'. A means of stretching a poorly written scenario. Maybe it was less Mickey Rooneys' fault then the Director and the Writers. Most likely George B. Seitz had directed one too many and a firmer hand was needed too control Rooneys' excesses. To see our overview of the entire series go to YOU'RE ONLY YOUNG ONCE (1937).

I always thought people were a little too cynical about these old Andy Hardy films. A couple of them weren't bad. Modern film critics are not ones who usually prefer nice to nasty, so goody-two shoes movies like these rarely get praiseNonetheless, I can't defend this movie either. You can still have an dated dialog but still laugh and cry over the story. Watching this, you just shake your head ask yourself, "how stupid can you get?" This is cornier than corny, if you know what I mean. It is so corny I cannot fathom too many people actually sitting through the entire hour-and-a-half.The story basically is "Andy" (Mickey Rooney) trying to get out of jam because he makes up some story about involved with some débutante from New York City as if that was the ultimate. People were a lot more social-conscious in the old days. You'd hear the term "social-climber" as if knowing rich or beautiful people was the highest achievement you could make it life. It's all utter nonsense, of course, and looks even more so today.However, it's about as innocent and clean a story and series (there were a half dozen of these Andy Hardy films made) as you could find. Also, if you like to hear Judy Garland sing, then this is your ticket, as she sings a couple of songs in here and she croons her way into Andy's heart. Oh man, I almost throw up even writing about this!