Hardly Hardy or Andy Rooney

Mickey Rooney was probably the most popular actor in Hollywood in the late 30s and early 40s.  This is partly due to the delightful musicals he made with Judy Garland, but even more significant was the Andy Hardy series.

The Hardy's were supposedly an average American family.  Rooney as Andy Hardy was generally romancing a young woman, but was also trying to live up to the high standards of his father, a judge.  The films were Louis B. Mayer's dream--wholesome stories with low budgets and huge grosses.

Rooney made 13 such films from 1937 to 1942.  The first few, such as A Family Affair and You're Only Young Once, were more about the whole family, but it quickly became clear Andy was the star and the titles started reflecting it: Love Finds Andy Hardy, Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever, Life Begins For Andy Hardy and so on.

Rooney is a lively, ingratiating performer (even if he sometimes tries a little too hard), though I'd recommend the films more for anthropological reasons than for entertainment value.

Alas for MGM, Rooney was getting older.  A teenage kid who wants to prove himself gets harder to play once he hits his mid-20s.  So the series slowed down and finally stopped with Love Laughs At Andy Hardy (1946), the first Hardy film Rooney had made in two years.  By this time he's a grownup, returning from army service (like the real Rooney, by the way).  The spirit of the series is all but gone by this point--the film is called a comedy, but a lot of it is pretty grim.

It actually made money (but everything made money in 1946).  Still, it was the end.  Rooney was no longer the star he'd been, and playing an adult--a very short adult--wasn't going to cut it.

Which brings me to my main point.  I recently saw the attempted revival of the series, Andy Hardy Comes Home.

Released in 1958, Andy Hardy is now a lawyer returning to his hometown of Carvel, hoping to convince the locals to let his company build a factory there.  By the end, he decides to stick around and is even named judge.

It's clear from the start the thing is a mistake.  No matter what else you think of the original series, it has one thing--a youthful spirit, embodied by Rooney.  This one has youth (dancing to that newfangled rock and roll) but we look at it from the viewpoint of Andy Hardy, who seems a tired old man.

In the final shot, with Andy in robes, are the word "To Be Continued..."

Of course, they meant "...if this film is a hit." It wasn't and that was that.