Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble

This Andy Hardy film has the titular character on the train to Wainwright to start his freshman year at his father's alma mater. The problem is that he's on that train for a full 45 minutes of the movie's running time. This sets the pace of the entire film as being sluggish and claustrophobic.

While on the train, Andy meets up with a girl who is also on the way to Wainwright, Kay Wilson (Bonita Granville). It's the first year Wainwright has gone coed. It looks like something might be developing between the two, but Kay also seems to have eyes for a doctor Standish (Herbert Marshall). He's older and sophisticated, and Kay is taken with him. Also on the train there are twin blondes trying to stay together in spite of their father's plan to separate them based on the belief that their psyche's will best be adjusted if they spend their young adulthood apart. One of the twins is enrolled at Wainwright, but she has to come up with the money for both of them to live until the non-student can get a job.

The solution? These horrible sociopathic young women con Andy out of a grand total of 38 dollars by having him believe lies about how freshmen at Wainwright are mistreated if they dare have any money on them. They use tears, fears, sweet-talk to keep that money in their hot little hands. By the time I knew the full story of their dilemma it's impossible for me to like them or feel for them given how they've been behaving. The only other girl Andy's age is the mute Katy Anderson, back in Carvel, who is a compulsive car thief. If this is what Andy has to put up with, I'm surprised he didn't change his mind and join the Army. The Germans and the Japanese couldn't be any worse than these awful twins and the car thief!

Another thing that keeps this film from working is that there is very little of the actual Hardy family in the film. The judge gets tonsilitis, but that just seems to be a vehicle for introducing "special guest" Keye Luke as the temporary town doctor, playing the exact same role he plays over in the Dr. Gillespie series of movies. I will admit he does liven up the short Carvel section of a pretty dead film.

I was pretty bored during most of this, and just stuck with it so I could write this review. Perhaps you can find something better to do with your time, like watch the earlier episodes in the series. It really did seem that the Hardy family did not translate well to the war years and beyond.

ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1944), directed by George B. Seitz, marks the 14th installment to the popular "Judge Hardy's Family/Andy Hardy" comedy series that all began as A FAMILY AFFAIR in 1937. Having graduated from Carvel High School with his classmates back in 1941, three years have lapsed since graduation day from ANDY HARDY'S PRIVATE SECRETARY (1941), followed by a few installments before Andy finally heads out for college by the end of ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE (1942). Rather than titling this as ANDY HARDY GOES TO COLLEGE, it becomes ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE, meaning the usual antics involving Andy and more girl trouble along the way to college.

Starting off where the previous film, ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE (1942) left off (over a year since its last release), Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) leaves parents, Judge James K. Hardy (Lewis Stone) and Emily (Fay Holden), his Aunt Milly (Sara Haden) and his hometown of Carvel on a train bound for Wainwright College, now a co-ed university. (The train sequence which follows lasts nearly 40 minutes). While on board, Andy meets Kay Wilson (Bonita Granville), a girl raised by her guardian; Doctor M.J. Standish (Herbert Marshall), a middle-aged gentleman who not only winds up being a former student at Wainwright College, and his father's old classmate, but to be his college dean; and blonde sisters, the flirtatious Lee (Lee Wilde) and serious-minded Lynn Walker (Lynn Wilde). It so happens that the Walker girls are identical twins traveling separately so not to give away their secret that their father, believing Lee is heading for Vermont, that his daughters should be spending more time apart than always together. Yet complications ensue as the confused Andy believes one of the girls to be an individual and not a twin, especially after having loaned one of them money needed for his college expenses. While back in Carvel, Judge Hardy is treated for his tonsilectomy by by Lee Wong How (Keye Luke), a Japanese doctor from Brooklyn (New York). After his recovery, Judge Hardy visits Wainwright College to see how his son is doing, with some surprises ahead.

Other members in the cast are: Jean Porter (Kathy, Beezy Anderson's sister, who dumps her $8 car in the custody of Judge Hardy); Marta Linden (Mrs. Townsend); Connie Gilchrist (Mrs. Gordon); Tommy Dix (Mark); Jackie Moran (Spud); Irving Bacon, Eddie Acuff and Frank Sully (The Taxi Drivers). Series regulars as Marion Hardy (Cecilia Parker); Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) and Beezy Anderson (Georgie Breakstone) do not appear. With this strictly Andy Hardy material, Lewis Stone still resumes his star-billing over Mickey Rooney's name in the casting credits. A classic Cole Porter tune, "Easy to Love" is vocalized by The Wilde Twins.

Aside from being the longest (107 minutes) of the entire 16-film series, ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE simply takes time resolving situations involved. The big surprise comes by the appearance of British-American actor, Herbert Marshall, known for his many movie roles dating back to 1930, in notable support, along with Keye Luke (of the "Charlie Chan" series) carrying on his role of Doctor Lee Wong How from the "Doctor Kildare" movie series starring Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. While its extreme length might cause the movie to drag in spots, at least the cast members and Andy Hardy's blonde trouble simply add to its enjoyment.

Never distributed on video cassette but available on DVD, ANDY HARDY'S BLONDE TROUBLE can be found broadcast on cable television's Turner Classic Movies. Next installment: LOVE LAUGHS AT ANDY HARDY (1946) reuniting Mickey with Bonita Granville and their further adventures at Wainwright College. (***)

This installment of the Andy Hardy series of films picks up where the last one left off. Andy is off to Wainwright College. On the train ride there, he meets another frosh-a female (Bonita Granville as Kay Wilson)-who tells him Wainwright is now coed (how convenient for young Hardy!). He also meets a flirty blonde whose erratic behavior is very confusing.

When Andy arrives at Wainwright, he deals with the usual frosh concerns, like uncertainty , then settles into his usual problems-girls and money. Kay is a challenge for small-town Andy; she seems to like older men. The problematic blonde (L. Wilde as L. Walker) brings out the chivalry in Andy.

The theme of this film is maturity. The rather subdued action fits the theme, with Andy becoming circumspect, learning to consider the perspectives of others.

Herbert Marshall acts with restraint as a man who may play a significant part in Andy's education.

Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) is starting Wainwright College, his father's alma mater. On the train there, he is surprised to find that Kay Wilson (Bonita Granville) is also going to Wainwright. It's the first year for the school to go co-ed. They are joined by Dr. M. J. Standish (Herbert Marshall). Blonde twins, Lee Walker (Lee Wilde) and Lyn Walker (Lyn Wilde), pull a trick to stay together, but they need to keep it a secret. Lee keeps making eyes at Andy, but Lyn wants to slap him in the face.

Andy does careen from annoying to endearing. A large part of that is his cluelessness. I do wish that he concentrates on one girl at a time, but he wouldn't be Andy Hardy if he did that. He just can't help himself. That is both annoying and endearing. I really wish that this doesn't suggest a relationship between Kay and Dr. Standish. It's a different time. Today, it doesn't come off as comedic. I'm not marking down on either issue. The home front is less compelling although the Chinese doctor is an interesting insight into the era. The twins are fun and they get into some comedic mayhem. Kay is almost unnecessary especially since her and Standish have become so dated. This is Andy being Andy although it does end on a character growth note.

Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble is a surprisingly long film starring Mickey Rooney as a kid going to college. The woman he likes (Bonita Granville) prefers Herbert Marshall, the college dean, to Mickey Rooney. And no wonder - Rooney is 24 in this film but looks and sounds about 14, and Granville is 21 and is styled to look like she's in her mid 30s. In the first scene I thought the "twist" was going to be that she was a professor rather than a student.

As a result, visually, a Marshall-Granville romance is significantly more credible than a Rooney-Granville one, even though Marshall was 54. (The fact that he's the college dean and she is a freshman student never appears to be the slightest issue. Nor the fact that he's sleeping on the berth above her during the longest train journey since the Orient Express got stuck in the snow with a corpse).

Had they axed the rather contrived side plot about two identical blonde twins rinsing Rooney for cash, they could have made a shorter and tighter movie. Plus all the family scenes with Rooney's father could easily have been swept away on the cutting room floor. But this film is part of a series of Hardy family films, which I suppose is why they're in there.

There is one very touching scene with a Brooklyn-born Chinese American doctor, in dialogue very compelling for the 1940s (and even so today) he introduces himself with: "Oh I see you're wondering about my nationality. I'm Chinese, and I have a charming disposition, until someone pulls that old crack about 'Confucius say'. At which I go completely berserk and bite little children. Now let's have a look at that throat." Plus ça change, eight decades later.

I would recommend this film as a curiosity, and to fans of any specific actors in it. The twins can apparently sing, so it's rather a shame we don't get more of that.