Andy Hardy Meets Debutante

A movie made 60yrs ago, is still one of my favourites. If you want a light-hearted comedy, superbly acted & directed this may be the movie for you. Judy Garland was beautiful (as ever!) & her radiance in this film is one of the highlights. One could wax lyrical for ages about this film, but I won't. Just when you get the opportunity to view this film, do it. You won't be disappointed.

ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1940), directed by George B. Seitz, marks the ninth installment to the "Andy Hardy" family series starring Lewis Stone,Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden and Sara Haden. It also marked the return of Judy Garland, reprising her role of Betsy Booth introduced in LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY (1938). Lana Turner, who also appeared in that same movie, does not appear in this segment, though her Cynthia Potter character and photograph are mentioned and shown here. As for Garland, though she plays a debutante, the debutante in the title happens to be characterized by another new MGM starlet by the name of Diana Lewis, who would become Andy Hardy's latest problem and new love combined interest.

ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE breaks its series tradition by not opening in Judge Hardy's courtroom. Instead, it begins Saturday morning with teenage lover boy, Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) asleep in bed with magazine photo cover of the Number 1 debutante, Daphne Fowler beside him, while Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) is away fishing. Hardy is then called back to Carvel by George Benedict (Addison Richards) regarding some legal matters regarding on shutting down the Carvel Orphanage and displacing many of its orphans. Though Andy has never met Daphne Fowler, he brags about having met her two years ago to his girlfriend, Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford), who, after learning the Hardy family will be heading for New York City where the Judge is to go on a business matter to keep the orphanage from closing, she and his best pal, Beezy (Georgie Breakstone) have Andy promise to return home with a photo of he and Daphne together to place in their high school newspaper, the Olympian. After a train ride to New York City, the Hardy's family, also consisting of mother (Fay Holden), Aunt Milly (Sara Haden) and Andy's older sister, Marian (Cecilia Parker), stay at a brownstone apartment on East 49th Street as arranged by Andy's debutante girlfriend, Betsy Booth (Judy Garland). As the Judge works on legal matters to save the orphanage, Betsy, whose parents are out of town, tries to help Andy with his latest problem, but doesn't know what to do since Andy insists she not ask him any questions. Going through much difficulty trying to meet Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis), it is unknown to Andy that Daphne and Betsy are the best of friends. Others in the cast include: Marjorie Gateson (Mrs. Desmond K. Fowler); George Lessy (Mr. Underwood);Clyde Willson (Francis, later called Butch); and Cy Kendall (Mr. Carrillo, the Club Sirocco restaurant manager). If Clyde Wilson seems a bit familiar, he is that little boy who gets extreme closeup while leading a parade of little kids in the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musical, BABES IN ARMS (1939). This is probably the only time Willson would have an extensive role in a feature film. While his character ends every other sentence with the word "please," he also gets his man-to-man talk from Andy on how to become more of a man with a stronger name of Butch.

With Judy Garland in the cast, playing a girl of age 15 as opposed to her true older age, she still gets treated like a child by Andy, unaware he's more like a child than Betsy is. As the Hardy's find time to see such New York City landmarks as The Statue of Liberty, Andy and Betsy take time walking together on Fifth Avenue, standing by St. Patrick's Cathedral, visiting Grant's Tomb, and even have their horse and buggy ride alone together in Central Park. Garland gets to sing a couple of songs, first an oldie introduced in the Marx Brothers comedy, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935) titled "Alone," followed by a new tune, "I'm Nobody's Baby." Some lighter moments of humor feature Andy acting like a big shot while eating at a swank New York restaurant and running up a high bill of $37.25 while having only $8 in his pocket. Lessons learned later by Andy regarding his father to be not just a "hick small town judge" as compared to those highly educated ones of the New York City court.

Though not as memorable as the popular LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY, ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE, at 87 minutes, is both typical and acceptable entry to the Hardy franchise. As the series progresses more on Andy and his father in that order, roles involving his sister Marion (Cecilia Parker); mother Emily (Fay Holden) and Aunt Milly (Sara Haden) have their limitations. Formerly available on video cassette dating back to the 1990s, and later DVD, ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE can be seen whenever broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. Next installment: ANDY HARDY'S PRIVATE SECRETARY (1941) introducing Kathryn Grayson. (***)

Just by the title alone you know that Mickey Rooney is once again going to have some woman trouble. Andy Hardy Meets Debutante has the Hardy family going to New York to make a holiday of it because Lewis Stone has a court case there. Judge Hardy is stepping off the bench in Carvel and going to New York to represent an orphanage in Carvel that is in danger of closing due to a loophole in a trust agreement the Judge drew up while he was still in private practice.

Rooney is once again putting his steady girlfriend Ann Rutherford on hold again while he fantasizes about Diana Lewis who is a Paris Hilton type débutante. When the Hardys arrive in New York they stay with Judy Garland's family whom we met in a previous Hardy film. And of course Andy in his naive way makes a huge fool of himself a few different ways in the film.

Judy Garland's two songs are the highlight of the film. She sings I'm Nobody's Baby written for this film and Alone which MGM owned the copyright for having been sung most memorably by Allan Jones in A Night At The Opera. As it turns out she knows Diana Lewis and Judy plays little Miss Fixit and cures Rooney of his puppy love. Of course you know the next Hardy film, he'll be back and involved in some other romantic mess. Why Ann Rutherford just didn't give that boy the heave-ho is one of the screen's greatest mysteries.

There is also a very touching scene one of the best father and son moments with Lewis Stone and Mickey Rooney when they visit New York City's Hall Of Fame at New York University Bronx campus. Rooney is wishing that the Hardys who are big-shots in Carvel had a little more class and were mixing easily in society with Diana Lewis's crowd. Stone gives him a most stern lecture about all the people in that Hall of Fame who started from nothing and made the country what it is. It was one of the best patriotic moments in an era where the screen was starting to fill with such sentiments I've ever seen.

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante still holds up well and should be seen for Judy Garland's singing and Lewis Stone's very unsentimental but very real lecture on the spirit of America.

Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) has been bragging again, claiming that New York debutante Daphne Fowler is somebody that he knows, that she likes him, and that he must break up with Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) because of this attachment. When Judge Hardy must go to New York City to take care of an issue involving the estate of the benefactor of the Carvel Orphanage having stopped funding, the entire family is going with him. So Polly plans to embarrass Andy with the cover of the next copy of the High School magazine unless Andy returns with a photo of himself and Daphne together. Complications ensue.

Andy pulls a bunch of bone-headed stunts trying to meet Ms. Fowler, the result being that rather than him being angry at himself for trying to plunge headlong into the adult world of New York society without the wisdom or knowledge to do so, he feels the problem is that he and his entire family are a bunch of "nobodies" who have no position in a place like New York, and therefore will always be nobodies. Has Andy's reticence to read prices on a menu turned him into a Marxist? The judge takes him to task and even more complications ensue.

The real attraction here is Judy Garland who returns as Betsy Booth, a younger girl who has always had a crush on Andy. She's a better friend than he deserves and a real sticking point for me is that he doesn't seem to really appreciate her, even if he says that he does.

Highlights include a couple of numbers by the effervescent Judy Garland, when she was a young fresh face at MGM. Also, the judge and Aunty Milly have a word over a conspiracy they have going to get Mrs. Hardy to accept a fur coat, showing that they really had a very good friendship going.

I am a huge fan of Judy so this review may be biased. I enjoyed this very much. "I'm Nobody's Baby" was typical early Judy. She and Mickey make a delightful team. They just make me smile when they come on screen. You can tell they had a blast working together. I especially like when Mickey goes out on the town and his shirt stud...I like at the very end of the movie when he looks at his photographs and says, "How one's women do mount up!" Just priceless.