Andy Hardy Milionário

Hardys Ride High, The (1939)

*** (out of 4)

The sixth film in the popular MGM series has Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) learning that he might be the heir to $2 million dollars so the family goes to Detroit to collect the money. Kids Andy (Mickey Rooney) and Marian (Cecilia Parker) soon see green everywhere and begin to change as the chance of getting money begins to turn their character. I wish that I could have watched these films in order but I pretty much just have to catch them as they show up on TCM. With that said, I've really become a fan of the series over the past year and this one here is yet another winner. Once again many people might laugh at the "moral lessons" being taught here as there's no question it's doubtful there is any family as pure as the ones on display here. There's no question these films were just light entertainment meant to tell people how one should live their life. Typically I'd object to such preaching but there's no denying that these characters have a lot of charm and the actors do a brilliant job bringing them to life. This time out we have the Hardy's learning that money can lead to a lot of evil and this is especially true for the kids who start spending before they even get the money. Of course Andy gets caught up with a seedy character and soon ends up with a chorus girl (Virginia Grey) in a very funny sequence. Not only the bad money a lesson here but so is honesty when Judge learns something that might prevent them from the money. As usual the cast make the film work with Stone and Rooney so perfect in these roles that you can't see anyone else doing them. The two have a great chemistry together and they really do come off like a real father and son. Grey is very good in her role of the gold digger and Fay Holden, Parker and Ann Rutherford are as great as usual. The one issue with the film is the final twenty-minutes when the "message" is being told. It goes on about five or ten minutes too long but if you're a fan of the series then there's enough charm here to make it worth viewing.

Just watched this, the sixth in the Judge Hardy's Family series. Seems the family may have inherited some money so they go to Detroit to claim their share. Of course, Andy has delusions of grandeur which he enacts quickly when a supposed relative takes him out on the town and he sees chorus girls for the first time! I'll stop there and just say that I liked most of the film especially when some of the focus is on spinster Aunt Milly and her dressing up and going out with someone she likes very much. Mickey Rooney, as always, is his usual exuberant self. Oh, and what he tells Polly at the end! So on that note, I highly recommend The Hardys Ride High.

Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) inherits a fortune so the family moves...to Detroit? Times really have changed. Once in Detroit, the Hardys have difficulty adjusting to their potential newfound wealth. Andy starts to think of himself as a millionaire playboy and acts accordingly. Marian spends like there's no tomorrow. Even Aunt Millie (Sara Haden) gets in on the action, trying to be something she's not to snag a man.

Lewis Stone's good in this one as the Judge's honesty and integrity is tested and, surprisingly, the old stone wall almost cracks. Mickey is fun as usual. His reaction to being invited to the chorus girl's apartment is priceless. The one father/son talk we get is late in the film but it's pretty funny. Fay Holden is as endearing as ever. Cecilia Parker didn't annoy me once in the whole picture. A first! Sara Haden has probably her best movie in the series playing Aunt Millie going through a spinster crisis. Ann Rutherford shines in her far too few scenes as Polly Benedict. Halliwell Hobbes is fun as a butler. Seems like he was always playing butlers. Virginia Grey is fine as the gold-digging chorus girl who helps lead Andy astray. Marsha Hunt and Donald Briggs have bit parts as a bickering married couple who are saved from divorce (for now) by Judge Hardy. The part where he tells the wife "what a generous husband gives is a lot more than you're entitled to" is sure to ruffle feathers today.

This is one of the lesser Hardy films but still enjoyable. They don't do as much with the "coming into money" idea as I think they could have. It was nice to see Haden get some extra material but since the decision she arrives at in the end doesn't carry over into future movies, it almost seems pointless. No Hardy movie is unwatchable. This one just feels lacking. Also the ending just sneaks up on you and we're not given any great closure on the inheritance plot.

THE HARDY'S RIDE HIGH (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939), directed by George B. Seitz, marks the sixth entry to the now popular "Hardy Family" movie series, and the first of its three 1939 installments. A standard production in every sense involving the family's moral lesson as to whether or not they could be happy after inheriting a large fortune or being just plain folks from a the small town of Carvel.

Following a courtroom opening where Judge James K. Hardy (Lewis Stone) solves a troubled marriage involving Caleb Bowen (Donald Briggs) coping with his wife, Susan's (Marsha Hunt) spending extravagance, Hardy is soon visited by a lawyer, Jonas Bronell (George Irving), with surprising news that Hardy has inherited $2 million because of he being the great-great grandson of James Standish Leeds, a well-known figure of the War of 1812. The middle-class family, involving the judge's wife, Emily (Fay Holden), daughter, Marion (Cecilia Parker), their 16-year-old football playing son, Andrew (Mickey Rooney), and their matronly Aunt Milly Forrest (Sara Haden), accompany the judge on an airplane bound for Detroit, Michigan, where the judge is to prove himself liable of the inheritance. Taking up residence in the Leeds mansion where they are waited on by family butler, Dobbs (Halliwell Hobbes), and living the life of how rich people live. Their new way of living takes its toll, especially on the children. Aunt Milly, the spinster schoolteacher, wanting to enjoy life before old age sets in for her, begins courting Terry B. Archer (Minor Watson), a middle-aged gentleman she earlier met on the airplane, with the hope their courtship will lead to marriage. Philip Westcott (John King), the adopted son of the Leeds family, shows the family the town, in spite the fact that he may that through Judge Hardy, he may lose the fortune entitled him. Philip even takes Andy to the Paradise Club where the girl-happy teenager gets introduced to Consuela McNish (Virginia Grey), an older chorus girl, and arranges for the young man to spend the evening together in her apartment. As for Marion, she goes on a spending spree buying an expensive dress for herself and charging it to her father's account. After returning home to Carvel, problems arise when the judge discovers evidence that he may or may not rightfully be entitled to the family fortune. Aside from Ann Rutherford returning in a few scenes playing Polly Benedict, Andy's girlfriend, others in the cast include: John T. Murray (Don Davis, the Druggist); Aileen Pringle (Miss Booth, the Saleswoman); Erville Alderson (Bill, Hardy's Bailiff); and William T. Orr (Dick Bannersly, Polly's gentleman caller she met while on vacation to use to get Andy jealous), among others.

While the "Hardy Family" series would be a great introduction for young MGM starlets, THE HARDY'S RIDE HIGH promises no film debuts nor introductions of any kind. It basically consists of Marsha Hunt and Virginia Grey, who have been in the movie business for quite some time, assuming smaller roles for this entry. With the story focusing on how money can change a simple-minded family to living the lifestyle of the rich and famous, it finds Aunt Milly becoming glamorous with her agreeable dressing and modern hairstyle to impress her new gentleman caller; Marion and her mother having their breakfast in bed served by their butler; while Andy dresses up in tuxedo and top hat pretending to be a "big shot" in an expensive night club, only to come to reality through his father's reasoning, notably for not smoking or booze drinking. At one point, Andy buys a cigarette case, mistaking its cost of $175 to $1.75. Even briefly the sensible judge nearly lets the money get the best of him before contemplating its consequence if he goes through with his intentions,and so much more. As much as the story and acting are delivered in manner, especially by Sara Haden in a change of pace by becoming glamorous and having more to do plot-wise than usual, what "Andy Hardy" movie would be complete without any "man to man" talks between father and son?

Though never distributed on video cassette, THE HARDY'S RIDE HIGH has been placed on DVD disc and often plays in cable television's Turner Classic Movies. Next in the series, ANDY HARDY GETS SPRING FEVER (1939), and more teenage situations as well, (***)

In the sixth Andy Hardy movie, Mickey Rooney is a real pain in the neck. He completely acts his age, so you'd better get ready for a bunch of sixteen-year-old antics. The patriarch of the family, Lewis Stone, finds out that he's potentially the heir to a two-million-dollar fortune, and when the entire family goes to Detroit to explore the family tree, everyone gets into trouble.

Calling all Sara Haden fans: Aunt Millie finally gets a romance! She has an impassioned speech at the start of the movie, lamenting her role as the spinster aunt in the family and society, and she meets a respectable, considerate, handsome man on the airplane. Later on, she gives herself a makeover and appears at dinner with her hair done up and in a beautiful gown. Fay Holden bursts into tears, and Mickey says, "Don't cry! Aunt Millie will make herself ugly again if you want her to!" It's insulting, but classically blunt in Andy Hardy fashion. Mickey doesn't limit his insults to his aunt, and says to his father, "You're old; you couldn't change even if you wanted to," as Lewis Stone struggles to keep his hurt feelings to himself. Poor Judge Hardy; he has to take so much from his son. In every movie, he has to juggle everyone else's problems as well as his own, and he has at least one "man-to-man" talk with Mickey. Usually these famous talks are about girls or financial problems, and this movie proves to be no exception. He has an unending amount of patience; I've seen almost every one of the Andy Hardy movies, and he has yet to lose his temper.

Mickey and Cecilia Parker both get into trouble wanting to fit in with the upper crust. They buy things they can't afford and make friends with the wrong crowd. "Summon the butler!" Mama Hardy declares. Right on cue, Halliwell Hobbes introduces himself as the butler. How fitting, since he made a career of playing dozens of butlers in old movies! Fay Holden is the only one who doesn't let the money go to her head. She doesn't buy fancy clothes and still concerns herself with the daily cooking for her family. She and Lewis have a couple of cute scenes together, reminding the young folks in the audience that their parents were once young and in love, too.

All in all, this movie isn't that great. Mickey's ridiculous antics and manipulative, bratty personality are tough to take. I did like Sara Haden's part, and Lewis Stone's model father role is at his best. He's known as Honest Judge Hardy for a reason. Keep in mind, Sara Haden's best known for her role as the spinster aunt in these movies, so don't get your hopes up. If you do like her, though, this is the movie that gives her the biggest part, and I'm sure she appreciated getting such a big chunk of the story.