Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever

This was my first look at Mickey Rooney''s "Andy Hardy" and it turned out to be best of the four Hardy films I have viewed. This one is the sixth installment of this series, and this is one time I agree with the critics who label this as one of the best, if not the best, in the series.

Rooney looked a tiny bit old to be playing a high school junior, but I guess with his boyish looks and short stature, filmmakers thought he could get away with it.

The appeal of this movie is the old-fashioned goodness and innocence of the time period. You certainly don't see characters portrayed like this in movies anymore. Yes, everyone here has flaws but all of them are still nice people who pull for each other. It's also refreshing to see a father and his son confide in each other. Lewis Stone makes for a good father (and judge) figure. This is certainly different from modern Hollywood which usually portrays Dad as no good.

The teacher whom Andy falls for is played by someone whom I am not familiar with, but was very impressed with: Helen Gilbert. She is another of these nice, pretty and wholesome people with has a wonderful way about her. She is the kind of strong moralled woman seen in nice movies of the 1930s and 1940s.

Yeah, it's a lightweight piece of fluff but it's so refreshingly innocent and different from today most stuff seen on film - in any era, frankly - that I recommend you give it look if this sort of thing appeals to you. I don't promise a memorable, exciting or profound film.....just an hour or two of going back in time and feeling good about people.

Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)

*** (out of 4)

The seventh film in the series finds Andy (Mickey Rooney) heartbroken after Polly (Ann Rutherford) refuses to see him because she gets a crush on a Navy guy. Andy's heartache quickly turns around when he gets a new drama teacher (Helen Gilbert) and quickly falls for her. Meanwhile, Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) finds himself in trouble when he gives his life savings for a business plan, which turns out to be a scam. If the innocence of the Andy Hardy series is something that's going to bother you then I'm sure this entry isn't going to change your opinion but fans of the series should find enough good things here to make it worth viewing. I was actually quick shocked to see how much more drama there is rather than comedy. When you think 1939 and hearing a plot about Andy getting a crush on his teacher you pretty much expect it to be handled in a slapstick, silly manor but that's not the case. The film is extremely serious about Andy's love for this teacher and there are a couple quite dark scenes where the two talk about certain boundaries that shouldn't be crossed with a teacher and her student. I thought the screenplay handled the drama extremely well and this is especially true towards the end of the film when the kids are putting on a play written by Andy and he gets to spill his emotions out for everyone to see. Rooney's performance during this dramatic sequence is actually some of the best acting I've seen from him as the power is certainly there. With that said, Rooney also gets to show off his comic timing early on and no one could ever say he didn't bring fire and energy to the role. Rutherford is also excellent here and thankfully her character is given a much more important role than what she had previous seen. The two of them make for a great team and really sell the film well. Stone, as you'd expect, delivers another very strong performance as does the other regulars like Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden and Sara Haden. Gilbert didn't have a very large career but I found her to be very good here as well. ANDY HARDY GETS SPRING FEVER isn't the best of the MGM series but it has enough charm and good will to make it worth viewing.

It's spring and everybody has a corresponding spring in their step. But Andy (Mickey Rooney) quickly loses that spring when he sees that the fleet has landed in Carvel and that Polly Benedict is now keeping company with a member of the US Navy. As an aside, I hope that Andy and Polly never marry - at least not to each other, because both of them have a big problem with arguing, gunny sacking, and fidelity. But I digress.

Then along comes a substitute drama teacher for the last few weeks of the school year. She's beautiful, and she instantly makes Andy forget all about Polly. She asks each member of the class to try their hand at writing a play for the class to perform at the end of the school year, and Andy ends up writing the winning entry. It's a very silly thing in which Polly is a south sea island girl who jumps into a volcano because Andy's character rejects her. So you see, Andy hasn't completely forgotten about Polly!

Meanwhile there is a rather odd side plot in which Judge Hardy gets taken in by a couple of con-men claiming they are going to build an aluminum factory in Carvel because the surrounding land - land that the judge owns - is loaded with bauxite, the precursor to aluminum. Unfortunately, the judge also gets his friends to invest before the bad guys leave town.

So this time both the judge and Andy are in a jam. Andy is in love with the drama teacher. Judge Hardy, who by virtue of his job description is supposed to have sound judgment, has fallen for an obvious ruse. So this time Judge Hardy doesn't hide a knowing smile when Andy comes to him for a "man-to-man talk" and tells him how much in love he is with this 23-year-old drama teacher. After all, they are both in hot water because they saw what they wanted to see.

There's some really good acting by Rooney when he's playing his final scene in the school play. He's supposed to be speaking his lines to Polly, but it's more like he's speaking his lines AT Polly. His bitter lines are instead delivered to the drama teacher, who he feels has led him on (she has not!).

It's spring and a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love. We all know what that means for our favorite teenage heartthrob Andy Hardy. After Polly Benedict turns her attentions to a handsome naval officer, Andy is dejected. But that changes when he meets his pretty new drama teacher (Helen Gilbert) and falls head over heels for her. Meanwhile, two con men put one over on Judge Hardy. Nice continuity in this subplot involving the aqueduct land that figured prominently in an earlier Hardy film.

The cast is great, as they always were in these movies. This is one of the best in the series for Mickey Rooney to showcase his acting chops. Lovely Helen Gilbert is terrific. Director Woody Van Dyke films her with an almost angelic glow about her. The plot of the teenage boy with a crush on his teacher is hardly original, even for the time, but it's handled with a remarkable sensitivity and maturity. That should come as no surprise to fans of this great series from MGM. All too often these movies are dismissed as corny sentimentalism but they're actually well written and acted dramas with touches of comedy and, yes, homespun Americana that is extinct today. Oh and dig that old-timey lawnmower Lewis Stone uses in one scene. Love little windows into the past like that.

... practically. Watching this film with modern eyes is I imagine a night and day experience as compared to how audiences must have reacted to it back in the day... or is it completely? Andy's beautiful young drama teacher that he's in thrall of does warn him about a line that teachers and their students must not cross. I wonder where that was coming from exactly? Anyway, I don't think it's possible for any modern viewer post Mary Kay and her like to view this without imagining the worst and most sordid possibilities. On another note, this in my opinion is the best of the Andy Hardy series. One particular scene in a classroom at night has an atmospheric mise en scene that goes far beyond what we can expect from an Andy Hardy movie; Helen Gilbert who plays the teacher is terrific; the high-school play that Andy wrote and stars in opposite his usual crush, Polly Benedict, goes off the rails with hilarious results; and the usual Judge Hardy subplot is a good one.