Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946)

In the last decades of his life, I came to dislike Mickey Rooney. This was based on what I heard about the man, which gave me the impression that he was a delusional, self-aggrandizing, and self promoting, jackass.However, I started to reevaluate him after I heard the director of Breakfast At Tiffany's say that he always regretted casting Rooney in that picture.I had always thought that Rooney did a great job as the Japanese clown character he created for Tiffany's. He seemed to me to be the perfect counterpoint to Hepburn's pseudo-sophisticated New Yorker character.Then tonight I saw Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946)and I was blown away by Rooney's command of the screen, and the poise he had in the character he created. The movie itself was just OK. But Rooney drew my attention in every frame he was in. For someone as young as he was in that movie, to have that kind of screen presence, really surprised me.There was a reason he was a big deal back in the day. There was a reason he was a big box office draw back in the day. I have a new found respect for the man who's shadows I see flicker away at me in those old movies.Tony

After serving two years in World War II, marriage-minded Mickey Rooney (as Andrew "Andy" Hardy) is back in Carvel, Idaho. He is welcomed by wise father Lewis Stone (as James Hardy) and concerned mother Fay Holden (as Emily); aunt Sara Haden (as Milly Forrest) appears briefly. Later, you can be sure Mr. Stone will have a helpful heart-to-heart talk with Rooney. From home, Mr. Rooney goes to finish his freshman year at Wainright College, and culminate his romance with pretty sweetheart Bonita Granville (as Kay Wilson). She hears wedding bells, but they aren't music to Rooney's ears..."Everybody worries about my future, but nobody worries about my now," is an apt reflection by Rooney's "Andy Hardy". His famous character seemed dated when this was released, and it was the penultimate episode in MGM's "Judge Hardy's Family" series. "Love Laughs at Andy Hardy" has the level of maturity evident in these movies; but, apparently, viewers expected progress. In hindsight, the film delivers the usual good will, with a little of the usual fun. Rooney's dating Dorothy Ford (as Coffy Smith) is an obvious stand-out. A 1958 update, with Rooney assuming the fatherly role, failed to revive the series.***** Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (12/25/46) Willis Goldbeck ~ Mickey Rooney, Bonita Granville, Lewis Stone, Dorothy Ford

Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946)** (out of 4)The fifteenth film in the series has Andy (Mickey Rooney) returning home from the Army and clearing up a few things with his parents (Lewis Stone, Fay Holden) before heading back to college where he plans on marrying the girl (Bonita Granville) he fell in love with from the previous film. Andy's plans don't go as he expects and he gets the idea that college isn't for him and perhaps it would be best to just enter the working world. MGM would make the ill-advised decision to try and bring this series back in 1958 but it's clear this was originally meant to be the final entry in the series. I think it's also clear that the majority of the people involved were probably wishing this movie never happened at all. For starters, director Goldbeck, a newbie to the series, can't recapture the same magic as the earlier films and the entire tone of the film just doesn't seem right. Another problem is the screenplay, which really does seem to be picking up spare pieces at the bottom of a barrel. Nothing on display here is really of any interest as the entire love affair for Andy doesn't really make too much sense if you've seen the previous film in the series and for the life of me I can't understand why on Earth they spent so much time getting the entire story going. The early scenes in Carville are cute because it shows Andy meeting up with a few characters from earlier in the series (but no Polly) but it adds very little. The stuff at college isn't all that interesting either, although one of the few high points comes when Andy gets set up with a girl (Dorothy Ford) who is almost twice his size. Another highlight comes at the very end when Lina Romay shows up in a highly entertaining little sequence. The "final" spill to (originally) end the series works well but it's a shame everything else didn't meet its level of entertainment. Rooney isn't too bad in his role but it really does appear that his heart or mind is somewhere else. Stone and Holden really don't get very much to do and Sara Haden just appears briefly. Granville is as charming as ever but the screenplay doesn't do her any favors either. Fans of the series will certainly still want to check this one out but if you're new to Andy Hardy it's best to avoid this one and check out some of the earlier and better films.

After spending time in the service after National Velvet, Mickey Rooney returned to MGM hoping to resume his pre-war career. Like his real life counterpart, Rooney's most well known character Andy Hardy also did some time in the army during World War II. Andy had dropped out of Wainwright College which also was the alma mater of his dad, Lewis Stone and enlisted in the army. Love Laughs At Andy Hardy marked his return to peacetime America as it did for millions of others.Then why for heaven's sake didn't MGM let him grow up a bit? After time in the service during war, you would think that Andy would have matured a bit. Still now as a veteran he goes right back to the same callow youth that we knew before Pearl Harbor. So a beloved series ended because millions of veterans just could not swallow an Andy Hardy who had not changed. Rooney is having his usual female trouble. He met a girl in college played by Bonita Granville before the war whom he hoped would wait for him, but she didn't even send a 'dear john' letter to him. Mickey also met Lina Romay visiting Carvel from South America. This was one time where MGM took deliberate advantage of Mickey's well known vertical challenge. Being dateless he allows himself at one point to be set up with 6'2" Dorothy Ford and they do look ridiculous together. The best part of the film is seeing Rooney trying to dance with Ford. I've seen Ford in a few other films and she nearly comes up in height to such tall stars as James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and John Wayne. You might remember her best as the giant's wife with Abbott&Costello in Jack And The Beanstalk.Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, and Sara Haden all repeat their roles from previous Hardy films. Cecilia Parker as Andy's older sister is absent, presumably she's sprung from the nest, no explanation is given in the film.This was not the last Andy Hardy film however. Over a decade later, Rooney returned to MGM as Andy Hardy now married to Patricia Breslin and the father of two kids and he's moving back to Carvel. After that there were no more visits to Carvel from MGM.Who knows the series might have kept going if MGM had let Andy grow up. As it is what was cute before was ludicrous now.