Andy Hardy (film series)
Andy Hardy is an American film series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . A total of 16 feature-length films and one short film were released in the series between 1937 and 1946, but a resumption of the film series with Andy Hardy Comes Home failed in 1958. The comedic family films were extremely popular in their time and were instrumental in making their lead actor Mickey Rooney one of the box office-rich Became stars. The film series also became a forerunner of today's sitcoms . In 1943 the Andy Hardy film series received an honorary Oscar .
Production history
The original, first film A Family Affair (1937) was based on the play Skidding by the American author Aurania Rouverol (1886–1955). A Family Affair was a relatively small family film produced with average effort and directed by George B. Seitz . No sequel was planned. However, A Family Affair at the American box office was such a surprise success for MGM that it was decided to make an ongoing series about the Hardy family. For the second film, the cast was partially changed: Instead of Lionel Barrymore , Lewis Stone now played the family patriach and local judge James Hardy and instead of Spring Byingtons , Fay Holden was seen as mother Hardy. In contrast, Mickey Rooney as son Andy Hardy, Cecilia Parker as daughter Marian and Sara Haden as Aunt Millie stayed in their roles.
Mickey Rooney's character, the teenager Andy Hardy, quickly developed into the main character and the series' namesake. As a friend of Andy Hardy, Ann Rutherford was mostly used as Polly Benedict, but Judy Garland was also used as the budding singer Betsy Booth in three films. During the most successful period of the Andy Hardy films, Rooney was one of the box office stars in Hollywood. The series ended with Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946), in which Andy comes home from his military service in World War II. An attempt to revive the 1958 film series with Andy Hardy Comes Home failed at the box office - although Rooney, Holden, Haden and Parker took over their roles again.
Motives for action
The films are set in the fictional town of Carvel, Idaho . Carvel is presented in the films as an average and somewhat sleepy, but personable village. The films are similar to today's sitcoms and show an average American family with their little everyday worries, which are treated in a comedic way. In many films, the main character Andy Hardy gets into problems in the areas of money, love or work - often triggered by his youthful carelessness and exuberance. Only when the sometimes strict but just judge Hardy learns of his son's problems and takes him aside ( "man-to-man" talk ), Andy can finally lead the plot to a positive end.
The Andy Hardy series can be understood as a positive hymn to the American way of life because of its content . It fitted into the conservative worldview of MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer , which he increasingly incorporated into the films after the death of his co-producer at MGM, Irving Thalberg .
Andy Hardy Films
- 1937: A Family Affair
- 1937: You're Only Young Once
- 1938: Judge Hardy's Children
- 1938: Love Finds Andy Hardy
- 1938: Out West with the Hardys
- 1938: The Hardys Ride High
- 1939: Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever
- 1939: Judge Hardy and Son
- 1940: Andy Hardy meets debutante
- 1940: Andy Hardy's Dilemma: A Lesson in Mathematics - And Other Things (short film)
- 1941: Andy Hardy's Private Secretary
- 1941: Life Begins for Andy Hardy
- 1942: The Courtship of Andy Hardy
- 1942: Andy Hardy's Double Life
- 1944: Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble
- 1946: Love Laughs at Andy Hardy
- 1958: Andy Hardy Comes Home
Further adaptations and reception
Judge Hardy and his son Andy appeared in some commercials in the 1940s, for example in the context of advertisements for the American service in World War II. In 1962 a television pilot was made with Jimmy Hawkins as Andy Hardy and Philip Ober as Judge Hardy, with which the series was to be revived, but ultimately it did not come to a separate television series.
Several comic books about Andy Hardy also appeared in the 1940s and 1950s. The success of Andy Hardy, who centered the lives of small-town American teenagers, also inspired Archie Comics to create their most famous comic book, Archie , which has been released since 1941.
Awards
- In 1943 MGM received an honorary Oscar for their Andy Hardy film series.
- In 2000, the film Love Finds Andy Hardy was included in the National Film Registry representative for the series .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stephen Krensky: Comicbook Century: The History of American Comic Books . Twenty-First Century Books, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8225-6654-0 ( google.de [accessed March 4, 2019]).