Editing Love Finds Andy Hardy

{{Short description|1938 film by George B. Seitz}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Love Finds Andy Hardy
| image          = Love Finds Andy Hardy 1938 poster.jpg
| caption        = 1938 theatrical poster
| director       = [[George B. Seitz]]
| producer       = Lou L. Ostrow<br>[[Carey Wilson (writer)|Carey Wilson]]
| writer         = Vivien R. Bretherton<br>[[William Ludwig (screenwriter)|William Ludwig]]<br>[[Aurania Rouverol]]
| starring       = [[Lewis Stone]]<br>[[Mickey Rooney]]<br>[[Judy Garland]]<br>[[Cecilia Parker]]<br>[[Fay Holden]]
| music          = [[David Snell (composer)|David Snell]]
| cinematography = [[Lester White]]
| editing        = [[Ben Lewis (editor)|Ben Lewis]]
| studio         = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| distributor    = [[Loews Cineplex Entertainment|Loew's Inc.]]
| released       = {{Film date|1938|7|22}}
| runtime        = 91 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $212,000<ref name="scott">{{cite book |first=Scott |last=Eyman |title=Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer |publisher=Robson |year=2005|page=324}}</ref><ref name="Mannix">{{cite book |title=The Eddie Mannix Ledger |publisher=Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study |place=Los Angeles |year=1962}}</ref>
| gross          = $2,247,000<ref name="scott"/><ref name="Mannix"/>
}}
'''''Love Finds Andy Hardy''''' is a 1938 American [[romantic comedy|romantic comedy film]] that tells the story of a [[Andy Hardy|teenage boy]] who becomes entangled with three different girls all at the same time. It stars [[Mickey Rooney]], [[Lewis Stone]], [[Fay Holden]], [[Cecilia Parker]], [[Judy Garland]], [[Lana Turner]], [[Ann Rutherford]], [[Mary Howard de Liagre|Mary Howard]] and [[Gene Reynolds]].

The screenplay was written by [[William Ludwig (screenwriter)|William Ludwig]], from stories by Vivien R. Bretherton, and based upon characters created by [[Aurania Rouverol]].  It was directed by [[George B. Seitz]]. In 2000, ''Love Finds Andy Hardy''  was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{cite press release|title=Librarian of Congress Names 25 More Films to National Film Registry |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |date=December 27, 2000 |url=https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2000/00-200.html |access-date=July 22, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090906000933/http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2000/00-200.html |archive-date=September 6, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-05}}</ref>

This was the first film in which [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] recorded at least part of the soundtrack in [[stereophonic sound]], a practice which was used for a number of MGM musical comedies beginning the late 1930s. The film was presented in standard monaural sound.

==Plot==
{{Long plot|date=February 2022}}
[[File:Judy Garland in Love Finds Andy Hardy trailer.jpg|thumb|right|Judy Garland in the trailer for the film.]]
It is December 1938 in the town of Carvel. Andy Hardy ([[Mickey Rooney]]) is putting a down payment on a used car, desperate to take his girlfriend Polly Benedict ([[Ann Rutherford]]) to the Christmas Eve dance in his own car. When Polly tells Andy she will be visiting her grandmother for the next three weeks and will not be able to attend the Christmas Eve dance with him, Andy vows to attend the dance alone. Judge Hardy ([[Lewis Stone]]), Andy's father, later encounters his son, who broaches the subject of car ownership, but Judge Hardy tells Andy that he cannot have his own car.

Returning home for the evening, Judge Hardy runs into 12-year-old Betsy Booth ([[Judy Garland]]), who is staying with her grandparents for the Christmas holiday. Betsy's grandmother has been effusive about Andy Hardy and Betsy is thrilled to learn he will be her next door neighbor during her stay. Judge Hardy's wife, Emily ([[Fay Holden]]), receives a telegram that evening informing her that her mother has had a stroke. Emily and her sister leave immediately for rural Canada to care for their mother. Andy meets Betsy while delivering some of his mother's freshly canned preserves. Betsy is obviously taken with Andy but he does not reciprocate her admiration; he leaves as quickly as possible.

Beezy ([[George P. Breakston]]), Andy's friend, asks Andy to date Cynthia ([[Lana Turner]]), Beezy's girlfriend, while Beezy is out of town over the Christmas holiday period, so that she will avoid other men. Beezy promises to pay Andy $8 plus 50 cents a week for expenses for his efforts. Andy needs the money to purchase his car, so he agrees. Andy starts going out with Cynthia, but she is bored by sports activities, and they find they only get along when they are busy kissing; after walking Cynthia home Andy stops in to visit Betsy Booth—only he's covered in Cynthia's lipstick. Betsy gives Andy a handsome new radiator cap for his anticipated car, and, after he leaves, she sadly sings “In-Between.”

One morning, Andy receives a telegram from Polly saying she will be home for the Christmas Eve dance after all. Andy telephones her saying he can't take her to the dance because of a previous engagement. He thereafter opens a letter from Beezy. Beezy wrote saying he found a new girlfriend so he will not pay Andy for dating Cynthia. Betsy, from a moneyed family, offers to help Andy pay for his car, but he refuses her aid. That evening, he tells his father about the mess he made. Judge Hardy explains his point of view about spending money on a car versus putting it aside as savings—and then discloses his deep concern for Andy's mother. Judge Hardy would like to convey a message to his wife, but there is no telephone at her mother's home and Emily finds telegrams unnerving.
[[File:Love Finds Andy Hardy (1939) 1.jpg|thumb|300px|left| [[Lewis Stone]], Mickey Rooney, and [[Fay Holden]] ]]
Andy suggests a message be sent to their mother via ham radio in lieu of sending her a telegram. Andy brings Judge Hardy to the home of twelve-year-old ham radio operator James McMann Jr. ([[Gene Reynolds]]) and he sends a message to Mrs. Hardy in [[Brigham, Quebec]].  Judge Hardy is so impressed with James's help and his son's ingenuity that he pays the last $8 for Andy's car.

Betsy deceives Cynthia into thinking that Andy's car is an absolute wreck; Cynthia haughtily refuses to go to the Christmas Eve dance with Andy. Andy feels relieved to be able to date Polly again. Andy tries to clear things up with Polly but, having learned of his fling with Cynthia, she angrily tells Andy that she won't go to the dance with him because she has a date with a college boy. Christmas Eve finds Andy wholly dejected at the prospect of not having a date for the dance—but when Betsy comes over in her evening gown he decides to take her to the dance.

At the dance, Polly's date recognizes Betsy as an accomplished singer and asks her to perform; Andy is scared that she will embarrass him, but she proves to be a fantastic singer and quickly wins over the crowd with “It Never Rains But it Pours” and encores with “Meet the Beat of My Heart.” Betsy and Andy lead the dance in a grand march after Polly leaves in tears. Late that evening at home after the dance, Betsy Booth and the Hardy family are gathered together around the Christmas tree when Mrs. Hardy unexpectedly returns home—her mother is getting better.

On Christmas Day, Betsy explains everything to Polly. Polly and her date from the dance come over to the Hardy home, and Polly's date turns out to be her cousin. Polly's cousin then meets Andy's sister, and they leave together. Betsy expresses her gratitude to Andy for a wonderful evening and leaves. Polly and Andy make up.

==Cast==
[[File:Rooney-Garland-ebay-1938.jpg|thumb|right|Rooney with [[Judy Garland]] in a still from the film]]
{{div col}}
* [[Mickey Rooney]] as [[Andy Hardy]]
* [[Lewis Stone]] as Judge James K. Hardy
* [[Fay Holden]] as Mrs. Emily Hardy
* [[Cecilia Parker]] as Marian Hardy
* [[Judy Garland]] as Betsy Booth
* [[Lana Turner]] as Cynthia Potter
* [[Ann Rutherford]] as Polly Benedict
* [[Mary Howard de Liagre|Mary Howard]] as Mrs. Mary Tompkins
* [[Gene Reynolds]] as James 'Jimmy' MacMahon Jr.
* [[Don Castle]] as Dennis Hunt
* [[Betty Ross Clarke]] as Aunt Millie Forrest
* [[Marie Blake]] as Augusta, the Cook
* [[George Breakston]] as Francis Bacon 'Beezy' Anderson
* [[Raymond Hatton]] as Peter Dugan
* [[Frank Darien]] as Mr. Barnes, Bill Collector
{{col div end}}

==Production notes==
* Production Dates: mid-May to mid-June 1938
* ''Love Finds Andy Hardy'' placed ninth in Film Daily's annual poll of the top films of 1938
* Mickey Rooney began to receive "star billing" in subsequent films due to his success in ''Love Finds Andy Hardy'', and worked on this film simultaneously with ''[[Boys Town (film)|Boys Town]]''.

==Reception==
The film was a big hit, earning $1,637,000 in the US and Canada and $610,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,345,000.<ref name="scott"/><ref name="Mannix"/>

Film critic [[Pauline Kael]] praised ''Love Finds Andy Hardy'' in her book ''5001 Nights At The Movies'' (p.&nbsp;438): “Immensely entertaining.  The fourth and perhaps the most charming of the Andy Hardy series, Louis B. Mayer’s make-believe vision of Middle America.”

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Love Finds Andy Hardy (film)|Love Finds Andy Hardy}}
* [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/love_finds_hardy.pdf ''Love Finds Andy Hardy''] essay by Charlie Achuff on the [[National Film Registry]] website 
* {{IMDb title|0030386}}
* {{TCMDb title|286}}
* {{AFI film|4755}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=deq3xI8OmCkC''Love Finds Andy Hardy''] essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 {{ISBN|0826429777}}, pages 276-278

{{George B. Seitz}}
{{Andy Hardy}}
{{Rooney Garland films}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1938 films]]
[[Category:1938 romantic comedy films]]
[[Category:American Christmas comedy films]]
[[Category:American romantic comedy films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films directed by George B. Seitz]]
[[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by William Ludwig]]
[[Category:1930s Christmas films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:Films scored by David L. Snell]]
[[Category:English-language romantic comedy films]]
[[Category:English-language Christmas comedy films]]