Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever

ANDY HARDY GETS SPRING FEVER (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939), directed by W.S. Van Dyke II, marks the seventh installment to the "Judge Hardy's Family/Andy Hardy" series, and second film of three film releases of 1939. Being the first in the series directed by someone other than George B. Seitz, it also marked the second in the series bearing "Andy Hardy" in its movie title, following LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY (1938). By this time, it was the teenage son, Andy, who becomes the center of attention rather than the fatherly judge, who is always around for those "man to man" talks with his son whenever there's a problem. For this entry, it's not Andy who gets into situations he must handle, but his father as well. Though Andy doesn't get a fever of sickness during the spring, its term "spring fever" is actually in reference to falling in love, which happens in most cases in the spring. This time, Andy has fallen in love with someone other than a girl of his own age.

The story opens traditionally in the courtroom where Judge James K. Hardy (Lewis Stone) is fining a young man $10 for kissing a young lady in a parked car. Because it's spring, he suspends the fine. In his chambers, Hardy is visited by James Willett (Stanley Andrews), a chemist, and Mark Hansen (Byron Foulger), his partner, who inform him that his aquaduct property, consisting of a mineral used to making aluminum in its soil, is valuable. Hardy later involves friends and associates to take part in the investments for the property, and soon permits his daughter, Marion (Cecilia Parker), to work as secretary for these two gentlemen, who now have a business office in town. As Hardy's 17-year-old son, Andrew (Mickey Rooney), he becomes jealous of his girlfriend, Polly Benedict's (Ann Rutherford) involvement with the extremely tall Lieutenant Charles Copley (Robert Kent) of the United States Navy, Andy's concerns are easily forgotten when the girl crazy Carvel High School teenager takes a "romantic" interest in his substitute dramatics teacher, Rose Meredith (Helen Gilbert). As Andrew's original story, "Adrift in Tahiti" becomes the subject of the upcoming school play, he not only helps with its staging with cast members, but soon steps over his bounds by falling in love with his 23-year-old teacher and wanting to marry her. With this being a worry for the judge, more problems arise when the wise old man carries a burden of guilt as to whether or not he's been swindled out of the $17,000 he's given to those two men. Also in the cast are series regulars, Fay Holden (Emily Hardy); Sara Haden (Aunt Milly Forrest); Addison Richards (George Benedict); Erville Alderson (Henry, the Bailiff); and Georgie Breakston ("Beezy" Anderson). Terry Kilburm, who played Tiny Tim in A CHRISTMAS CAROL (MGM, 1938) starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge, appears as one of Andy's younger classmates, Harmon Higgenbotham Jr., better known as "Stinkin' Plastor"; and Sidney Miller, a semi-regular of the series, appearing briefly as Sidney.

An agreeable "Hardy Family" production that contains two situations for the price of one, first the judge's problem, then the major one involving Andy's crush on his schoolteacher. How these situations are handled make this installment worth viewing. The teacher in question is played by an attractive young woman named Helen Gilbert in her movie debut. While the "Hardy Series"has become a good introduction for its MGM starlets that included popular likes of Esther Williams or Kathryn Grayson in later years, Helen Gilbert remains unknown and someone who would become labeled in "Whatever became of ? ..." listing. Gilbert did appear in other film productions for MGM (A segment in the "Doctor Kildare" series in 1939 for example), other studios and later television through the 1950s, but to no lasting appeal. ANDY HARDY GETS SPRING FEVER shows her off at best advantage as the mature speaking teacher with personal problems of her own. Fans of the series would enjoy this one.

Formerly available on video cassette and later DVD, this and the additional 15 segments of the series, can be found on cable television's Turner Classic Movies. Next in the series, JUDGE HARDY AND SON (1939) (***)

I certainly watched the wrong Andy Hardy movies first. Love Finds Andy Hardy and Andy Hardy Meets Debutante are so silly, all ridiculous pantomimes of a teenage boy's hormones, but the other fourteen films aren't like that. They're supposed to be about the patriarch, Lewis Stone, who helps his children through their problems, a precursor to television shows like Father Knows Best. The series even uses the same theme music during the opening credits in every film, like a television theme-only these movies were made before television. Much of Mickey Rooney's character is how he tries to handle his raging hormones, but much of it isn't. In this one, he falls for his drama teacher, Helen Gilbert, and while sometimes he's goofy when trying to act like a grown-up and speaking in a different, theatrical voice, sometimes he's heartbreakingly real and insecure in his feelings. He talks it out with Helen and with his dad, and they both help him through it.

Mickey makes his character human, and even though he does his signature whooping, he gives a lesson to his teenage audience: it's okay to want to grow up, but don't rush it. Learning to take responsibility should be a slow process, and you should be able to enjoy being a kid without complications ruining things. In this one, he gets chosen by Helen to write the school play, and that's enough responsibility for any high schooler. "He's a regular T.A. Edison!" Lewis Stone exclaims proudly, a foreshadowing-and perhaps plugging-of Mickey's next year's film Young Thomas Edison, because his play has volcano pyrotechnics incorporated in the script. Fay Holden and Cecilia Parker are in this one, of course, but they're not prominently featured. If Mama Hardy and Marian are your favorites, check out You're Only Young Once and Love Laughs at Andy Hardy.

This installment in the Hardy Family series finds Andy perturbed about the strapping naval officer who is lavishing attention on Polly Benedict. But his feelings are assuaged when a beautiful new teacher takes over the drama class. She inspires his artistic tendencies and arouses romantic stirrings in Andy. Meanwhile, Judge Hardy participates in a get-rich scheme that involves a plot of land he owns.

Teacher Rose Meredith is played wonderfully by Helen Gilbert. It is easy to understand Andy's feelings for his muse/crush.

The banter between Andy and sister Marian (Cecilia Parker) is at its best in this film. They could have played up their humorous relationship more in other films.

The script does a good job with the sensitive subject of Andy's love for a teacher. That serious story is balanced well by the humorous parts of the film.

... 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.

I think the title says it all. Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever occurs when after seeing his on and off girl friend Ann Rutherford entertaining a young naval officer, Mickey Rooney gets down in the dumps. But he perks up after seeing the new drama teacher Helen Gilbert and she's got a project for the kids at Carvel High School. She wants to do an original play and the one she picks was written by the love struck Andy Hardy.

The older generation of the Hardys has its problems too. Of all people Lewis Stone gets himself conned by a pair of grifters, Stanley Andrews and Byron Foulger, who tell him that some land he owns has a nice deposit of bauxite on it from which aluminum comes. Using the Judge's well known reputation for integrity to work for them, they fleece a lot of potential investors.

Of course business and financial problems do kind of sort themselves out for both generations of Hardy men. They always do.

Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever is a better than average feature from the series. It has the presence of Woody Van Dyke who usually was assigned to A list films for MGM and he did right by his cast. I guess Louis B. Mayer must have had nothing else for him at the moment and the moguls never liked for their contract people to be idle.

Whatever it was, it worked.