MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

utgard14 Polly Benedict is leaving poor Andy alone for Christmas. Andy is also short the money he needs to buy a car from Mr. Dugan. So, for a fee, Andy agrees to date his friend Beezy's girl (Lana Turner) while he's away. The plan is that Andy will date her to keep other guys away, then when Beezy returns Andy will dump her and she'll go back to Beezy. At the same time, a slightly younger girl (Judy Garland) has moved in next door. She falls for Andy (naturally) but Andy sees her as just a kid. As usual, things start to go wrong for Andy and he has to have one of those famous talks with Judge Hardy.The regulars are all pitch-perfect. The writing is great, managing to juggle several plot lines, big & small, and tie them all together nicely. Of course, what would an Andy Hardy movie be without the lovely girls that were always infatuated with him? Here we have the ever-adorable Ann Rutherford, a beautiful and fun young Lana Turner, and the immensely likable Judy Garland in her first of three Andy Hardy appearances. She gets to sing too and is terrific, as one would expect. Highly enjoyable entry in the series. One of the best.

Michael_Elliott Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) *** (out of 4) Andy (Mickey Rooney) catches a break when girlfriend Polly (Ann Rutherford) must head out of town because this leaves him able to earn $8 for a car he wants to buy. All he has to do is date his best friend's girlfriend (Lana Turner) while he's out of town as he doesn't want her going around with any other boys. Things don't go as planned but at least Andy has his new neighbor (Judy Garland) who just happens to have a few plans of her own. This fourth film in the series is often considered by man to be the best but I'm not certain I'd go that far. If someone is looking for pure laughs there are funnier films in the series but at the same time it's easy to see why this one would get so much attention due to the terrific cast. I guess you could say Andy is the luckiest guy in the world if his biggest problem is dating women like Garland, Turner and Rutherford but that's the major of the film's storyline. There are a few minor subplots dealing with Judge (Lewis Stone) having to take care of the fort when his wife (Fay Holden) leaves to take care of her ill mother. I'm guessing mom was pretty much written out of this one simply because you had so many other characters that needed attention. Apparently this film was shot in just 19 days and was released to theaters less than two months after it was given the green light. It's hard to imagine any movie being written, shot and shown in such a short period of time but I guess you have to give the MGM factory credit for this. Even though I wouldn't name this the best of the series there are still enough good moments to make it a must see. The majority of the charm comes from Rooney and his energy as he tries to get through all these situations while at the same time learning various life lessons. It's hard to imagine anyone else in the role of Andy Hardy as Rooney is pitch perfect for it and he matches well with the three females. He and Rutherford always had that great charm in each film but the real shock was seeing how good he was with Turner. The two really seem to have great chemistry and this comes across during a terrific scene in the woods where they kiss and Rooney lets out a scream of pleasure to which Turner then laughs in hysterics. Garland certainly gets the majority of the screen time and she does a fine job as well. She also gets to sing three songs, which she does a good job with even though none of the songs are all that memorable. It goes without saying but Lewis Stone is at the top of his game as normal. LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY is certainly a flick that any film buff should see simply because of the great cast. It's hard to think of a film with more young talent but they all deliver the goods and make this an entertaining little gem.

writers_reign Getting on for twenty years ago Channel 4 ran the complete Andy Hardy series on successive Saturday mornings. I had never seen any but had like most film buffs heard lots about them. I found them completely enchanting, nostalgic and remarkably true to a middle America that never existed but that you wished had. Love Finds Andy Hardy is now available on DVD as part of a Judy Garland boxed set and having just watched it I'm slightly disappointed I didn't get quite the same pleasure I did twenty years ago. There are, of course, lots of good things going on, the idealized family living in an idealized town best described as the town in which George Bailey (James Stewart) lives in for two thirds of It's A Wonderful Life, before it turns into Potterville temporarily but Carvel is never in any danger of that kind of reality being allowed to intrude. It's also refreshing to see teenagers dealing with hormonal changes without going any further than a virtually chaste kiss or two. My greatest fear is that someone will remake them and we'll wind up with titles like Andy Hardy Finds Sleaze.

JoeKarlosi I'd never seen one of these "Judge Hardy's Family" movies before this, but on Thanksgiving Day I checked out the TCM schedule to see what was going to be playing for the holiday and I was intrigued by the long list of movies within this series. So, while I was out for the day visiting the family I let my VCR record about three or four of these things. I just randomly began with this one, which I enjoyed and have since read is considered one of the better installments.Here we have Mickey Rooney (I can't believe he was actually 18 when he made this) getting involved with two other girls once his main squeeze Polly (Ann Rutherford) has to go away to visit her grandma for Christmas. Andy's been looking to raise twenty dollars (!) to buy a car he's had his eye on, so while Polly's gone, Andy accepts his friend Beezy's offer to get paid to date his girlfriend Cynthia (Lana Turner) while Beezy's also out of town for Christmas. From there, "troubles" erupt when Cynthia gets way too stuck on Andy, and then his singing neighbor Betsy (Judy Garland) also starts to fall in love with him. Wish I had problems like that when I was 15! While watching this film, you can't help become aware of how drastically times have changed in 70 years. This is a wholesome family affair. It was a joy watching Lewis Stone as Andy's old dad, Judge James Hardy, trying to bridge the generation gap (such as it was in the '30s) between father and son, and having his heart to heart talks with his boy. Mickey Rooney's characterization of the highly animated Andy Hardy was infectious, and I thought all three of his well-known leading ladies were cute. Judy sings a few tunes, of course, and I didn't mind them a bit. It seemed to me, though, that she was relegated more to the background for this story, unfortunately. I am looking forward to catching further entries from this series in the future. *** out of ****