LOVE LAUGHS AT ANDY HARDY

Dorothy Ford and Mickey Rooney

LOVE LAUGHS AT ANDY HARDY (1946). Director: Willis Goldbeck.

"I'm an innocent victim of circumstance." -- Andy Hardy

Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) is back from a two-year stint in the Army and anxious to get back to Wainwright college -- and Kay (Bonita Granville), his college sweetheart from Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble. The easily-agitated Mrs. Hardy (Fay Holden) is convinced her "baby" is going to get married -- and not to someone worthy of him. In these assertions Mother Hardy may well be correct. Andy's parents at first confuse his girlfriend with Coffy Smith (Dorothy Ford), an extremely tall young woman with whom Andy attends a dance (in a lively and amusing sequence) and who is too fond of calling people "uncle." ("She's a very pretty girl," says Mrs. Hardy "but do you think she'll stop growing?") In the meantime, Kay proves to be a little insensitive and rather stupid considering what she asks of Andy just as he's trying to propose to her. Love Laughs at Andy Hardy is a big improvement over Blonde Trouble, with Rooney, Lewis Stone and Fay Holden giving their usual excellent performances. Six foot two Dorothy Ford is very appealing as Coffy, and Lina Romay scores as the sexy Isobel, who does her best to get Andy out of his funk. Sara Haden appears as Aunt Millie, but Cecelia Parker is missing as Marian. There's a very funny sequence when Andy is locked out of the house in what looks like his mother's bathrobe. While Mrs. Hardy had always been portrayed as a woman who was a little naive and unsophisticated, in this they make her seem like a dope when she often offered sage advice to her husband and son. This was the last Hardy film for twelve years.

Verdict: A return to form for the Hardys. ***.