LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY

LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY (1941). Director: George B. Seitz.

"A child? Listen Andy Hardy, my mother just bought me an evening gown that has no visible means of support!" -- Betsy

"What is the world coming to?" -- Andy

"Somebody's dead -- it doesn't seem right unless somebody cries."

Although 18-year-old Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) has been offered a college scholarship, he decides to wait a month and see what living and working alone in the big city, Manhattan, will be like -- "today I am a man," he declares as he drives away from Carvel with ever-hopeful Betsy Booth (Judy Garland). Although previously he had run from a sophisticated city woman as if she had the plague, in this outing he has better luck with a vivacious if slightly shady secretary named Jennitt (Patricia Dane). A genuinely nice young man, Andy offers to share his room with a young aspiring dancer, Jimmy (Ray McDonald), who has become homeless. Meanwhile Betsy does her best to help a proud Andy while he struggles to find work, finally settling at Consolidated Stocks and Bonds, run by the gruff Mr. Maddox (Lester Matthews). And then an unexpected tragedy occurs ... Life Begins for Andy Hardy is one of the best Hardy films, with an excellent script by Agnes Christine Johnson that provides plenty of very funny moments along with more sobering sequences. Rooney and Garland are both simply superb, with the latter looking especially pretty in this entry. Dane [Rio Rita], McDonald [Presenting Lily Mars] and Matthews [The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu] give top-notch performances as well. The picture continues directly after Andy Hardy's Private Secretary, and almost  immediately Andy and Polly (Ann Rutherford) decide to split up amicably. Marion is not seen, and Beezy (George Breakston), now a milkman, and Aunt Millie (Sara Haden) appear only briefly. As usual, Fay Holden is wonderful as Mrs. Hardy. There's an interesting scene when Andy implies that one is washed up at around age thirty, and the Judge (Lewis Stone) all too clearly is thinking of his own age and his lost youth.  Life Begins for Andy Hardy is occasionally on the sappy side -- those evil big city women and so on! -- but it's very entertaining. Mercifully scenes involving a priest and rabbi, undoubtedly concerning a certain character's death, were left on the cutting room floor.

Verdict: The best of the Hardys? ***1/2.

THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE

THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE (1944). Director: Ford Beebe.

Although it employs concepts and character names from previous Universal Invisible Man flicks, The Invisible Man's Revenge goes off in a new direction. In this John Carradine plays Dr. Peter Drury, and it is he who has invented an invisibility formula. The lead character, played by Jon Hall (of The Invisible Agent) is named Robert Griffin -- the same as the original Invisible Man -- but only happens upon the professor and his formula by accident. However, he is just as miserable a person as the Griffin of the novel and the first film. Griffin has been left for dead by partners in an African mine (Lester Matthews and Gale Sondergaard, who has little to do), and use his invisibility to try to get revenge on them. The wonderful Leon Errol plays a mischievous old man who assists Griffin -- the scene when Griffin helps him win at darts and confounds everyone in the pub is memorable. This is the only Invisible Man film that plays up the horror aspects of the material, as Griffin must drain people's bodies entirely of blood in order to regain visibility. Unpredictable, fast-paced, and well-acted by all, this is the best of the Invisible Man series. Alan Curtis and Evelyn Ankers play young lovers. Grey Shadow, a beautiful German shepherd, also makes an impression as Carradine's invisible dog, Brutus, who becomes visible later in the picture. Good show!

Verdict: Well worth a viewing. ***.