Andy Hardy Meets Debutante

I fully admit to being skeptical about the Andy Hardy films. I don’t mind a little sugar, but there’s nothing sour to offset the sweet about these films. They’re pleasing little lies about a piece of Americana that likely never existed. A better written and acted The Brady Bunch, if you will. No problem is too big to resolve in 85-plus minutes before you’re off to Andy’s next misadventure.

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante is more of the same: Andy’s a cocky shit that tries to charm a girl (Diana Lewis, the debutante in question), gets sage advice from his father, and shares some great scenes with Betsy (Judy Garland, once more capable of coaxing more depth of feeling out of Rooney than any other co-star). Preachy, heavily sentimental, and with regressive ideas about gender and female roles in society, Andy Hardy Meets Debutante is a creaky relic.

It’s only when Garland and Rooney share a late-night car drive and Rooney tenderly kisses her cheek that something human and real comes to life. It’s a shocking moment of real and authentic romantic confusion and anguish in an otherwise ersatz story about small town virtues in combat with big city vice. While so much of the film is blatantly manipulative and toothless, the scenes Mickey and Judy share elevate the material into something electric and special. You’ll remember Garland’s tears and Rooney’s efforts to smooth it all over far more than you will any of Lewis Stone’s hokey pieces of advice about avarice in every city/town.