Andy Hardy Meets Debutante

Plot synopsis:
Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) from Carvel becomes infatuated with a well-known young socialite, Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis), from New York City. Even though he hasn’t met the woman in person, he drops her name to his friends and tells them that they are very well acquainted. He even lets his friends believe he is romantically involved with Miss Fowler.
Hardy’s senseless namedropping gets him into trouble when his father, the honorable judge James K. Hardy (Lewis Stone), decides to move to New York with the whole family, to work on a case involving an orphanage. The judge has to appear in court against a law firm that is disputing payments from a trust fund that supports the orphanage. Andy’s friends, who happen to be editors at a paper, want to print the story about the romantic couple, and Andy is forced to get to know the socialite to avoid embarrassment. He goes off on a pursuit to meet Daphne and become friends with her. In New York, Andy encounters an old female friend, Betsy Booth (Judy Garland), who happens to have a crush on him. Soon Andy has to evade romantic propositions from Betsy, while he is trying to meet with the popular and seemingly unattainable Daphne. Against all odds, Andy hears on radio that Daphne is to attend a function at a restaurant. He manages to get into the restaurant where Daphne is present, but he gets into trouble when he can’t live up to his own story about being a wealthy man, not being able to pay his bill. Things look dark for Andy, but his father goes from despair to success when he wins the orphanage case. Andy is inspired by his father’s successful litigation, and in a moment of honesty, he tells his friend Betty about his situation. It turns out Betsy is friends with Daphne, and she agrees to introduce Andy to her. Thus, Andy avoids all embarrassment when the article about him and Daphne is published. In the end, Andy finds the high society life too expensive, and realizes that Betsy is the one for him. They have their first kiss, and they promise to write to each other regularly.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Just by the title alone you know that Mickey Rooney is once again going to have some woman trouble.
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante has the Hardy family going to New York to make a holiday of it because Lewis Stone has a court case there.
Judge Hardy is stepping off the bench in Carvel and going to New York to represent an orphanage in Carvel that is in danger of closing due to a loophole in a trust agreement the Judge drew up while he was still in private practice.
Rooney is once again putting his steady girlfriend Ann Rutherford on hold again while he fantasizes about Diana Lewis who is a Paris Hilton type débutante.
When the Hardys arrive in New York they stay with Judy Garland's family whom we met in a previous Hardy film.
And of course Andy in his naive way makes a huge fool of himself a few different ways in the film.Judy Garland's two songs are the highlight of the film.
She sings I'm Nobody's Baby written for this film and Alone which MGM owned the copyright for having been sung most memorably by Allan Jones in A Night At The Opera.
As it turns out she knows Diana Lewis and Judy plays little Miss Fixit and cures Rooney of his puppy love.
Of course you know the next Hardy film, he'll be back and involved in some other romantic mess.
Why Ann Rutherford just didn't give that boy the heave-ho is one of the screen's greatest mysteries.There is also a very touching scene one of the best father and son moments with Lewis Stone and Mickey Rooney when they visit New York City's Hall Of Fame at New York University Bronx campus.
Rooney is wishing that the Hardys who are big-shots in Carvel had a little more class and were mixing easily in society with Diana Lewis's crowd.
It was one of the best patriotic moments in an era where the screen was starting to fill with such sentiments I've ever seen.Andy Hardy Meets Debutante still holds up well and should be seen for Judy Garland's singing and Lewis Stone's very unsentimental but very real lecture on the spirit of America..
But the real Judy, the Judy who won America's heart back in the late 1930s is this incandescent teenager, eighteen years old at the time of this film.
The story of this film is typically silly and dated but Judy and Mickey together are as always wonderful!.
Andy's got a crush on famous New York socialite Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis) and brags to Polly and Beezy that he knows her.
Judge Hardy has to go to New York to save the Carvel orphanage and decides to bring the family along.
When Andy's friends hear about this, they expect him to bring back photographic proof of his romance with Daphne.
Once in New York, he gets help from his friend Betsy Booth (Judy Garland), who's grown up some and still in love with Andy.The ninth entry in the MGM Andy Hardy film series is a good one.
Andy always had to learn life lessons in these movies but here he learns them all the hard way and Mickey does a fantastic job making Andy sympathetic while making us shake our heads at him at the same time.
Judy Garland reprises her role as Betsy Booth from earlier in the series.
Cy Kendall has a good part as the owner of a fancy restaurant who gives Andy a tongue lashing for running up a bill pretending to be a big shot ("I've got eight dollars in my bankroll and with eight dollars I could buy the Club Sirocco.").
Garland Helps Hardy Hum. In the ideal Midwestern town of Carvel, high school teenager Andy (Mickey Rooney) uses books to hide pictures of New York socialite Diana Lewis (as Daphne Fowler).
Meanwhile, Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) finds out that a local orphanage may lose its funding.
Hoping to protect the orphanage's trust funds, Judge Hardy takes the family to Manhattan.
Intending to strike up a real romance with Ms. Lewis and impress his classmates, Andy pretends to be wealthy...Andy does get to meet his female infatuation in New York, but the young woman getting most of the screen time with Mr. Rooney is Judy Garland (as Betsy Booth)...Returning from her appearance in the series' "Love Finds Andy Hardy" (1938), Ms. Garland is a little older and has "filled out" (like they used to day).
By the time this picture was released, Rooney and Garland were the top box office "teen idols" in the country.
Their scene near the end, with Rooney and Garland riding in the back of a coach, is a career highlight.****** Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (7/5/40) George B.
Seitz ~ Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lewis Stone, Ann Rutherford.
Judy Garland was beautiful (as ever!) & her radiance in this film is one of the highlights.
ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE (1940) is the ninth (9th) film of the series and it shows the direction it was inevitably headed into.
Characters ANDY HARDY (Mickey Rooney) and JUDGE HARDY (Lewis Stone) were going to be front and center.
The series would rise to the occasion again and have its moments but a fatal decline had set in.Lewis Stone throughout the series would continue too portray the character of JUDGE HARDY in a sympathetic manner.
Even after he returned as a veteran of World War II service in LOVE LAUGHS AT ANDY HARDY (1946) his reaction to any 'teapot tempest' was the same, juvenile.In this film it is clearly illustrated.
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The ninth film in the series (if you don't count the two shorts) has the Hardy family going to New York so that the Judge (Lewis Stone) can help keep an orphanage open.
Andy (Mickey Rooney) has gotten into some trouble because he told people back home that he knows a famous model (Diana Lewis) and that she has the hots for him.
While he tries to track her down he's too stupid to realize that there's one young woman (Judy Garland) who really does care for him.
There's enough charm and good will for two movies so it's hard to imagine someone not getting some entertainment out of the film.
I think it goes without saying that this film, and the series for that matter, was built around moral lessons for young people as Andy has a problem and then Judge is there to help him.
The problem here is Andy being poor and from a small town feeling as if he isn't good enough to be around those who might look down on him.
The scene stealer is the young Clyde Willson who plays one of the orphans and gets a big laugh each time he says a line given to him by Andy..
I especially like when Mickey goes out on the town and his shirt stud...I like at the very end of the movie when he looks at his photographs and says, "How one's women do mount up!" Just priceless..
Judge Hardy's Family in New York.
ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1940), directed by George B.
Seitz, marks the ninth installment to the "Andy Hardy" family series starring Lewis Stone,Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden and Sara Haden.
It also marked the return of Judy Garland, reprising her role of Betsy Booth introduced in LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY (1938).
As for Garland, though she plays a debutante, the debutante in the title happens to be characterized by another new MGM starlet by the name of Diana Lewis, who would become Andy Hardy's latest problem and new love interest.ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE breaks its series tradition by not opening in Judge Hardy's courtroom.
Instead, it begins Saturday morning with teenage lover boy, Andy hardy (Mickey Rooney) asleep in bed with magazine photo cover of the Number 1 debutante, Daphne Fowler beside him, while Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) is away fishing.
Though Andy has never met Daphne Fowler, he brags is meeting her two years ago to his girlfriend, Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford), who, after learning the Hardy family will be heading for New York City where the Judge is to go on a business matter to keep the orphanage from closing, she and his best pal, Beezy (Georgie Breakstone) have Andy promise to return home with a photo of he and Daphne together to place in their high school newspaper, the Olympian.
After a train ride to New York City, the Hardy's family, also consisting of mother (Fay Holden), aunt Milly (Sara Haden) and Andy's older sister, Marian (Cecilia Parker), stay at a brownstone apartment on East 49th Street as arranged by Andy's debutante girlfriend, Betsy Booth (Judy Garland).
As the Judge works on legal matters to save the orphanage, Betsy, whose parents are out of town, tries to help Andy with his latest problem, but doesn't know what to do since Andy insists she not ask him any questions.
Going through much difficulty trying to meet Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis), it is unknown to Andy that Daphne and Betsy are the best of friends.
If Clyde Wilson seems a bit familiar, he is that little boy who gets extreme closeup while leading a parade of little kids in the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musical, BABES IN ARMS (1939).
While his character ends every other sentence with the word "please," he also gets his man-to-man talk from Andy on how to become more of a man with a stronger name of Butch.With Judy Garland in the cast, playing a girl of age 15 as opposed to her true older age, she still gets treated like a child by Andy, unaware he's more like a child than Betsy is.
As the Hardy's find time to see such New York City landmarks as The Statue of Liberty, Andy and Betsy take time walking together on Fifth Avenue, standing by St. Patrick's Cathedral, visiting Grant's Tomb, and even have their horse and buggy ride alone together in Central Park.
Garland gets to sing a couple of songs, first an oldie introduced in the Marx Brothers comedy, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935) titled "Alone," followed by a new tune, "I'm Nobody's Baby." Some lighter moments of humor feature Andy acting like a big shot while eating at a swank New York restaurant and running up a high bill of $37.25 while having only $8 in his pocket.
Lessons learned later by Andy regarding his father not just a hick small town judge compared to those highly educated ones of the New York City court.Though not as memorable as the popular LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY, ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE, at 87 minutes, is both typical and acceptable entry to the Hardy franchise.
As the series progresses more on Andy and his father in that order, roles involving his sister Marion (Cecilia Parker); mother Emily (Fay Holden) and Aunt Milly (Sara Haden) have their limitations.
Formerly available on video cassette dating back to the 1990s, and later DVD, ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE can be seen whenever broadcast on Turner Classic Movies.
Something happened between Love Finds Andy Hardy and Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.
Mickey Rooney's ridiculous mugging to the camera is in the past, and while this one still isn't a good movie, at least it's not painfully torturous whenever he's on the screen.
And, since he's the lead, that's a plus.The Hardy family returns, including Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, Cecilia Parker, and Mickey Rooney.
Mickey, with his hormones still raging, has a collection of magazine clippings of the famous New York debutante, Diana Lewis, and when his friends tease him about his crush, he's humiliated.
Then, when he goes to New York to visit his friend Judy Garland, he tries to meet Diana in person-but of course, his plans go awry.
If you're a teenager and you think the biggest problem in the world is getting teased by your friends for having a celebrity crush, you might like this very silly teen comedy.
If you don't get annoyed by a hormone-struck Mickey Rooney, a loud Judy Garland, and a pointless plot, you might like this.
I always thought people were a little too cynical about these old Andy Hardy films.
It is so corny I cannot fathom too many people actually sitting through the entire hour-and-a-half.The story basically is "Andy" (Mickey Rooney) trying to get out of jam because he makes up some story about involved with some débutante from New York City as if that was the ultimate.
It's all utter nonsense, of course, and looks even more so today.However, it's about as innocent and clean a story and series (there were a half dozen of these Andy Hardy films made) as you could find.
Also, if you like to hear Judy Garland sing, then this is your ticket, as she sings a couple of songs in here and she croons her way into Andy's heart.
I have found that the Andy Hardy films are enjoyable light entertainment--certainly not great films but likable nonetheless.
However, this installment is the first I've seen from the series in which I didn't like Andy...a serious problem.
It all begins with Andy (Mickey Rooney) creating a lie to impress his friends.
He tells them that he's friends with a famous New York débutante, Daphne Fowler.
But when his father announces that they family is going to New York because he has business, Andy panics.
When the family arrives in the city, they are met by Betsy (Judy Garland) and she plans on doing her best to make sure the family has a great visit.
She also helps Andy without question in his scheme to meet Daphne...and it's obvious she's doing it because she is in love with Andy.
Andy whines and mopes and complains that his family isn't rich instead of just telling the truth and being a stand-up guy...and it's made worse since Judge Hardy is in New York because the local orphanage has lost its funding...a far, far, far more important problem.
Andy Hardy finds he may not have what it takes to make it in the big city..
Andy Hardy may have been the shining member of his class in Carvel, but when his family goes to New York with the Judge on business, he finds he can't take it on as he did the less sophisticated people in his home town.
He has lied to his girlfriend Polly that he has made friends with a rising young New York débutante named Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis).
In New York, Andy runs into old pal Betsy Booth (Judy Garland) whom he still considers a little girl.
Andy finally opens his eyes to what he has been missing and sees his feelings for the débutante for the infatuation it was.As far as the other Hardy's, Andy and Marian don't argue all that much in this one which is a nice omission from the previous films, and Fay Holden's ma finally is the more gentle "would you care for more pie?" type mom rather than the lightly nagging wife she was in the beginning of the series.
She is actually more sympathetic to Andy than his parents are, while some of Lewis Stone's fatherly advice is laughably preachy.
Breakston is the little boy (whom Andy first assumes is a little girl) who is used in a silly plot twist involving Judge Hardy's attempts to keep funding for the Carvel orphanage from being stopped.I can't highly recommend this film other than for die-hard Judy fans.
The fact that when the Hardys visit New York City, there's a story about it in the local newspaper.
The final image of the film, which seems to hint at Mickey Rooney's future marital life.
Judy Garland makes a more appealing impression in her second appearance in a Judge Hardy's Family entry-Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.
A lot had happened between Judy Garland's first appearance in the Judge Hardy's Family series-in 1938's Love Finds Andy Hardy-and her second appearance in this one that I'm now reviewing.
And her scenes with Rooney were among the best in the movie culminating in a possible romance between them near the end.
In fact, unlike previous entries, this one doesn't start with Judge Hardy in court session nor end with Andy reuniting with Polly by kissing her (though, of course, they do get back together).
While Andy does seem to fall for Betsy though, most of the plot concerns his getting in trouble by lying about knowing New York socialite Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis) and trying to get to her.
The humor is more subdued here but it's still there like when Andy goes to a fancy restaurant and just orders the specials without considering the prices!
Anyway, largely because of the special bond between Judy and Mickey and of hearing Judy's wonderful singing voice on two songs here, I highly recommend Andy Hardy Meets Debutante..
An MGM Picture, copyright 1 July 1940 by Loew's Inc. New York opening at the Capitol: 1 August 1940.
89 minutes.SYNOPSIS: The deb in question is not Judy Garland but Diana Lewis.
Needless to say, the gormless Andy pursues this attractive young lady with his customary vigor, so that by film's end he can confide to his pal, Betsy Booth, that Deb Daphne was "just another milestone in my career."NOTES: In 1942, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented a Special Award to MGM "for its achievement in representing the American Way of Life in the production of the Andy Hardy series of films".COMMENT: Produced and directed by George B.
Worst still, we are all forced to wait 20 minutes for Judy Garland to come on and an equal length of time for her to sing "Alone".
The direction is as dull as usual and the acting as hammy.Admittedly, Diana Lewis is also winning lass, but she loses out in all her efforts to offset the camera-hogging of her team-mate, Mickey Rooney.