If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Copyright 8 May 1937 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. New York opening at the Rialto, 19 April 1937. U.S. release: 19 March 1937. 8 reels. 6,202 feet. 68 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Carvel, Idaho. Judge Hardy inflames his fellow townsmen when he issues an injunction stopping construction work on a major aqueducts project.NOTES: Aurania Rouverol's second stage play, "Skidding", won the Drama League Prize of Pasadena, California, in 1926. It opened on Broadway at the Bijou on 21 May 1928, with Carleton Macy, Clara Blandick, Louise Carter, Charles Eaton, Marguerite Churchill and Walter Abel in the parts of Judge Hardy, Mrs Hardy, Aunt Milly, Andy Hardy, Marian Hardy and Wayne Trent III (sic.), respectively. In addition, the play featured a Grandpa Hardy (Burr Caruth) and two married daughters, Estelle (Isabel Dawn) and Myra (Joan Madison). For the screen version, Grandpa was eliminated and the two married daughters combined. Despite not overly enthusiastic reviews, the play ran a mightily impressive 469 performances. The film rights were bought by MGM, re- titled "A Family Affair", and brought in under a strict budget by the studio's "B" unit, using a screenplay that considerably altered the plot, while retaining the philosophic emphases of the original. Thus was born the most successful series in movie history. Domestic (including Canadian) theater grosses up to 1946: a staggering $73 million.Academy Award to MGM for "its achievement in representing the American Way of Life". (Presented at the 1942 Awards.)COMMENT: The first installment of the Hardy family proves more watchable than some of the others, despite a spurious sub-plot about Joan, the judge's daughter, being left high and dry by her churlish husband. Would you believe, this verbally abused dishrag of a girl actually wants her boorish spouse to forgive her for allowing an admirer to steal a kiss during a meal at a roadhouse? And even more irritatingly unbelievable, the smarmy old male chauvinist judge doesn't sympathize with his browbeaten daughter at all. Instead, he puts in his two cracker-barrel cents for her bullying husband. The hypocritical old coot seems determined to antagonize not only the good citizens of Carvel, but the audience as well. Fortunately, he has more success with the main plot when it turns out that the town's savior developers are not the godsends they appear. Nonetheless, a man of balance and sense would have voiced his concerns from the very beginning. Instead, the judge is portrayed as an obstinate stickler/spoiler who sets out to justify his actions for no other reason than sheer cussedness. He happens to stumble across a "joker" in the contract by sheer chance — and an extremely outside chance at that. What would he have done if the developers hadn't over-reached themselves?For additional comments, see my review of "You're Only Young Once".

Just watched this, the first film in the Hardy Family series. Lionel Barrymore, who I'll always first think of as Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life-my favorite movie, is the Judge Hardy character who's in it with threats of no renomination because of something he's against resulting in his offspring not liking him as well. Mickay Rooney is here as Andy Hardy. He was 16 at the time. Spring Byington is the mother. Both she and Barrymore would reunite for You Can't Take It With You a year later. Nice mix of drama and comedy throughout. Mickey is especially funny but there's also a turn by screen drunk Arthur Housman who I usually associate with Laurel & Hardy. So on that note, I highly recommend A Family Affair.

This is the first of the Hardy Family series of movies. The formula for that series is well known and a part of film lore. This film helps establish some of the values that made America fall in love with The Hardy's, but there are differences in this film that set it apart.The actors who portray the Hardy's are not all the same. Mickey Rooney, who later became the focus of the family by dint of his energetic and lovable performances, is here. But Judge Hardy and his wife are played by Lionel Barrymore and Spring Byington. It would be easy to prefer the actors who carried on these roles in the later episodes, but Barrymore plays the judge with an energy that is suited for this story (see the scene where he physically throws a man out of his chambers) and Byington, in a subordinate role, really displays the love of a mother and wife (note her reaction when her eldest daughter reveals the path her marriage has taken).It is true that the Andy Hardy movies are anchored in the values that middle America sees as sacrosanct: good citizenship, democracy, the primacy of the family, a religious outlook. This film establishes those values, but if one looks closer, it is easy to see (in this film) how flimsy those values may be. In even a more dramatic way than Inge's Picnic demonstrates, A Family Affair reveals how shallow people and society may be.Good citizenship may be an established basis for societies and their governments, but the political process is depicted in this film as run by a corrupt political machine designed to profit ruthless men who care only about their own wealth. Judge Hardy is an exception--an educated man who is willing to suffer scorn in the name of duty and the concept of justice.Religious values may be advertised as charitable and forgiving, but this film shows that the measure of a town's morals is not how many churches dot the landscape or how many Bible verses are read. In a small town where a man's reputation is his measure and agreements are made on the basis of handshakes, we see that many delight in ruining reputations and that the mob mentality prevails when times get tough.Democracy might be touted as the cornerstone of American governmental process, but the rule of the majority is nothing more than mob rule. Government's true rule is to protect the rights of those in the minority also.In the end, it is strength of the Hardy family unit--personified by Judge Hardy--that pulls the family through the crises of its individuals and its external stresses. When Judge Hardy strides into the convention and Andy yells "Give it to them with both barrels, Dad," he has no inkling what his father intends. He displays a fundamental faith in his father and the principles he stands for. His father beams in response, because it is that trust he most cherishes, knowing it binds the family and protects them against any threats.The primacy of the family is a theme that runs through all of the Hardy Family films and it is one of the reasons this series was so popular. A Family Affair is well worth seeing, both because it is the first in a series and because it stands apart from the others. There is even a great chase scene. Such action was not used in the later Hardy Family films, which focused entirely on personal interactions.

Family Affair, A (1937) ** 1/2 (out of 4)The first film in the Andy Hardy series is actually a lot more different in tone, subject matter as well as cast members than the later films. Here we have Lionel Barrymore playing Judge Hardy who must fight off some higher ranked members of the city who want to blackmail him into approving a plant coming to town. They plan on using a scandal involving his daughter (Julie Haydon) while his other daughter (Cecilia Parker) strikes up a relationship with a new man. It's nearly impossible to watch this film without comparing it to future entries. Not only does Barrymore get the main role but we have Spring Byington playing Emily Hardy and of course in future films we only have one daughter. I think Barrymore is pretty good in the role, although I will add that I prefer Lewis Stone. I think Stone did a better job at making a character as Barrymore is pretty much just playing his usual, tough self here. I was a little surprised at the subject matter as we get a lot of talk about scandal and even a brief mention of suicide. What's really surprising, and in a way kills the film, is that the small town flavor just doesn't ring through because the city is full of some mean people who will scoop pretty low in terms of blackmail and various other ugly things. This ugly nature pretty much kills what the series was trying to be like and in many ways I think it's safe to call this a standalone film and pretend that the real Andy Hardy series started with the next entry. As I said, Barrymore isn't too bad but the rest of the cast are clearly trying to find what they want to do with the characters. I wasn't overly thrilled with Haydon who is a bit too wooden for me. Mickey Rooney makes his first appearance here as Andy but really doesn't have much to do. Sara Haden is also here as Aunt Milly but she too is pretty much in the background. This certainly isn't a bad film but in the end it's not that all memorable and in the end I think the series was much better off with the changes it would eventually make.