A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

In the last decades of his life, I came to dislike Mickey Rooney. This was based on what I heard about the man, which gave me the impression that he was a delusional, self-aggrandizing, and self promoting, jackass.However, I started to reevaluate him after I heard the director of Breakfast At Tiffany's say that he always regretted casting Rooney in that picture.I had always thought that Rooney did a great job as the Japanese clown character he created for Tiffany's. He seemed to me to be the perfect counterpoint to Hepburn's pseudo-sophisticated New Yorker character.Then tonight I saw Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946)and I was blown away by Rooney's command of the screen, and the poise he had in the character he created. The movie itself was just OK. But Rooney drew my attention in every frame he was in. For someone as young as he was in that movie, to have that kind of screen presence, really surprised me.There was a reason he was a big deal back in the day. There was a reason he was a big box office draw back in the day. I have a new found respect for the man who's shadows I see flicker away at me in those old movies.Tony

The penultimate Andy Hardy movie is really, for me, the end of the series. When it returned years later in an attempt to revive things, it just wasn't the same. There's no Hardy family without Judge Hardy, in my opinion. Anyway this one was released two years after the previous one. We learn in between films Andy (Mickey Rooney) served in the war. He's home now and anxious to reunite with Kay (Bonita Granville), his girlfriend from the last movie. Andy's planning to marry Kay and settle down. His parents aren't too crazy about this idea. They want Andy to finish college before thinking about marriage. Turns out it doesn't matter as Kay has other plans for her future.What would an Andy Hardy movie be without pretty girls? Here we have the lovely Bonita Granville, Dorothy Ford, and Lina Romay. This Lina is not to be confused with the later actress and wife of Jesús Franco. This one was mostly known for her singing, as well as her appearance in a popular Droopy cartoon. Granville is a charming actress but her character is rather dull and the whole 'romance with my legal guardian' thing is just gross. Dorothy Ford, who was over six feet tall, is beautiful and easily the highlight of the picture. The usual Hardy cast is solid, with Mickey doing a decent job portraying a maturing Andy but not TOO mature. After all, Andy Hardy would be boring if his head was on too straight.This is the last Hardy film to feature Lewis Stone's Judge Hardy. Stone continued acting after this but he died before the next Hardy movie, Andy Hardy Comes Home, which was a failed attempt to reboot the series. When the series started out, Judge Hardy was the main character. But as Mickey Rooney's Andy grew in popularity, he took the spotlight and the Judge was reduced to a supporting part (albeit still an important one). As I've said in other Hardy movie reviews, Judge Hardy was the backbone of the series. His loving relationship with wife Emily (played by the endearing Fay Holden) and his fatherly advice to his children, particularly Andy, was at the heart of everything that happened with the Hardys. Often the series drew its A or B plot from one of the cases brought before Judge Hardy in court. Yes, Judge Hardy is also the lightning rod for most of the criticisms that are leveled at these movies. It's through him that many of the series' old-fashioned values and ideas are put forth. If you are someone who mocks the series, chances are the Judge is your least favorite character. Personally, I like him a lot, even if I don't always agree with him. Without the Judge, as played so well by Lewis Stone, the series would have been just a bunch of juvenile comedies with Mickey mugging for the camera and it might not have lasted as long as it did.For die-hard fans of the series, there is a little to like here but not a lot . I imagine most fans would consider this one of the lesser entries. There are still some good scenes, such as Andy locking himself out of the house while in his aunt's bath robe or all of the scenes with Andy and the much-taller Coffy Smith. But, for the most part, the mood and feel of the movie is just off compared to previous ones. It's slow and lacks the energy that the earlier Hardy movies had. It's certainly not one I would recommend to anybody trying out an Andy Hardy film for the first time. But, for fans, you'll have to see it at least once. If for no other reason than one final man-to-man talk between Andy and his father.

Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946)** (out of 4)The fifteenth film in the series has Andy (Mickey Rooney) returning home from the Army and clearing up a few things with his parents (Lewis Stone, Fay Holden) before heading back to college where he plans on marrying the girl (Bonita Granville) he fell in love with from the previous film. Andy's plans don't go as he expects and he gets the idea that college isn't for him and perhaps it would be best to just enter the working world. MGM would make the ill-advised decision to try and bring this series back in 1958 but it's clear this was originally meant to be the final entry in the series. I think it's also clear that the majority of the people involved were probably wishing this movie never happened at all. For starters, director Goldbeck, a newbie to the series, can't recapture the same magic as the earlier films and the entire tone of the film just doesn't seem right. Another problem is the screenplay, which really does seem to be picking up spare pieces at the bottom of a barrel. Nothing on display here is really of any interest as the entire love affair for Andy doesn't really make too much sense if you've seen the previous film in the series and for the life of me I can't understand why on Earth they spent so much time getting the entire story going. The early scenes in Carville are cute because it shows Andy meeting up with a few characters from earlier in the series (but no Polly) but it adds very little. The stuff at college isn't all that interesting either, although one of the few high points comes when Andy gets set up with a girl (Dorothy Ford) who is almost twice his size. Another highlight comes at the very end when Lina Romay shows up in a highly entertaining little sequence. The "final" spill to (originally) end the series works well but it's a shame everything else didn't meet its level of entertainment. Rooney isn't too bad in his role but it really does appear that his heart or mind is somewhere else. Stone and Holden really don't get very much to do and Sara Haden just appears briefly. Granville is as charming as ever but the screenplay doesn't do her any favors either. Fans of the series will certainly still want to check this one out but if you're new to Andy Hardy it's best to avoid this one and check out some of the earlier and better films.

After spending time in the service after National Velvet, Mickey Rooney returned to MGM hoping to resume his pre-war career. Like his real life counterpart, Rooney's most well known character Andy Hardy also did some time in the army during World War II. Andy had dropped out of Wainwright College which also was the alma mater of his dad, Lewis Stone and enlisted in the army. Love Laughs At Andy Hardy marked his return to peacetime America as it did for millions of others.Then why for heaven's sake didn't MGM let him grow up a bit? After time in the service during war, you would think that Andy would have matured a bit. Still now as a veteran he goes right back to the same callow youth that we knew before Pearl Harbor. So a beloved series ended because millions of veterans just could not swallow an Andy Hardy who had not changed. Rooney is having his usual female trouble. He met a girl in college played by Bonita Granville before the war whom he hoped would wait for him, but she didn't even send a 'dear john' letter to him. Mickey also met Lina Romay visiting Carvel from South America. This was one time where MGM took deliberate advantage of Mickey's well known vertical challenge. Being dateless he allows himself at one point to be set up with 6'2" Dorothy Ford and they do look ridiculous together. The best part of the film is seeing Rooney trying to dance with Ford. I've seen Ford in a few other films and she nearly comes up in height to such tall stars as James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and John Wayne. You might remember her best as the giant's wife with Abbott&Costello in Jack And The Beanstalk.Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, and Sara Haden all repeat their roles from previous Hardy films. Cecilia Parker as Andy's older sister is absent, presumably she's sprung from the nest, no explanation is given in the film.This was not the last Andy Hardy film however. Over a decade later, Rooney returned to MGM as Andy Hardy now married to Patricia Breslin and the father of two kids and he's moving back to Carvel. After that there were no more visits to Carvel from MGM.Who knows the series might have kept going if MGM had let Andy grow up. As it is what was cute before was ludicrous now.