Judge Hardy's Children (1938)
*** (out of 4)
The third film in the MGM series has Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) taking a job in Washington, D.C. where he's to work for ten days on a special project. While there Andy (Mickey Rooney) falls in love with a French girl (Jacqueline Laurent) while his sister gets involved with a dirty politician. Those who find these Andy Hardy movies to be too clean or pure for their tastes certainly aren't going to change their opinion with this early entry but fans of the series should find enough charm and entertainment here. At just 78-minutes the film moves by extremely quickly as director Seitz keeps everything going at a fast pace. The weakest aspect of the film is the political stuff because Judge is brought to the Capital to do work on a big project and this talk often gets brought up and it even has a major part in later events in the film but we're never really told anything about it. Often it seems as if something about this project was simply left on the editing room floor and it just seems like Judge spends the majority of his time in a hotel when he's suppose to be working. Outside of that this film has pretty much everything fans would expect and of course a lot of the comedy comes from Rooney who once again delivers a fast and fun performance. One of the highlights of the film happens when Andy seeks advice from his father on whether or not it's normal to want to kiss every beautiful girl you see. Another high mark for Rooney comes during a dance sequence where he tries to teach the French girl the Big Apple. Rooney handles all the charm without a hitch and his father-son stuff with Lewis are well done by the actors. Stone is terrific as usual and Fay Holden, Cecilia Parker and Ann Rutherford are all fine in their roles. Laurent didn't seem to have much of a career in America and only seems to have been in a few French films after this one but I found her to be very charming and a nice match for Rooney. Betty Ross Clarke plays Aunt Millie in this entry and doesn't have the same punch as Sara Haden but this is just a minor issue. Overall, JUDGE HARDY'S CHILDREN is a good entry in the series, which still had many high points to follow for the Hardy clan.
