... as the cast is quite different in this installment versus all of the others. Lewis Stone takes the place of Lionel Barrymore as Judge James Hardy, Fay Holden is Mrs. Hardy versus Spring Byington, Polly Benedict is played by Ann Rutherford, and oldest daughter Joan is erased from existence. With her being married, maybe MGM thought that keeping her in the cast for further installments would be just too busy and crowded.
Here, Judge Hardy has issued a temporary restraining order on the building of a new aqueduct for the town of Carvel, in response to a petition by a citizen. But the town businessmen object to Hardy's action and threaten to oppose to his renomination at an upcoming political convention if he won't withdraw the restraining order. When the townspeople hear about it, they are up in arms, because they see it as needlessly impeding progress. Andy Hardy is mad at his dad because his new girlfriend, Polly Benedict, can't see him because her father is mad the judge over the restraining order. Middle daughter Marion is mad at her dad because the guy she has gotten serious with doesn't have a job if the aqueduct isn't being built. And finally, the judge's oldest daughter Joan is on the verge of divorce because her husband - incorrectly - suspects her of infidelity and has left her. So the judge has his hands full both at home AND at the office.
Don't expect a big dose of Andy Hardy in this one - at this point he's just an energetic supporting player as this is Lionel Barrymore's film all of the way. But other than that, everybody is pretty much in character right out of the gate. Later in the same year that this film came out, Lionel Barrymore would become wheelchair bound due to a combination of arthritis and a broken hip. Thus it would have been impossible for him to continue to play Judge Hardy. Instead he was made Dr. Gillespie in the Dr. Kildare series of movies, also at MGM.
I'd recommend this series of films. They are very well done to be a B series, but then MGM had the money and star power to stock their Bs with good production values and good actors. And they are a window into the world of small-town America in the years running up to WWII - a world that would pretty much vanish with the young men all going to war, then to college on the GI bill, and then on to office jobs and homes in the suburbs of the big cities.
