This Andy Hardy film has the titular character on the train to Wainwright to start his freshman year at his father's alma mater. The problem is that he's on that train for a full 45 minutes of the movie's running time. This sets the pace of the entire film as being sluggish and claustrophobic.
While on the train, Andy meets up with a girl who is also on the way to Wainwright, Kay Wilson (Bonita Granville). It's the first year Wainwright has gone coed. It looks like something might be developing between the two, but Kay also seems to have eyes for a doctor Standish (Herbert Marshall). He's older and sophisticated, and Kay is taken with him. Also on the train there are twin blondes trying to stay together in spite of their father's plan to separate them based on the belief that their psyche's will best be adjusted if they spend their young adulthood apart. One of the twins is enrolled at Wainwright, but she has to come up with the money for both of them to live until the non-student can get a job.
The solution? These horrible sociopathic young women con Andy out of a grand total of 38 dollars by having him believe lies about how freshmen at Wainwright are mistreated if they dare have any money on them. They use tears, fears, sweet-talk to keep that money in their hot little hands. By the time I knew the full story of their dilemma it's impossible for me to like them or feel for them given how they've been behaving. The only other girl Andy's age is the mute Katy Anderson, back in Carvel, who is a compulsive car thief. If this is what Andy has to put up with, I'm surprised he didn't change his mind and join the Army. The Germans and the Japanese couldn't be any worse than these awful twins and the car thief!
Another thing that keeps this film from working is that there is very little of the actual Hardy family in the film. The judge gets tonsilitis, but that just seems to be a vehicle for introducing "special guest" Keye Luke as the temporary town doctor, playing the exact same role he plays over in the Dr. Gillespie series of movies. I will admit he does liven up the short Carvel section of a pretty dead film.
I was pretty bored during most of this, and just stuck with it so I could write this review. Perhaps you can find something better to do with your time, like watch the earlier episodes in the series. It really did seem that the Hardy family did not translate well to the war years and beyond.
