Lawbolisted Powerful

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by George B. Seitz, this average comedy drama was the first in the Andy Hardy series, and the only one to feature Lionel Barrymore as Judge Hardy before Lewis Stone would take over the role for a dozen or more movies made in the late 1930's through the middle of the next decade.Director Seitz, and actors: Mickey Rooney as Andy, Cecilia Parker as Marion Hardy, Fay Holden (taking over for this film's Spring Byington) as Mrs. Hardy, Ann Rutherford (replacing Margaret Marquis) as Polly Benedict (Andy's girlfriend), and Sara Haden as Aunt Milly, continued the series which began with You're Only Young Once (1937).The characters come from Aurania Rouverol's play Skidding. This film's focus is the judge, in lieu of Andy (whose name is usually in the title), who is struggling to be reelected against popular opinion because of his stance on a civic improvement issue. Julie Haydon plays Andy's older married (to Allen Vincent's character, Bill Martin) sister Joan, whose character doesn't continue in the series. Neither Bainter nor Haden is given much to do in this one.The town of Carvel, population 25,000, is about to get a coup, an aqueduct that promises to bring jobs and money to their small community. City leader Frank Redmond (Charley Grapewin) and the project's executive Hoyt Wells (Selmer Jackson) are upset that Judge Hardy has filed a restraining order against its construction because of a complaint by the town's newspaper owner J. Carroll Nichols (Robert Emmett Keane, uncredited). The judge protests that he's only following the law, but his campaign manager Oscar Stubbins (Harlan Briggs) warns him that, with the upcoming election, now is not a good time to go against the will of the people.But that's just the beginning of the judge's concerns: his eldest daughter Joan has separated from her husband and his other daughter Marion has returned home from college with a beau, Wayne Trent (Eric Linden), who's an engineer that's come to find work on the aqueduct project. Meanwhile, Andy is upset that his mother is "forcing" him to take a girl he hasn't seen from his childhood to a party, only to be pleasantly surprised that Polly has grown up quite nicely. Eventually, each of his daughters becomes part of the judge's conflict regarding the aqueduct project: Marion, who is angry with her father because Wayne can't get a job, and Joan, because Redmond and Wells threaten to expose an incident which, on the surface, looks like she had an affair, in order to besmirch his character before the vote. Andy tries to calm them by reading his sisters their father's oath of office.Through some sort of magic, a conversation we the audience aren't privy to, the judge gets Joan's husband Bill to stand up for her at the nominating convention, and then he reveals a secret clause in Wells's contract which would make Carvel beholden to other communities down river if the aqueduct project begins as planned. So, the judge saves the day and is unanimously reelected while all is well on the family front too.

utgard14 First in the wonderful Andy Hardy series from MGM. For those who don't know, this series was as wholesome and American as apple pie. It draws snickers and insults from the "too cool for school" crowd but don't let that put you off of trying these fine films. They were quality dramas with dashes of comedy and lots of heart. The plot to this one has Judge Hardy (Lionel Barrymore) ticking off some businessmen and local politicians over a land deal. So the big shots, including former friends of the judge, band together to try to stop his re-election. There's also a subplot involving the judge's eldest daughter's troubled marriage that intersects with the judge's problems. Meanwhile, son Andy (Mickey Rooney) has the first of many girl problems in this series.This is the only entry to feature sister Joan. Not sure why she was dropped but the series isn't hurt by it. The roles of Judge Hardy and his wife would be recast in the next film with Lewis Stone and Fay Holden, who would play the roles for the remainder of the series. Once you see them in the parts it will be hard to imagine that anybody else could do the roles justice. Also Mickey Rooney's Andy would become the star of the later films, whereas in the early films (such as this) Judge Hardy is clearly the star. It's a fantastic series that gets its start here in this somewhat atypical but still high quality movie.

atlasmb 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.

Robert J. Maxwell This was the first of the Andy Hardy series, in which Mickey Rooney is the spry young man who croons about cars and is attracted to girls, although he doesn't understand them, or why he's attracted to them. Rooney seems not to walk. He darts from place to place, his skull spins on its axis, hair flopping from side to side. I'd love to have his adrenals.This being fundamentally one of MGM's "happy family" movies -- nobody could foresee the myriad sequels -- Rooney is ranked fourth in the credits, and the pater familias is not the stolid Lewis Stone but the whiney-voiced and more expensive Lionel Barrymore. But this established the framework for the imitations that were to come. Today, it would be a pilot for a TV series.Rooney actually doesn't have all that much screen time. He's attracted to a young girl whom he innocently offends, there is a rift in their relationship, and it's resolved at the end. Ditto for his sister and her boyfriend. Exciting car/truck chase on an unpaved mountain road.The main plot thread involves community pressure being put by the citizens of Carvel on Judge Lionel Barrymore to permit the construction of an aqueduct that will mean lots of jobs for the town. (This is 1937, when jobs were very nice to come by.) Barrymore is a man of principle and insists on making his own judgment about the aqueduct. This earns him the disrespect of his neighbors and there is a great protest against him until, with an imaginary trumpet fanfare, he mounts the podium, waves the mob into silence, and finally explains why he opposes the construction.The apologia takes him about three minutes which, had he spent that time doing the same thing ten minutes into the movie, there would have BEEN no movie.But no matter. The audience applauds wildly, even his most determined adversaries. Judge Hardy wins the election, accepts the Nobel Prize with gratitude and humility, and is offered a long-term movie contract.