Andy Hardy Comes Home
| Andy Hardy Comes Home | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Howard W. Koch |
| Produced by | Red Doff |
| Written by | Edward Everett Hutshing Robert Morris Donley additional dialogue Harry Ruskin |
| Based on | characters created by Aurania Rouverol |
| Starring |
Mickey Rooney Patricia Breslin Fay Holden |
| Music by | Van Alexander |
| Cinematography | William W. Spencer Harold E. Wellman |
| Edited by | John Baxter Rogers |
|
Production
company |
Fryman Enterprises
|
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
|
Release date
|
22 December 1958 |
|
Running time
|
80 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $313,000 |
| Box office | $610,000 |
Andy Hardy Comes Home is a 1958 film, the 16th and final film in the Andy Hardy series, with Mickey Rooney reprising his signature role. It was made 12 years after the previous Hardy film, and was an attempt to revive what had once been an enormously popular series. However, the film was unsuccessful, and the series did not resume.
Returning to his hometown of Carvel after several years' absence, Andrew "Andy" Hardy (Mickey Rooney), now a high-flying West Coast lawyer, reminiscences about his past (with flashbacks to his earlier filmed exploits alongside Judy Garland and Esther Williams et al.) and reconnects with his mother, aunt, sister (returning co-stars Fay Holden, Sara Haden and Cecilia Parker respectively) and nephew Jimmy (Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.) as he attempts to convince the skeptical townsfolk to let his company build a factory there.
When his plan to buy land from his old friend Beezy (now played by Rooney's TV co-star Joey Forman) runs into difficulty, Andy brings his wife, Jane, (Patricia Breslin) and two children, Andy Jr. (played by Rooney's real-life son Teddy) and Cricket, to bolster his resolve, and to help him live up to the lessons instilled in him by his late father.
While all seems lost, the closing moments re-position the resurrected series for a new set of Andy Hardy movies, but these never materialized.
Songwriter Robert Donley and journalist Edward Hushting wrote an original Andy Hardy synopsis on "spec" and brought it to Rooney's agent, Red Doff. He showed it to Rooney, who was enthusiastic, and they pitched the project to MGM as a co-production with Rooney's own company, Fryman Enterprises. The studio, then under the control of Joseph Vogel agreed to make the film.
"We feel it's time for another Hardy picture," said Doff. "Time for a good, warm, wholesome family comedy - no violence, no monsters, no sex! There are millions who have seen and loved the Hardys - and who would like to see them again. And there are millions who never saw them on the big screen but who are being presold by seeing them on TV. People like things nostalgic. We believe they'll be curious to see a re-creation of what they loved 15 and 20 years ago."
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Wikipedia