Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)

Black and white / 92 mins

If you've ever wondered why Judy Garland thought she wasn't pretty, watch this movie.

"Love Finds Andy Hardy" is an episode in the popular Andy Hardy series, which starred Judy's real-life friend Mickey Rooney. In this story, Andy is just aching to go to the junior-high dance with his girlfriend Polly (Ann Rutherford) and dreams of finding $8 to complete payment on a $20 jalopy. However, a glitch in the plans occurs when Polly suddenly has to visit relatives out of town. Andy is devastated when he learns he won't escort Polly, who will be wearing a shoulder-baring gown, to the dance.

His friend Beezy (George P. Breakston) has a crush on seductive Cynthia Potter (Lana Turner, in her film debut), and Andy promises to date her until he returns from a trip to keep the other boys away. In return, Beezy will find $8 for the car. In the meantime, Andy falls in love with Mary, who is very flirtatious and high-maintenance. During all this, Betsy Booth (Judy Garland), a girl who is staying with her grandparents next door, pines after Andy and wishes he'd ask her to the dance. However, he thinks she's just a little kid and doesn't take her obvious advances seriously.

When Beezy fails to choke up $8, Betsy gives Andy the money for his car. However, Cynthia falls through, and now he's got a car but no girl. So voila! Betsy's mother, a musical theatre star in Chicago, airs her a glamorous ballgown, and Andy agrees to take her to the dance. They run into a musical friend who insists that she sing, and young Judy Garland delivers two songs that stop the show.

Still, she sadly doesn't get him.

While "Love Finds Andy Hardy" clearly defined Judy as a rising star, she was typecast into a role that she really didn't want to play. Much of the trauma in Judy's life came from a deep-rooted feeling that she was unattractive and worthless, and this movie gives us a sense of how that perception came to be. While Lana Turner, who became Judy's rival in her teenage years, played a suave, cosmopolitan glamour girl, Judy was relegated to play a twelve-year-old at age fifteen. The first time she is seen in this film, she literally babbles in a child's voice about how she wishes to meet big old Andy Hardy (who is not very studly). Throughout the film, her attempts at getting his attention are so embarrassing that dating book authors would cringe and just give up their craft. With a mix of bashfulness, loudness, and unabated enthusiasm, Judy gives the world the impression of the annoying kid next door.

On the other hand, Judy really was awkward and somewhat chubby at this point of her life, and she showed both determination and vulnerability through her music. Her three numbers stopped the show. At the Christmas dance, she performs "It Never Rains But What It Pours" and "Meet the Beat of My Heart" with pitch accuracy and a lovely glow. But the real song in this movie was her sincerely-delivered "In Between", in which she bemoans her awkward stage with the cleverness of a veteran actress.

You would like this if: you want to see Judy sing in a good early performance.

You wouldn't enjoy it if: you're annoyed by slow-moving preteen plots. Brady Bunch haters will definitely not like this.