Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)

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This sixth installment in MGM's "Andy Hardy" series is among the best, thanks in great part to the breezy direction of "Woody" Van Dyke. In this outing, teenaged Andy (Mickey Rooney) develops a crush on his high-school drama teacher Rose Meredith (Helen Gilbert). Andy's dad Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone)… More This sixth installment in MGM's "Andy Hardy" series is among the best, thanks in great part to the breezy direction of "Woody" Van Dyke. In this outing, teenaged Andy (Mickey Rooney) develops a crush on his high-school drama teacher Rose Meredith (Helen Gilbert). Andy's dad Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) knows that his son is riding for a fall, but he decides to let the boy find out for himself that there's a big difference between youthful infatuation and true love. Sure enough, when Andy proposes marriage to Rose, she reveals that she already has a fiancee. It's a crushing blow for our hero-but only temporarily, since his perennial sweetheart Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) is waiting in the wings. Outside of the puppy-love main plot, the film is at its best when Andy writes a play as a vehicle for himself and Rose, with the expected silly results. Less than five months after the release of Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever, Columbia Pictures "answered" the film with the zany 2-reel comedy Andy Clyde Gets Spring Chicken. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi