A better Hardy film. Yet again, they are off to an exotic locale – in this case Detroit! (When it was thriving and full of cash, not diseased and crime-ridden). Judge Hardy goes there because he apparently has inherited $2 million, which turns the whole family a bit greedy. One thing no one mentions when talking about the Hardy family series – the Hardys were lousy with a buck, with the Judge constantly threatening to bankrupt himself with some bad decision, so no wonder they are happy to hear about the windfall. Of course they discover that money does bad things to them. (To be honest I got confused about the money stuff towards the end.)
Marian, with her unerring eye for bad romance, sets her eye at the young man who was supposed to inherit the money. Andy starts living the high life. Even though the Hardys are shown to be quite avaricious this feels more real than the previous entry in the series. There’s a plot where Marian buys a far too expensive dress, and a scene where Andy is confronted by a sexy chorus girl (Virginia Grey) – when I first saw this years ago I laughed, but actually it comes across very believable (it’s also nice that Judge Hardy admits he had a similar experience when younger). Aunt Milly is given her first plot in the entire series, where she romances a man who turns out to be a real estate agent – it was good when the movies pushed the darker material.
Andy is tempted by cigarettes and alcohol, good solid basic stuff about growing up – and it leads to a very funny final scene where Andy gets Polly back by pretending to be a boozer.
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