Movie review – Hardy #10 – “Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary” (1940) **1/2

Hardy family movies often deal with class, but usually it was the Hardys who suffered at the hand of snobs. Here is looks at the underclass of Carvel, in particular a working class brother and sister who are jealous of the Hardys. Particularly the brother (Todd Karns) has a chip on his shoulder. The sister is young Kathryn Grayson, the first starlet introduced in a Hardy movie since Lana Turner to actually go on to and have a decent career.

The plot involves Andy’s graduation from high school. His father nags him to help poor people so he gets Kathryn Grayson to be his secretary for graduation festivities. Despite the talk about the importance of free education, the point is undermined by the fact that the family isn’t really working class – dad is Ian Hunter, who speaks nine languages, he’s just fallen on hard times. Judge arranges for Hunter to have a job in Brazil in the state department… is Ian Hunter so incompetent he can’t do it himself? There’s a scene where Grayson serenades Hunter with an opera song and Hunter seems to be a bit too cuddly with her.

Andy refers to him and Judge having their first man to man talk in Catalina – a reference to You’re Only Young Once, a nice tribute to continuity. Andy stuffs up two things big time – he causes Hunter to lose his job by altering a telegram and fails an English exam. Both times Judge fires a rocket up his arse, it’s two of the more serious telling-tos given in the whole series. He really pours it on for the second one – “look at your mother’s tears”. Andy as usual blubs in response, to his mother, father and classmates… he’s a big believer in passive aggression, is Andy Hardy. Anyway it works and he manages to get in.

There some sweet moments here – the last weeks of school is a good subject for a film, and there is poignance with the thought that several of Andy’s classmates would soon be killed or injured in the war. The film goes on for too long though and a bit of it is unpleasant (Andy tells Polly to slide over “I’m going to drive, a woman’s place is in the home.”) Marian isn’t in this one at all.