Kay Van Riper Movies

The 1924 George Gershwin stage hit Lady Be Good was brought to the screen by MGM; any resemblance (beyond the Gershwin score) to the original play is purely accidental. The MGM scriveners came up with a new story concerning married songwriters Ann Sothern and Robert Young, who can't live with each other and can't live without each other. Top billing goes to dancing star Eleanor Powell, who certainly deserves it. Red Skelton is around and about as well, inserting a few much-needed laughs. While such Gershwin songs as "So Am I", "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Hang on Me" are well showcased, the hit of the evening is a new song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, the Oscar-winning "The Last Time I Saw Paris". Our favorite scene: Ann Sothern and Robert Young composing "Lady be Good" out of thin air in two minutes flat! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The fifth of MGM's "Andy Hardy" series, The Hardys Ride High finds the Hardy family outside their usual small-town environs. The complacently middle-class family (middle class by Hollywood standards, that is!) inherits a large estate, compelling them to move in different social circles. Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) keeps his head about him, while impressionable son Andy (Mickey Rooney) is seduced by the pleasures and privileges of the rich. But reality sets in when the cost of maintaining the estate exceeds the Hardy bank account. The Hardys Ride High is highlighted by the performance of Sara Haden as Aunt Millie, who discovers to her chagrin that her wealthy gentleman caller has no intentions of marrying her. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This second entry in Columbia's new "Blondie" series is every bit as delightful as the first. When Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) heads off for a long-awaited fishing trip, his loving wife Blondie (Penny Singleton) assumes Dag's duties at the offices of J. C. Dithers (Jonathan Hale). Unfortunately, our hero finds himself in a compromising position with pretty stranger Dottie (Dorothy Moore), endangering both his job and his marriage. The film's highlights include an energetic jitterbug contest and a terrific variation on the old "Any husband who's expected home should leave right now" gag. Blondie Meets the Boss was heralded by a specially filmed trailer in which the Bumstead's son Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) thanked the audience for the excellent response to the first Blondie picture and inviting the viewers to come back for more (which they did-28 times!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The title tells the story in this fourth of MGM's "Hardy Family" series. Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) takes his family to the Wide Open Spaces when a friend has legal difficulties over water rights. Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) thinks he can pass as a westerner, which results in saddle sores for the bethumped young Hardy and (hopefully) laughs for the audience. Andy's sister Marian (Cecilia Parker, who before her MGM days had been a western movie ingenue) falls in love with a handsome cowboy hero (Gordon Jones) who turns out to be a jerk. And Virginia Weidler plays a girl named Jake: ha ha. Out West with the Hardys goes through the series' usual paces with the novelty of an outdoorsy backdrop. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on Aurania Rouveyrol's Broadway play Skidding, A Family Affair is a gentle comedy/drama centering around the Hardy family of Carvel (a small, idealized American town). Judge Hardy (Lionel Barrymore) hopes to be re-elected, but his campaign is put in jeopardy by his opposition of a wasteful public works program. The Judge's position is also threatened by his daughter's (Julie Haydon) unexplained separation from her husband. In the supporting cast, incidental to the plotline, was Mickey Rooney as Judge Hardy's teenage son Andy, Spring Byington as the Judge's wife, and Cecilia Parker as his younger daughter Marian. MGM head Louis B. Mayer sensed series potential in A Family Affair, and the result was the long-running and profitable "Hardy Family" series. Julie Haydon's character was written out of all subsequent "Hardy" films, Lewis Stone and Fay Holden replaced Lionel Barrymore and Spring Byington as Judge and Mrs. Hardy, and Mickey Rooney was elevated from the supporting cast to full leading man status as the effervescent Andy Hardy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi