Word: rooney
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) marks Mickey Rooney's ninth appearance as bratty Andy Hardy, his first since he was crowned King of the Screen and the No. 1 box-office attraction of the U. S. cinema. More believable as Andy than as young Tom Edison, Cinemactor Rooney mugs his way from Carvel to Manhattan to make good on a boast that he is acquainted with a glamorous bud named Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis). The Judge (Lewis Stone), nominally heading the expedition, is engaged on a legal chore thoroughly in keeping with the Hardy character: protecting...
...such oldsters as Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone have discovered, Mickey Rooney thrives on his ability and determination to steal anything up to a death scene from a colleague. Some of Cinemactor Stone's heartiest chuckles may be explained by the fact that 17-year-old Judy Garland, growing prettier by the picture and armed for this one with two good songs, Alone and I'm Nobody's Baby, treats Mickey with a dose of his own medicine...
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's approach to the Edison legend is somewhat different. Installment No. 1, Young Tom Edison, showed its protagonist (Mickey Rooney) leading the life of an early Christian martyr in Port Huron, Mich. Sufficient time having elapsed since young Mickey Rooney steamed away to glory, leaving behind young Edison's harrowing boyhood, the public mind passes painlessly to Installment No. 2, solid, literal and prosaic, with big budget written over every sequence. It also has sterling, matter-of-fact Spencer Tracy making a brave, respectful effort at verisimilitude by looking a little wild at moments...
...Other Decker "portraits": Harpo Marx as the Blue Boy, Fanny Brice as Mono, Lisa, Mickey Rooney as a Van Dyck sissy...
...there is one bright side to the picture. Remember what a shock it was the first time you saw Mickey Rooney, the sprite and very juvenile Puck of a few years back, pitching in a parked car with some uncomfortably adolescent bit of fluff. Well, just imagine how much more horrible it would be to see a slinky Shirley sipping her Mumms Extra Dry under the subdued lights of the Stork or the Ritz...