Moments of Movie Wisdom: Folly of Taking Liberty for Granted in ‘Andy Hardy Meets Debutante’ (1940)

A view of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on Aug. 8, 2017. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Commentary

Americans of every political party, religion, and ethnic background spend countless hours speculating about what has happened to our society. Whether in conversation, on social media, reading articles, or just wondering to ourselves, we can’t avoid the topic of general societal decline in the United States and, if you ask me, the rest of the world. People with different belief systems will identify different problems, of course, but I think we all can agree that there’s something very wrong with people today, especially the younger generation. It’s nothing new for older citizens to complain about “kids these days,” but the difference with this generation is that the young people aren’t being guided by mature, wise elders, especially fathers.

Today’s moment of movie wisdom is from “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante” from 1940. The scene takes place 56 minutes into the 87-minute film. In this movie, the Hardy family has gone to New York City. In this scene, the father, Judge James Hardy (Lewis Stone), takes his son, Andy (Mickey Rooney), to see the Hall of Fame at New York University. The young man is angry because their social standing is keeping him from meeting a prominent debutante, so he bitterly says that the principles of equality on which our nation was founded don’t mean anything anymore. His father is very disappointed by his unpatriotic attitude, telling him so in no uncertain terms.

In the film, an orphanage in the small town of Carvel is in danger of closing because its funding has changed, so Judge Hardy must go to New York City to fight its closure. This is bad news for Andy, who lied to his high school friends that he is practically engaged to debutante Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis) to explain his collecting her pictures. Now that his family is going to New York, his girlfriend, Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford), and best friend, Beezy Anderson (George Breakston), challenge him to bring back a picture of himself with Daphne or face public ridicule in the school paper.

In the Big Apple, Andy covers the city with his friend, Betsy Booth (Judy Garland), but he refuses to tell her or anyone else that his mission is to meet Daphne. When he finally gets into her house, her mother (Marjorie Gateson) politely but firmly tells him that there is no reason for him to be her daughter’s friend. This doesn’t stop Andy, but his continued efforts just get him into a mess. In the end, he learns that it’s best to ask for help from your friends and family instead of facing problems alone.

Lobby card for the film “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante” from 1940. MovieStillsDB

The Scene

After being rejected and humiliated multiple times in his quest to befriend Daphne Fowler, Andy is very bitter about his family’s lowly social standing. He angrily laments to his father, “Why couldn’t we have been somebodies instead of nobodies? Gee, for the first time in my life, I realized that I’m not as good as somebody else.” Judge Hardy has faced many disappointments of his own regarding the orphanage dilemma, so he has little patience for his son’s self-centered crises.

He takes him to the Hall of Fame to point out busts of America’s Founding Fathers, whom he calls “some nobodies who turned out to be somebodies.” As they walk past memorials dedicated to Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, and dozens of other champions of liberty, Judge Hardy admits, “I never thought I’d hear you, my own son, deny the very soil you walk on—soil that was earned for you by the blood and tears of men who said that all men in America should be equal.” The disgruntled boy scoffs at this, so his father explains, “Equal in that they shall all have equal opportunity.” He continues, “They left you a heritage of freedom and equality—a heritage you should fight to keep, instead of kicking it around and sniveling about class, money, and social position.”

View of the "Hall of Fame for Great Americans" in New York City in 2006. Public Domain

Andy is particularly rebellious in this scene, demanding to know what his father’s noble platitudes have to do with the fact that he must return to Carvel to face “the worst punishment a guy ever had to take.” Judge Hardy tries to make him realize how nearsighted he’s being by pointing out the punishment poor Abraham Lincoln had to take in his lifetime. Refusing to see his father’s point, Andy argues that “a guy had a chance” a century earlier but that now he and his family amount to basically nothing in the greater scheme of society; he throws in that his father just doesn’t understand. Judge Hardy shakes his head in disappointment. He calmly says, “When a boy’s stupid, he’s just stupid, that’s all,” then says they can go.

Its Significance

Throughout the Hardy Family film series, Andy does many foolish things and gets himself into trouble time and time again, either in financial matters, romantic matters, or both. He inevitably ends up going to his father near the end of each film to confess his sins, beg for help, and seek advice. Throughout all those youthful episodes, including breaking a horse’s leg, falling in love with his teacher, asking two girls to the same dance, buying things for which he can’t pay, and even flunking high school, Judge Hardy is never as harsh with Andy as in this scene.

Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney, L) and his father Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone), circa 1940, in “Andy Hardy Meets a Debutante.” Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The scene we’re discussing today isn’t one of their “man-to-man talks”; that comes later in the film. In this scene, Judge Hardy is trying to teach his son a practical lesson rather than just talking to him. He realized in the previous scene that Andy is basically unreachable with words, so he hoped to impress the value of American citizenship upon him by bringing him to see a historic monument. Andy is so callous and rebellious in his response to the wise lesson that Judge Hardy doesn’t even try to argue with him or scold him. He simply lets him know that he thinks anyone who takes American liberty for granted is hopelessly stupid. This stuns Andy at the time, since he can’t believe his father just called him stupid. Over time, the judge’s words make a huge impression on him.

A Wise Father

This is the ninth of 16 films in MGM’s Hardy Family series. In all but the first, in which Lionel Barrymore played Judge Hardy, and the last, in which Judge Hardy had died, Lewis Stone brought the wise patriarch to life. He is the perfect example of a wise father, who inspires gratitude, patriotism, and respect in rebellious youngsters. Without fathers like him, America’s values are doomed to be lost.