1. There are a several cultural antinomies or binaries at the heart of Love Finds Andy Hardy. The first is the antinomy between small-town Carvel and big city New York City, which is mentioned but never seen in the film. It will be in a later installment in the Andy Hardy series. There is the binary between the historical past of Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) and the historical present of Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney). Judge Hardy's more traditional world is a world without aeroplanes, a world of covered wagons, a world where you don't buy on credit, and a world of correct speech. Andy's modern world is a world of aeroplanes, of cars, of buying on credit, of telegrams, of telephones, of ham radios, and the latest in hip popular speech. There is the antinomy between Andy's girlfriend Polly (Ann Rutherford), the Midwest every woman who is economic with her kisses, who swims with Andy, and who takes the long way home through the woods with Andy, and Beezie's (George Breakston) girlfriend, who Andy is looking after while Beezie is away, Cynthia (Lana Turner), who, as Andy says, wants to kiss all the time, who doesn't go swimming because she doesn't want to ruin her hair, and sees the long way home as an excuse to kiss some more. There is the binary between the uppitiness of Cynthia and the Midwest down homeness of small town Polly.
2.Betsy (Judy Garland) is the youngest of the three loves who find Andy Hardy. Betsy is, as she says, the in-between girl, the unglamourous girl. She is too young for Andy to take seriously as a love interest though clearly Betsy is smitten with Andy knowing about him before she even arrives in Carvel from the big city. Betsy becomes a "Cinderella" in Carvel, becomes a kind of grown up in Carvel, thanks to the grown up gown she wears to the Christmas Eve dance Andy takes her to and her acceptance by others at that dance during which she performs two songs with the band and gets to lead the grand march at the Christmas Eve dance.
3. Betsy, the in-between girl, is the girl who makes everything right for Andy by film's end. Love Finds Andy Hardy is a comedy of manners and misunderstandings. It is Betsy who sets the misunderstandings right by film's end. She convinces Cynthia that the car Andy is going to take her to the Christmas Eve dance in is a jalopy, a jalopy that is below the uppity Cynthia, so she backs out of her date to the Christmas Eve dance with Andy. Betsy reconciles Andy and Polly, at least for the moment. The question of whether anything will spark between Andy and Betsy in the future remains an open question at the end of this episode in the Andy Hardy tale. The Hardy series is a forefather and foremother of American television sitcoms.
4. Romanticism is one of the cultural themes at the heart of Love Finds Andy Hardy not to mention other Hollywood films. All three girls, Polly, Cynthia, and Betsy, really do want Andy Hardy. One of the things one imagines those young people, particularly of the female of the species, who went to see the Andy Hardy films found compelling was the romanticism of the film, a representation that fed into their own romantic fantasies in their lives.
5. Is the reference to Brigham, Canada and polygamy in Love Finds Andy Hardy a sly reference to Mormonism?
6. Though Love Finds Andy Hardy was released in June it has a Christmas theme to it and even has a kind of Christmas miracle as part of its denouement. And then there is that fascinating the Hardy clan wishes you a Merry Christmas short included on the DVD.
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