A Family Affair | |
---|---|
Directed by | George B. Seitz |
Written by | Kay Van Riper Hugo Butler |
Based on | Skidding 1928 play by Aurania Rouverol |
Produced by | Lucien Hubbard Samuel Marx |
Starring | Lionel Barrymore Cecilia Parker Spring Byington Eric Linden Charley Grapewin Mickey Rooney |
Cinematography | Lester White |
Edited by | George Boemler |
Music by | David Snell |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 69 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $178,000 [1] |
Box office | $502,000 [1] |
A Family Affair is a 1937 American comedy film directed by George B. Seitz and based on the 1928 play Skidding by Aurania Rouverol. It was the first of 16 films now known as the Andy Hardy series, although Andy Hardy did not become the main character in the series until several more installments had been made. The film stars Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden, Mickey Rooney and Charley Grapewin. [2]
Judge James K. Hardy hopes to be reelected, but his campaign is placed in jeopardy by his opposition to a wasteful public-works program. [3] Hardy and his family—wife Emily, adult daughters Joan and Marion and teenage son Andy—live in Carvel, a small Midwestern American town.
Spurned contractor Hoyt Wells and newspaper publisher Frank Redmond swear to block Hardy's campaign. Frank agrees to use his paper, The Carvel Star, to publish disparaging stories about the family.
Judge Hardy's daughter Marion returns home from college. Older daughter Joan Hardy Martin also moves into the house after a secret separation from her husband Bill. The family throws a party for Marion, where they are warned by a Carvel Star gossip columnist that only negative stories will be published about the family. Later that night, teenager Andy Hardy takes his childhood sweetheart Polly, now a beautiful woman, to a party. Marion has found love with Wayne Trent, an engineer who is in town to work on the aqueduct. Facing the possibility that her boyfriend may lose his job, she questions her father's decision to block the construction.
Joan confesses to her father that she and Bill are separated after she had gone to a roadhouse with another man. Although the encounter was innocent, Bill was enraged, and they soon separated.
The Carvel Star publishes an article stating that citizens are calling for Judge Hardy's impeachment. He attempts to bring charges against the newspaper.
A Family Affair is based on the play Skidding by Aurania Rouverol, [4] although the screenplay differs significantly from the original play. [5] The film was produced in the wake of the success of Ah, Wilderness! (1936), which features many of the same cast. [6]
In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Frank S. Nugent wrote: "Mr. Barrymore knows how to handle these things, and so do the other members of the cast. ... They all have taken their 'Family Affair' rather seriously and, although it was not that important, we rather enjoyed our eavesdropping ping at Judge Hardy's home." [5]
The film realized a profit of $153,000. [1]
The Hollywood Revue of 1929, or simply The Hollywood Revue, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the studio's second feature-length musical, and one of their earliest sound films. Produced by Harry Rapf and Irving Thalberg and directed by Charles Reisner, it features nearly all of MGM's stars in a two-hour revue that includes three segments in Technicolor. The masters of ceremonies are Conrad Nagel and Jack Benny.
Love Finds Andy Hardy is a 1938 American romantic comedy film that tells the story of a teenage boy who becomes entangled with three different girls all at the same time. It stars Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, Cecilia Parker, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford, Mary Howard and Gene Reynolds.
Andrew "Andy" Hardy is a fictional character best known for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer series of 16 films in which he was played by Mickey Rooney. The main film series was released from 1937 to 1946, with a final film made in 1958 in an unsuccessful attempt to revive the series. Hardy and other characters initially appeared in the 1928 play Skidding by Aurania Rouverol. Early films in the series were about the Hardy family as a whole, but later entries focused on the character of Andy Hardy. Rooney was the only member of the ensemble to appear in all 16 films. The Hardy films, which were enormously popular in their heyday, were sentimental comedies, celebrating ordinary American life.
Jean Rouverol was an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.
Captains Courageous is a 1937 American adventure drama film starring Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore and Melvyn Douglas. Based on the 1897 novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, the film had its world premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Directed by Victor Fleming, it was produced by Louis D. Lighton and made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Filmed in black and white, Captains Courageous was advertised by MGM as a coming-of-age classic with exciting action sequences.
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante is a 1940 American romantic comedy film directed by George B. Seitz. The film stars Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden and Judy Garland. It is the ninth of the Andy Hardy full-length film series.
You're Only Young Once is a 1937 American comedy film directed by George B. Seitz. Following A Family Affair, it is the second film of the Andy Hardy series. Lewis Stone replaces Lionel Barrymore as Judge Hardy while Fay Holden replaced Spring Byington as his wife since both Barrymore and Byington were too expensive for the sequel's modest budget. Mickey Rooney would repeat his role as Andy while Cecilia Parker, as his sister, and Sara Haden, as Aunt Milly, would also reprise their roles from the original film. They were the only original actors transferred to the series.
Ah, Wilderness! is a 1935 American comedy-drama film adaptation of the 1933 Eugene O'Neill play of the same name. Directed by Clarence Brown, the film stars Wallace Beery and features Lionel Barrymore, Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, Spring Byington, and a young Mickey Rooney. Rooney stars as Richard in MGM's musical remake Summer Holiday (1948).
Love Laughs at Andy Hardy is a 1946 American comedy film directed by Willis Goldbeck and starring Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone and Bonita Granville. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film is also known under its American promotional title Uncle Andy Hardy. This was the fifteenth and penultimate film in the Andy Hardy series. The final installment, Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958), would be released 12 years later.
Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble is a 1944 romantic comedy film directed by George B. Seitz, the fourteenth in the series starring Mickey Rooney as Andy Hardy. In the film, Andy goes to college, but soon gets in trouble with some pretty female students.
Andy Hardy Comes Home is a 1958 American comedy film directed by Howard W. Koch. It is the 16th and final film in the Andy Hardy series, with Mickey Rooney reprising his signature role. It was produced 12 years after the previous Hardy film, and was an attempt to revive what had once been an enormously popular film series. Because the film fell short of box office projections, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not continue the Andy Hardy series.
Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever is a 1939 American romantic comedy film directed by W. S. Van Dyke. The plot is about Andy Hardy having a crush on his high school drama teacher, Miss Rose Meredith. It is the seventh of sixteen Andy Hardy films starring Mickey Rooney.
Andy Hardy's Double Life is a 1942 comedy film directed by George B. Seitz. It was the thirteenth installment of MGM's enormously popular Andy Hardy film series starring Mickey Rooney as the title character.
The Courtship of Andy Hardy is a 1942 film, part of the Andy Hardy series. It gave an early role to Donna Reed although Mickey Rooney had lobbied for his then-wife Ava Gardner to have her part. Within a few months of the film's release, she filed for divorce.
Judge Hardy's Children is a 1938 film in the Andy Hardy series. The plot involves the Hardys visiting Washington, DC, in this third entry in MGM's "Hardy Family" series.
Out West with the Hardys is a 1938 American comedy film directed by George B. Seitz and the fifth film in the Andy Hardy series of sixteen films.
The Hardys Ride High (1939) is the sixth film of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Andy Hardy series.
Judge Hardy and Son (1939) is the 8th film, of 16, in the Andy Hardy series. It is the last MGM film in the 1930s.
Aurania Rouverol was an American writer best known for her play Skidding, in which she created Andy Hardy and his family, who were turned into a popular series of sixteen movies from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Sabotage is a 1939 American action film directed by Harold Young and written by Lionel Houser and Alice Altschuler. The film stars Arleen Whelan, Gordon Oliver, Charley Grapewin and Lucien Littlefield. The film was released on October 13, 1939, by Republic Pictures.