Assistant director: Tom Andre. Gag consultant: Buster Keaton. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Producers: Carey Wilson, Lou L. Ostrow. Copyright 13 July 1938 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. New York opening at the Capitol, 21 July 1938 (ran 2 weeks). U.S. release: 2 July 1938. Australian release: 15 September 1938. 9 reels. 8,199 feet. 91 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A pal asks Andy Hardy to keep the wolves away from his sexy girlfriend.
NOTES: Academy Award, Mickey Rooney, best male juvenile of 1938. Douglas McPhail had a major role, but his entire part ended up on the cutting-room floor. Number 9 in The Film Daily annual "Ten Best Pictures" poll of U.S. film critics. Negative cost: approx. $250,000. Initial domestic rental gross: $2 million. Number 4 in the series.
COMMENT: Just about all critics regard this one as the best of the series, and it's not hard to realize why. In four words: Judy Garland, Lana Turner.
To take Miss Garland first. Counting shorts, this one numbers as her 13th appearance before the cameras. She is an absolute delight. Not only does her personality and singing voice come across remarkably well, but in Lester White's glossy yet muted lighting, she looks most attractive into the bargain. Our only regret that her part was trimmed before release and that two of her songs, "Easy to Love" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen", were jettisoned. She's left with three, but five would have been a real treat, especially as, for once, her voice is so deftly recorded.
And now Lana. Counting her work as a race crowd extra in A Star Is Born (1937) in which you can only see the back of her head, Love Finds... marks not only her fifth movie appearance, but the first time she essayed an unsympathetic characterization. She comes over with such astonishing effectiveness you remember her role long after you've forgotten the rest of the plot. True, she's handed some astringent lines, but she makes the most of them (thanks no doubt to off-screen coaching by Mervyn LeRoy to whom she was under personal contract at the time. Lana later acknowledged that LeRoy's guidance in the early stages of her career proved "invaluable").
Unfortunately, as with Judy Garland's part, Lana's role has also been shortened in the cutting-room. The movie's emphasis now rests squarely upon Rooney and Stone who either share or are present in just about all the movie's scenes except for some wonderful solo footage involving Judy.
Cecilia Parker hardly remains in the movie at all (her romantic involvement with Douglas MacPhail has been completely eliminated) except for an occasional squabble with Andy. And even Fay Holden now finds herself written out of the central action, with not even so much as a single cut to the Canadian setting in which her sick mother apparently recovers like magic.
It's interesting that critical enthusiasm for this entry can be evenly divided among contemporary and present-day reviewers. In 1938, no less than 180 critics across the nation voted Love Finds... as the number one movie of the year. In 2017, just about all of us agree that here is the best of the entire 16-picture series. No masterpiece certainly, but Judy and Lana make it well worth watching.
SYNOPSIS: A pal asks Andy Hardy to keep the wolves away from his sexy girlfriend.
NOTES: Academy Award, Mickey Rooney, best male juvenile of 1938. Douglas McPhail had a major role, but his entire part ended up on the cutting-room floor. Number 9 in The Film Daily annual "Ten Best Pictures" poll of U.S. film critics. Negative cost: approx. $250,000. Initial domestic rental gross: $2 million. Number 4 in the series.
COMMENT: Just about all critics regard this one as the best of the series, and it's not hard to realize why. In four words: Judy Garland, Lana Turner.
To take Miss Garland first. Counting shorts, this one numbers as her 13th appearance before the cameras. She is an absolute delight. Not only does her personality and singing voice come across remarkably well, but in Lester White's glossy yet muted lighting, she looks most attractive into the bargain. Our only regret that her part was trimmed before release and that two of her songs, "Easy to Love" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen", were jettisoned. She's left with three, but five would have been a real treat, especially as, for once, her voice is so deftly recorded.
And now Lana. Counting her work as a race crowd extra in A Star Is Born (1937) in which you can only see the back of her head, Love Finds... marks not only her fifth movie appearance, but the first time she essayed an unsympathetic characterization. She comes over with such astonishing effectiveness you remember her role long after you've forgotten the rest of the plot. True, she's handed some astringent lines, but she makes the most of them (thanks no doubt to off-screen coaching by Mervyn LeRoy to whom she was under personal contract at the time. Lana later acknowledged that LeRoy's guidance in the early stages of her career proved "invaluable").
Unfortunately, as with Judy Garland's part, Lana's role has also been shortened in the cutting-room. The movie's emphasis now rests squarely upon Rooney and Stone who either share or are present in just about all the movie's scenes except for some wonderful solo footage involving Judy.
Cecilia Parker hardly remains in the movie at all (her romantic involvement with Douglas MacPhail has been completely eliminated) except for an occasional squabble with Andy. And even Fay Holden now finds herself written out of the central action, with not even so much as a single cut to the Canadian setting in which her sick mother apparently recovers like magic.
It's interesting that critical enthusiasm for this entry can be evenly divided among contemporary and present-day reviewers. In 1938, no less than 180 critics across the nation voted Love Finds... as the number one movie of the year. In 2017, just about all of us agree that here is the best of the entire 16-picture series. No masterpiece certainly, but Judy and Lana make it well worth watching.