February 2

Happy Birthday to S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall and Bonita Granville. In looking at the list of Bonita Granville films I realized I have seen a number of her films where she played a supporting character. I tried to find a film where she was the lead. In a library 20 miles away they had copy of the “Original Nancy Drew” on DVD. I was going to go on Sunday before the storm hit to borrow the set. I was still not feeling well and did not have the energy to drive that far. TCM has shown those films before so I will have to watch for those films to be shown again.

I watched the Andy Hardy double feature Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble and Love Laughs at Andy Hardy. Bonita played Kay a fellow Wainwright College student. She played a very mature student. She was pretty as a teenager, but as an adult she was beautiful. She had grace and style and sophistication that that a lot of college students don't possess. Her role was small in both films. In Blonde Trouble (she is not the trouble) she has a few scenes with Herbert Marshall who plays the dean. He sends her a corsage, but she thinks it is from Andy. When she finds out it is from the dean, she puts the flowers in a glass on his desk and adds water, giving him the flowers back. Graceful and dignified way to show thank you, but to let him know that she doesn't feel the same.

In Love Laughs (my favorite Andy Hardy film)while Andy was fighting in WWII all he could think of was Bonita, but he finds out his feelings were not returned. Shortly after Andy's return to college Bonita goes home to deal with a family event. When she comes back she tells Andy that she is going to marry her guardian and that she would like him to be best man. Andy ever the gentleman agrees and throws rice as they drive away.

Love Laughs at Andy Hardy is my favorite film because of Dorothy Ford. She is 6'2”. A college mate fixes up Andy and Dorothy for a college dance. She says that she would probably be taller than any man and he says he would have probably been shorter than any girl they got fixed up with. They go to the party and dance. They start dancing with Andy on the podium where they are about the same height. They then proceed to dance a jitterbug. He has to jump to get his arms over her head. The end he tries to get her on his back, but he can't so she lifts him up and he kicks his legs up. Dorothy then gets asked to dance by other men, taller than Andy, but still shorter than Dorothy.