In the late 1930s serial films were pared down to two devices, they either took exotic matters, usually with the focus on crime and presented them through engagingly familiar characters; or they took domestic drama and by presenting it as either farce or melodrama, made it appear as if it were something quite exotic.
The most remarkable example of the dramatization of domestic lives was the saga of the Hardy Family, first seen in A Family Affair (1937) and substantially recast for the first of the fourteen movies in the series proper.
 |
| She's out of this world and out of his league. |
Andy Hardy's adventures in middle-class, small town America was the pet-project of Louis B, Mayer, who meticulously vetted the films, the best of which paired Mickey Rooney as Andy with Judy Garland. The MGM script department worked out Judge Hardy's salary precisely and tailored everything in the movies to fit the familial budget. Endearing and loving, with a father who was always right but never self-righteous, the Hardys were intended to epitomize the standards, if not the circumstances of the all-American family. In fact - the plot-lines are staggeringly exotic. Father is a judge who may inherit, albeit briefly, a huge fortune, or be mandated to Washington to head a committee.
 |
| Ah, that Andy - what a cheapskate |
Andy Hardy, the all-American spends an entire movie trying to gate-crash Manhattan's social elite. Since realities like debt are carefully excluded as plot devices, all that does remain is the extraordinary.