A Family Affair (1937)
This drama championed the values of classical jurisprudence and traditional family life in face of the economic and social challenges of the 1930s.
![A Family Affair (1937) | MUBI A Family Affair (1937) | MUBI](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff362be2-75eb-4264-82b0-e63400060dff_1280x720.jpeg)
Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. A paid subscription is, at time of writing, available at a standard rate of just £3.50 per month, or £35 for a full year. Paid subscribers receive additional posts in regular series, and are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter.
This post is part of the ‘Rewound’ series of analyses of objects or episodes from cultural and political history. It is available in full only to paid subscribers.
Please note: This analysis of the film A Family Affair and its themes reveals plot details for the purpose of enhancing that analysis.
Made by MGM, A Family Affair focuses on the tribulations of James K. Hardy (Lionel Barrymore), a district judge based in the fictional Midwestern town of Carvel. Judge Hardy lives with his wife Emily (Spring Byington), sister-in-law Milly (Sara Haden), and teenage son Andy (Mickey Rooney). He has two adult daughters as well: returning college student Marion (Cecilia Parker), and eldest child Joan (Jill Haydon). The Judge’s problems begin when he places a temporary injunction on plans to build an aqueduct, which will transport water from Carvel to a growing nearby city, so that he can ensure its propriety before work on it begins.
This decision incurs the wrath of contractor Hoyt Wells (Selmer Jackson), and of local newspaper The Carvel Star and its publisher Frank Redmond (Charley Grapewin). The newspaper quickly turns local public opinion against Hardy for blocking so lucrative a project. Wells and Redmond also seek to blackmail Judge Hardy, conspiring to block his re-nomination as district judge. They later threaten to publish allegations about a roadhouse tryst involving Joan, which has led to her estrangement from her husband, Bill Martin (Allen Vincent), whose child she is secretly pregnant with. At the same time, Judge Hardy also faces fierce objection from Marion, whose fiancée Wayne Trent (Eric Linden) is employed to work on the aqueduct as a civil engineer.
Judge Hardy, however, successfully convinces Bill of Joan’s fidelity, and to attend the nomination meeting with him, at which Bill publicly denies rumours of their impending divorce. The Judge then reveals that the aqueduct project has been facilitated by an enabling act that would allow the neighbouring city to commandeer as much of Carvel’s river and surrounding valleys as it demands, resulting in the town’s inevitable ruin; and that he has therefore had the act struck down as unconstitutional. A Family Affair ends with Hardy being subsequently renominated as district judge by universal acclaim, before being reunited with his watching family. He also promises Wayne that a new enabling act will be passed, allowing an aqueduct to be built, but this time making sure Carvel gets ‘a square deal’.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Academic Bubble to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.