If melancholia is the affect sought by Arnold for Alone, its structural base is the Oedipal drama, which he stages by drawing on the unlikely source material of the Andy Hardy film series (more than 10 films released between 1937-1958). Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) is the male child, Mrs. Hardy (Fay Holden) is the Mother, Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) literally stands for the Law of/in the Father, and Betsy (Judy Garland) is Andy’s object of desire. The film takes scenes of mundane character interaction and, through frame-by-frame analysis, lends them Oedipal sexualization and psychic intensity.

Michael Zryd