‘Andy Hardy’ Releases a Six-Pack of Delightful Material : THIS WEEK’S MOVIES

Well before video, compact discs and rap, the American teen-age boy had to struggle with the same, age-old problems of parents, school, girls and how to get behind a steering wheel instead of the eight ball. You can see just how the most famous fictional teen-ager of the late 1930s and early ‘40s dealt with those dilemmas in several examples from MGM’s delightful “Andy Hardy” series, released on tape by MGM/UA this week.

These half-dozen fine entries in the popular series, priced at $19.95 each, star not only regulars Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone and Fay Holden, but also several young stars who would later achieve fame.

* “Love Finds Andy Hardy” (1938) features no less than Judy Garland (who sings three songs), Lana Turner and Ann Rutherford (who also appears in the other five, including “Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever,” as Andy’s girlfriend).

* “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante” (1940) and “Life Begins for Andy Hardy” (1941) also star Garland.

* “Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary” (1941) has a young Kathryn Grayson (later of “Kiss Me Kate” and other musicals).

* “Andy Hardy’s Double Life” (1942) features a pre-pool Esther Williams.

At the same time, MGM/UA has released these notable oldies for $29.95 each:

* “The Best Man” (1964): a tense political drama based on a Gore Vidal play and starring Henry Fonda as the U.S. President.

* “Northwest Passage” (1940): King Vidor’s rough and colorful account of Colonial America, starring Spencer Tracy.

* “The Prisoner of Zenda” (1937): the best version of this often-filmed costumer, starring Ronald Colman.

* “Home From the Hill” (1960): A well-made (by Vincente Minnelli) but awfully long (151 minutes) Southern-plantation drama starring Robert Mitchum.

The more recent movies new to video this week run from the sublime to the (mostly) ridiculous:

* Beginning with the sublime, “New York Stories” (Touchstone, $89.95, PG) combines relatively short films by three of America’s greatest directors. Martin Scorsese’s “Life Lessons” leads off with a tense, bravura portrait of a sick relationship between a painter (Nick Nolte) and his protege (Rosanna Arquette). Francis Ford Coppola counters with a light and fairly plotless but endearing study of a rich, pubescent daughter of divorced parents. Woody Allen ends the set with a hilarious satire on mothers, love and New Age cures.

* And on to the zany: “Uncle Buck” (MCA, $89.95, PG) stars John Candy as the world’s most irresponsible baby-sitter. Directed by John Hughes, the comedy was a surprise big hit, raking in more than $60 million at the box office.

* “UHF” (Orion, $89.98, PG-13) is even sillier, combining the antics of singer/satirist Weird Al Yankovic and some far-out cable-TV spoofing.

* “Turner and Hooch” (Touchstone, $89.95, PG) bummed out a lot of people with the way its cop-and-dog plot ended, but Tom Hanks’ star power still pulled in $70 million for this comedy/thriller at theaters.

* “The Karate Kid III” (RCA/Columbia, $89.95, PG) didn’t do as well as its two predecessors at the box office, but still kicked up $39 million. For fans of rougher martial arts, there’s “Kickboxer” (HBO, $89.99, R), starring Claude Van Damme.

* Farrah Fawcett stars in both “See You in the Morning” (Warner, $89.95, PG-13), a 1989 theatrical comedy/drama with Jeff Bridges as a man juggling two families, and “Between Two Women” (Warner, $79.95), a TV movie about a relationship between a woman and her mother-in-law (Colleen Dewhurst, who won an Emmy for her performance).

* Despite having Luke Skywalker and Gandhi in its cast--well, Mark Hamill and Ben Kingsley, anyway--the sci-fi film “Slipstream” (MCEG, $79.95, PG-13) slipped through theaters without leaving much of a trace.

OTHER NEW VIDEOS

“Billy Crystal: Midnight Train to Moscow” (HBO, $59.99) is the comedian’s recent cable special, taped at Moscow’s Pushkin Theater.