Because of an opinion rendered in a case involving public utilities Judge Hardy gets an offer he can't refuse, counsel to a Congressional committee investigating
public utilities. So the whole family gets packed up to Washington, DC where
they get exposed to a far more sophisticated crowd.
This was a very topical topic in those New Deal years with among other things the
founding of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Private utility companies resented
being put under a microscope. The president of one such company became a
candidate for president, that would be Wendell Wilkie. Audiences watching
this on TCM can't appreciate that now in the way that ticket buyers could and
did.
Judge Hardy's iron integrity and homespun values from Carvel come up against
a real DC operator in Jonathan Hale. Even daughter Cecilia Parker who spills
some information unknowingly about the investigation gets dragged into a
potential scandal.
As for Mickey Rooney he gets involved with the French Ambassador's daughter
Jacqueline Laurent and at a cotillion he's invited to shows that crowd what
swing and the Big Apple is all about. Chaperone Janet Beecher is not amused.
In the end the whole family thinks that Carvel is the place for them. They sure
went back in time for the next Hardy family feature from MGM.