Too much of everything

One of my all time favorites.

Just so...so bad

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This is the story of the attempted transformation of a rowdy cow/miners small town in the Southwest into the beginnings of a civilized town, with wives and children eventually to outnumber the saloon girls and prostitutes who thus far dominated, at the conniving of a small clique of 'town bosses', headed by mayor 'Judge' Purvis and saloon proprietor Ned Trent("Nice girls can ruin a town" quips Purvis to Ned. In this case, the revolutionary civilizing influence is the sudden establishment of a Harvey restaurant, complete with conservatively- uniformed waitresses(Harvey girls), who are expected to measure up to a strict code of conduct, having already been put through a rigorous evaluation(historically by Mrs. Harvey). The other main features of the plot are also very familiar in films of this era. Boy and girl start off hating each other, but secretly are attracted to each other, go through a period as alternately lovers and enemies, then miraculously come together at the end, presumably happily ever after. In this case, its single Ned, proprietor of the town saloon, hence the obvious natural enemy of the new Harvey establishment. Although Judy Garland, as Susan Bradley, doesn't begin the film as a Harvey girl, she soon joins the troupe after discovering that the man she came to marry, sight unseen, (played by Chill Wills)is much older(44) and less sophisticated(probably illiterate) than she had been led to believe. In fact, it was Ned who ghost wrote the love letters for him: an embarrassing discovery for Susan, as she has reason to hate Ned. The initial dialogue between Judy and Wills, in which they gradually mutually agree that their pairing would be a mismatch, is one of the comedic highlights of the film. Prior to this, Wills grabbed 56 y.o. Marjorie Main, also just off the train, and kissed her, assuming she was his mail order bride. She was not impressed! Marjorie had played the maid in Judy's prior Technicolor musical "Meet Me in St. Louis". Here, she has graduated to being the head woman and cook for the Harvey house. Although she later gained fame starring in the "Ma and Pa Kettle " series, I generally prefer her as a secondary character in the various musicals she appeared in through 1950.Angela Lansbury plays Em: the leader of Ned's showgirls, and Ned's presumed prime squeeze. She gradually comes to recognize Susan as a potential rival for Ned's allegiance, despite their mostly very hostile relationship thus far. The animosity between Em and Susan reaches a head when Susan enters the saloon, looking for Cid Charisse: a Harvey girl, who is falling in love with piano player/singer Terry. As they trade insults, Cid runs to the Harvey house for reinforcements, anticipating a major confrontation. A mass cat fight in the saloon ensues: certainly one of the action highlights of the film! Unfortunately, Cid's considerable dancing talent is kept under wraps, with only a hint of it in the prior scene with Terry.Despite a couple of romantic moments together, Susan continues to blame Ned for a series of strong hints that someone is trying to scare the Harvey girls way. Actually, based on his attraction to Susan, Ned has gradually been changing sides. It's Judge Purvis who's been trying to derail the Harveys, and discourage the return of a church to town.(Purvis gets a cut of Ned's saloon profits for discouraging civilizing influences and competition.) When Purvis and his goon burn down the Harvey house while the whole town is at a party elsewhere, Ned decides it's time to move his gang to another town. Not knowing that Ned, at the last moment, decided not to board the train with his girls, hoping to patch things up with Susan, she secretly boards the train, hoping to patch things up with Ned! En(Angela) finally gets a bit of good press when she tells Susan that Ned stayed behind for her. The train stops! so that Ned, galloping on his horse, can catch up. Susan ends the film in a wedding dress. The film offers an excellent blend of comedy, drama, action and musical numbers, thus deserves to be remembered. I haven't mentioned one of the major stars: Ray Bolger, immortalized as 'the scarecrow', with Judy, in "The Wizard of Oz". Unfortunately, his considerable talents as a comedian and eccentric vaudeville-styled dancer is underutilized, his character being ill-defined. He interacts minimally with Judy. However, at the big party, we do see a good sampling of his comedic eccentric dancing style. For a meatier role and additional sampling of his quirky dancing, I suggest the subsequent "Look for the Silver Lining", in which June Haver take's Judy's place as the leading lady.Having seen the outtakes of the musical numbers "My Intuition", and "March of the Doagies", I definitely believe these should have been included, perhaps time wise replacing the lame "In the Valley"(with which the film begins), and the lengthy bland "It's a Great Big World", which included Virginia O'Brien, along with Judy and Cid. Virginia gets a solo in the sarcastic "The Wild, Wild, West", while demonstrating to Bolger how to make a horseshoe and shoe a horse. Thankfully, her trademark deadpan delivery is minimized. She disappears in the later part of the film, due to an advancing pregnancy. Judy's persistent absences and tardiness threw off a schedule designed to be finished before this pregnancy stage.The keeper song and musical production "The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" is, of course, the musical highlight of the Harry Warren-Johnny Mercer collaboration, which would be renewed for "The Belle of New York".

This is a good, but in my view, not great, musical. In it, a group of "Harvey Girls" (of the real and quite famous Harvey House restaurants along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad lines) get off at the New Mexican town of Sandrock to open a new Harvey House. Among them are mostly young beauties, but also Marjorie Main, who is a hoot in this film, and Selena Royale, a once possible flame of Spencer Tracy's in his theater days. They meet up with Judy Garland, who is on her way to meet and marry a man whose flowery love letters overwhelmed her after answering a "lonely hearts" ad. Of course, the man turns out to be rather unsuitable -- it's cowboy Chill Wills...who turns out perfect for Marjorie Main (of course). But, she falls in hate and love and hate and love (you get the picture) with John Hodiak, the owner of a saloon. Garland becomes a Harvey Girl, and their defacto leader in their fight to maintain the restaurant. Who's the bad guy? Well, primarily a bad girl -- Angela Lansbury, along with the local judge. In the end, Lansbury turns out to be rather sweet, and Garland and Hodiak get married in the flowering desert.The problem with this film are some of the actors chosen for key roles. I've been impressed with John Hodiak in some films, but here...well, not quite. And, Ray Bolger was disappointing here. Virginia O'Brien, who is usually quite good, disappeared halfway through the film because she became noticeably pregnant.That's not to say there are not some good performances, as well. Judy Garland is super, as is Angela Lansbury (though her singing is dubbed). Marjorie Main and Chill Wills do nicely, too.As I indicated, this is a good MGM musical, but not one of its best. Worth a watch, but except for fans of Garland, probably not one to reserve a spot for on your DVD shelf. Although the color is fantastic!

I really enjoyed this one, perfect hot lazy Saturday afternoon entertainment for me. Judy Garland as always is a treat to watch. This time the songbook isn't too memorable (apart from that great ensemble number near the beginning), and John Hodiak is sort of creepy as her leading man (his teeth and moustache look weird--he has none of the earthy sexuality of "Lifeboat"), but nevertheless I thought it was pretty good. It had enough humour, spots of melodrama and light musical numbers to keep me interested throughout. Plus, the colour is gorgeous, looking fantastic there on my HD TV. A young Cyd Charisse plays one of the "Harvey Girls", and she doesn't really get much of a chance to display her dancing talents, but she's still lovely to watch. Hard to believe Angela Lansbury was so young when she made this movie (early 20's I believe). Why did they turn her into a madam before her time? George Sidney, reliable MGM hand, directs and it's some of the best work I've seen from him yet. Apart from the ballads, the musical numbers are very fluid.

Even though the film starred Judy Garland, what I really enjoyed about The Harvey Girls is that it operates as an ensemble musical, giving features and spotlight numbers to just about everyone in the mammoth cast. This kind of thing is usually reserved for stage musicals only, but back in 1946 MGM's roster of talent was strong, if not yet infamous. Players like deadpan comic Virginia O'Brien and dancer Cyd Charisse were fairly new back then, but this film gives them individual spotlights: not only do they both sing with Garland in the nighttime ballad "It's A Great Big World," but O'Brien gets to sing "The Wild, Wild West" (while assisting blacksmith Ray Bolger in shoeing a horse) and Charisse gets to dance (briefly) opposite Kenny Baker singing "Wait And See." Marjorie Main leads the Harvey waitresses through "The Train Must Be Fed;" Angela Lansbury is featured in two saloon numbers, and Ray Bolger gets to do some of his rubber-legged clowning at the Harvey House party. And, of course, everyone on the planet is assembled for the big, eight minute production number "On The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe." There's literally something for everyone- even the oil-and-water romance between Garland and John Hodiak. And they shine as well, even if Hodiak wasn't the most well-known leading man. Check out this wonderfully scored, written, acted, and costumed tribute to old-fashioned Americana.