The Harvey Girls (1946)

Unless you absolutely love Judy Garland, you can save yourself 100 minutes and just watch the famous song "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls. I like her, but I'm not in love with her; I haven't watched every one of her films I can get my hands on.If you do love her and decide to watch the full movie, you'll see lots of beautiful costumes by Irene and Helen Rose Valles as Judy travels by train to the Wild West to become a mail order bride. The female travelers on the train have a different goal once they arrive: they want to open a restaurant and boarding house for respectable girls. And by that, I mean they want to have lots of chorus numbers. Ray Bolger, Judy's gangly pal from The Wizard of Oz joins the cast, as does the pouting Angela Lansbury, crotchety Marjorie Main, and willowy Cyd Charisse. It's up to you if you want to sit through this mediocre musical, or if you want to get the gist by watching the three-minute song.

As long as you watch this film in context - and consider when it was set (Arizona in the 1890s) and where it was made (1946 Hollywood), you'll enjoy it for what it is: a simple and really sweet romance set in the Wild West.The costumes are wonderful, the songs catchy (catchy enough to pick up the Oscar for Best Song that year) and the dancing divine and, of course, Judy Garland shines, as does a 20-year-old Angela Lansbury.Garland plays Susan Bradley, a feisty lass on her way to Saltrock, Arizona to meet - and marry - the gent who has been courting her, most eloquently, via letter. On the fateful train trip from Ohio, aboard the storied Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, she meets and befriends a charming group of girls also heading to Saltrock. They're trainee waitresses on their way to set up the latest branch of the equally famous Harvey House chain of restaurants. Unfortunately for Susan, her betrothed turns out to be a little too fond of gamblin' and boozin' - and not so fond of marriage, and the pair agree to part ways, but not before he confesses to not being the author of the oh-so-sweet letters she received. Rather than heading back home, Susan decides to train as a 'Harvey Girls,' which pits her against the owners of the local saloon, which is owned by the dashing Ned Trent (John Hodiak) who, it turns out, is the actual author of the letters which tugged so deeply at Susan's heart. It really is a sweet story and you'll be singing the lead song, On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, weeks later...

Very good film, maybe not the very best of Judy's, but there are no bad Judy Garland films. A film will never be that bad with that pretty, beautiful voiced angel on the screen, no matter how bad the rest of the film is."The Harvey girls" had some pretty good parts. The Harvey girls were a group of girls who took the train down to the old west town of Sandrock in the 19th century. Judy was on the train with them, and very hungry with nothing but a half slice of bread while seeing other girls holding big pieces of fried chicken. Then this little girl stops and looks at Judy begging for something to eat. I was sort of curious why she begged Judy for food when she hardly had anything when there was clearly those other girls nearby with the big pieces of fried chicken and such (including a corned beef sandwich that one of the girls had Judy try a couple moments later). Well perhaps she didn't see the other girls' food, she was quite small. Once the train arrived in Sandrock, the girls, and the townfolk started singing the best song of the film, "The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe". Across the street was an old west saloon with drinking, rowdyness, and burlesque girls led by Angela Langsbury, who they and saloon owner Jon Hodiak did not like the Harvey girls moving into their town. Judy was on her way to Sandrock to marry a man there she'd never met yet but had been writing and receiving letters from. Once there, Judy found out that the whole thing was a prank. Judy, upset, confronted the man behind the prank, John, who retaliated, Judy retaliated back. Then things between John and other members of the saloon and Judy and the other Harvey girls (who Judy now joined) escalated. John and his crew stole the Harvey girl's meat. Judy came into the saloon holding two guns demanding it back (she did look sort of comical and silly doing that). John had one of his friends, the town judge, shoot a bullet through the Harvey girl's window as they were going to bed. At one point, there was a literal brawl between the burlesque girls and the Harvey girls (which did looka sort of corny). Judy's singing definitely, as always, was beautiful. The song "Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa fe" was wonderful, very elaborate with nearly the entire town taking part in it. The middle of the song parts with different girls singing their personal lines which were charming such as Virginia O'brien with "I said goodbyo Ohio" and one of the other girls with "I came from Paris, was married in Paris, almost buried in Paris, so I then left Paris, (girls join in) Paris, Illinois". I liked that. I also liked Judy, Virginia, and Cyd Charrise singing "It's a great big world", and the girls' "Round and round" at the dance. All beautiful songs. There was also some of Ray Bulger's ("Oz" scarecrow) rubber legged dancing. Ray became the new blacksmith who was to say the least, sort of a coward of guns shooting off and of horses. Maybe they should've had Bert Lair as the cowardly lion play this part instead of Ray the scarecrow. I liked Virginia joining in to help out Ray shoe the horse. The scene with Cyd and the saloon piano player singing "Just you wait and see" was very nice. I love Cyd Charrise. I also liked a scene with Judy and John outside of the town with them sitting down againced some rocks. Then when they get up, John trips and Judy laughed. Her laughter there reminded me of her laughter in "Girl crazy" when she kept laughing at Mickey Rooney. I love Judy's laugh. I love her singing, her passion, and her beauty. I love Judy Garland. There is no bad Judy movie.

The Harvey Girls, a film to celebrate the first of the fast food chains which quite frankly would be what the Harvey Restaurant chain was back in the modernizing west. There are folks in the town who don't want to see the Harvey Restaurant established and thereby hangs the tale of this film.Preston Foster is the town boss and John Hodiak runs the saloon. These guys thrive on the town being in the Wild West accent on the wild. Foster's a rather shrewd villain, he realizes that the clean cut virginal Harvey girls who are servers might make the men forget the loose women of the saloon and that if they court and marry them and start raising families, they might demand a little law and order. That would be a disaster for Foster. Better to cut the problem off at the root.Hodiak however is a jaded sort and bored with the loose women of his establishment. In a cinema not under the Code influence, Angela Lansbury and her crew would be prostitutes. He kind of likes the idea of the Harvey Restaurant coming to town and likes it better when Judy Garland comes to town.Judy's come to town as a mail order bride, but when she sees Chill Wills is the prospective groom, both of them decide they're not suited for each other. Hodiak has been writing Wills's letters, a plot device that was used in the Joseph Cotten-Jennifer Jones film Love Letters. If you know about that film, you know how The Harvey Girls turns out.The Harvey Girls has come down in cinema history because of the famous On The Atchison, Topeka, And The Santa Fe number. The song itself won an Academy Award in 1946 for best original song and the number as staged by MGM is one of the longest and most complex in the annals of film. It runs about 20 minutes and just about every member of the cast except Hodiak and Foster get a line or two in the song. Of course it ends with Judy as well it should have.One thing I don't understand though is the under use of both Ray Bolger and Kenny Baker. Bolger of course had co-starred with Judy in The Wizard Of Oz, but he was far more known for being a Broadway star than a film player. He had just come off a big run in the last Rodgers&Hart musical By Jupiter. Kenny Baker was a famous radio singer who also had starred on Broadway in Kurt Weill's One Touch Of Venus with Mary Martin. Why these guys got the supporting roles they did is a mystery to me. I suspect both of them had a lot of their parts end up on the cutting room floor.MGM editing mastery was at its best in The Harvey Girls. The film was partially done on location and partially done at Culver City. The editing is so smooth you really can't tell.Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer wrote the score for The Harvey Girls and while the Atchison number dwarfs the rest, there's a song called It's A Great Big World that gets sadly neglected. It was sung by Judy Garland, Virginia O'Brien, and someone dubbing Cyd Charisse who first got noticed in this film for her dancing.As I said before if done today if some gazillionaire would finance a remake, Angela and her saloon girls would be portrayed more frankly as working girls. But that would also cause the film to lose some of its naive charm. And this film holds up quite well for 63 years and counting.