The Harvey Girls

Rating:
Summary: All Aboard For A Rip-Roaring Good Time
Review: In the 1930's Judy Garland established herself as a box office dynamo. But it is with a string of phenomenal Technicolor musicals in the 1940's that she really cemented her place in the annals of film history. One of her best efforts of this decade is "The Harvey Girls" in which Judy plays Susan Bradley, a mail order bride who becomes a waitress in a restaurant in the wild west town of Sandrock. The film features the Oscar-winning song, "On The Atcheson Topeka & The Santa Fe" and is littered throughout with moments that warm the heart and fill the ear.
Warner Home Video has done this film proud with a stunning digital transfer that sparkles. Color fidelity is magnificent with a vibrance and clarity that amazes. The film's elements and soundtrack have been remastered and reflect Warner's committment to their classic film library. Also included as suppliments are two different versions of a song cut from the final version of the film, "March of the Doagies" that must have cost MGM a bundle to shoot. It is one of Hollywood's small tragedies that this musical number, in either version, wasn't seen by audiences for nearly sixty years. Thankfully, we have it back where it belongs at last. Get this disc and get ready for a rip-roaring good time.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo! Bravo!
Review: It was good to see the great Judy Garland in living color in "The Harvey Girls", but the movie itself is kinda over rated,and while there is maybe 2 good musical numbers in it,there really is no story line and the movie kinda drags and is boring in some spots. There is not enough story plot and too much boring musical numbers,I found myself falling asleep at times,but I am a Judy Garland fan! To see a great Judy Garland movie with a good story line and better musical numbers check out her movie "Meet me in St.Louis",you'll be glad you did!

Rating:
Summary: where do the deleted Doagies fit in?
Review: It's interesting to look at this musical directed by George Sidney in light of his later Annie Get Your Gun, in relation to the casting of Judy Garland. Though Sidney was hired to direct Annie after Judy had been fired from the production and replaced by Betty Hutton, the indications here are that Sidney would have better a choice for Judy's aborted effort rather than Busby Berkeley or Charles Walters.
Although the treament of this film has the usual MGM concessions to family viewing in the speciality numbers featuring the comic singing of Virginia O'Brien, and the dancing of Cyd Charisse and Ray Bolger (separately), Sidney presents a Judy that is touching and funny. Despite the rear projection she is wonderful in her opening In The Valley, despite the flatness of O'Brien and Charisse in the Vincente Minnelli-like ensemble of the lovely It's a Great Big World - perhaps the best of the Johnny Mercer/Harry Warren songs - and he prepares for her star appearance for the famous and long On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe with a cast build-up including a noteworthy Marjorie Main. Even if he emphasises Garland's lack of height, he minimises the catfight between the good Harvey girls and the wild dance-hall girls that are lead by Angela Lansbury, by giving Garland the comic payoff. It's a pity his climactic punch up between two men is handled less effectively.
One can also interpret the battle between the two types of women as typical of Louis B Mayer's madonna/whore simplistic representatation of women.
At one point when Garland implicitly apologies to Lansbury for not being as beautiful as her, it recalls the way Garland was humiliated in Ziegfeld Girl when she was left in the chorus while Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr pranced in the You Stepped Out of a Dream number. Although contractually obligated to complete her appearances in Till the Clouds Go By after she returned from her New York honeymoon with new husband Minnelli, this could have been Garland's last film for MGM, if he hadn't persuaded her to sign for another decade with the studio, rather than abandon the grind of movie making that would lead her to ill health and misery.
The casting of John Hodiak opposite also provides an interesting dynamic since he is more evolved than to settle for Lansbury but still too worldly for Garland. It's a shame their duet was taken out of the released film.

Rating:
Summary: More..Please
Review: It's so good to see Judy's films coming out on DVD. Just keep them coming.

Judy is very comical in "The Harvey Girls". My favorite scene is when she goes in to rescue the stolen meat. She's so perfect!

Today is her 80th birthday. I wish they would have released a special package of her films on DVD to celebrate her 80th.

Rating:
Summary: On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe with Judy et al.
Review: Just look at the cast on this one: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Angela Lansbury, Cyd Charisse, Virginia O'Brien and even Marjorie Main. The score is by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer, whose Oscar winning song "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" is highlighted wonderfully in a massive production number with the train coming into town and everybody celebrating. Actually, Judy is a mail-order bride who finds out her prospective husband is rancher Chill Wills. Understandably, Judy would rather have John Hodiak, the owner of the dance hall. Okay, so the plot is lame. Judy ends up as one of the "Harvey Girls," who came out west to work in the Harvey Restaurants set up along the railroad. The important thing here is that everybody has big time fun and the songs are hits more often than misses. Not a great movie musical, but well above average to be sure.

Rating:
Summary: All American, Rootin' Tootin' Fun
Review: Lightweight story of a niave Eastern girl who travels west as a mail-order bride only to accept a job as a "Harvey girl" waitress. Garland is charming, funny, and in full vocal power with a score to match her talents, and the supporting cast (including Ray Bolger, Angela Landsbury, Cyd Charisse, and the oft-neglected Virginia O'Brien) plays with considerable verve. A perfect example of the late 1940s musical genre, and lots of fun for every one.

Rating:
Summary: Sing Yourself happy!
Review: Lots of singing! Judy sings, and sings! Nice story. If you like Judy Garland you will enjoy this. She is as cute as a button!

Rating:
Summary: Sexism?
Review: More interesting than the typical Garland film because of the outdated view of the internal conflict experienced by women between "naughty" and "nice". If you are at all sensitive to women's issues, you will find this film both funny and sad at a level which the director probably never intended. Young children should not watch this film as it reinforces a number of outdated stereotypes.

Rating:
Summary: Garland at her loveliest...
Review: Okay, I confess I still haven't watched this one all the way through, because I keep rewinding the musical number "It's a Cold, Cold World." This song is one of those haunting and sweet numbers, its corniness transcended by Garland's touching sincerity. I don't understand why they burdened her with John Hodiak as the love interest. She was worthy of better than this poor man's Clark Gable, but I suppose it's a bit late to argue with those responsible for casting, since they're probably dead by now.

This movie is Garland's show all the way, and in fact would be forgettable if it weren't for her presence in it. If you believe, as I do, that her MGM years were her peak, you will not be disappointed by "The Harvey Girls."

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: One of the most lavish of 40s MGM musicals, THE HARVEY GIRLS really shows off Judy Garland's considerable comedy skills, which she rarely got much of a chance to work with, and also shows her off at her absolute most unearthly beauty. She's terrific here, and she gets a great haunting opening solo from the caboose of a train and a great entrance into town with the famous "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe," one of the most excitingly staged numbers the Arthur Freed unit ever did (which is saying something). The rest of the film isn't up to Garland's level or the level of those two songs, although the hokey plot--about how the upright and starched Harvey Girls bring such an attractive wholesomeness to the Wild West that all the temptations of sin wilt before them--demonstrates pretty much the MGM moral ethos of the time. One added plus: a very young Angela Lansbury, as Garland's rival for John Hodiak (ugh), looking ravishing in multicolored lace teddies and oversized picture hats.