The Harvey Girls **** (1946, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, John Hodiak, Virginia O’Brien, Angela Lansbury, Marjorie Main, Preston Foster) – Classic Movie Review 3606

Director George Sidney’s delightful 1946 MGM period Western musical sees Judy Garland on her best form (as Susan Bradley) performing great numbers, including the brilliant Oscar-winning Best Original Song ‘On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe’ by Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren. They also write the other standout ‘It’s A Great Big World’ (sung and danced by Garland, Virginia O’Brien and Cyd Charisse).

The only ordinary thing about it is the screenplay (credited to nine writers) telling the mundane story of young ladies going West to work as waitresses, based on a novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams.

Susan Bradley is travelling by train out West to become a mail order bride when she meets a crew of cheerful young women travelling out to open a Harvey House restaurant at a remote whistle stop to provide good cooking and company for rail travellers. Susan rejects her suitor and joins the Harvey Girls.

On the other hand, co-stars Ray Bolger, Virginia O’Brien, Angela Lansbury and Marjorie Main could not be ordinary if they tried. Virginia Rees provides the singing voice of Lansbury (‘Wait and See’, ‘Oh, You Kid’), playing dancehall hostess Em, and Marion Doenges that of Cyd Charisse (as Deborah Andrews).

Also in the cast are John Hodiak, Preston Foster, Chill Wills, Kenny Baker, Selena Royle, Ruth Brady, Catherine McLeod, Jack Lambert, Edward Earle, Bill Phillips, Norman Leavitt, Morris Ankrum, Ben Carter, Mitchell Lewis, Stephen McNally, Bill Hall, Ray Teal, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Vernon Dent, Jim Toney, Jack Clifford, Virginia Davis, Virginia Hunter, Jane Hall and Gloria Hope.

Producer Arthur Freed planned the story as a vehicle for Lana Turner, but the script was altered and songs added to make it a perfect showcase for Garland.

Bolger teams with Garland again in their first reunion since The Wizard of Oz (1939).

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3606
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