Oscar Anniversaries: The Harvey Girls (1946)

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Judy Garland stars as Susan Bradley, a young woman traveling to Arizona in the 1890s to be married to a man she's never met. She had taken out a "singles" ad in the paper and began receiving letters from a mysterious gentleman in the Old West in Sandrock, Arizona. While on the train, Sandra meets up with a group of Harvey Girls , women traveling to be waitresses for a chain of new restaurants owned by Fred Harvey.

Upon arriving in Sandrock and meeting her fiance, he turns out to be quite the opposite of what she expected and unfortunately, not the type of man she wants to marry. Heartbroken and jobless, she quickly joins the Harvey Girls.

Problems arise when the owner of the local saloon sees the Harvey Girls (and the new Harvey House restaurant) as a threat, taking away business from him and the saloon's showgirls (the lead girl, Em, played by a young Angela Lansbury). A local man and frequent saloon-goer, Trent, takes a liking to Susan, but Em is in love with him, which only escalates the feud between the two groups of women. Soon, the Harvey Girls become threated and bullied, and once it becomes violent, it's up to Susan to try to put a stop to it.

Garland is charming in the role, as is Marjorie Main as the landlady and house mother to the Harvey Girls.

Main is quite hilarious and is a brilliant addition to the supporting cast. Unfortunately, not much can be said about them. Competent acting all-around, but nothing stellar, not even from the John Hodiak as Trent, the leading love interest of Susan (which results in a lack of chemistry between the characters), or even from Lansbury (who's fine in her gorgeous costumes, but nothing more than that). In a surprising nod to Garland's most famous film The Wizard of Oz, Ray Bolger (The Scarecrow from Oz) appears here in a supporting storyline that's disappointingly unnecessary to the main plot.

Another disappointing thing are the songs, all except the wonderful Oscar-winning "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," performed by Garland and most of the cast. The rest are performed well but are somewhat forgettable.

The film does look great though, with nice art-direction and especially the costumes (the latter which should have garned another Oscar nomination for this film). Very colorful and wonderfully top-notch! Not the best of Garland's films, but definitely one worth checking out.

***/*****

Oscar Nominations

Best Original Song ("On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe")

Nominations Deserved

Genre: Comedy/Musical

Best Actress (Garland)

Best Supporting Actress (Main)

Best Art Direction

Best Costume Design

Best Makeup/Hair

Best Original Song ("On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe")

Overall

Best Costume Design

Best Original Song ("On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe")