Synopsis
On a train trip out west to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley meets a cheery crew of young women traveling out to open a "Harvey House" restaurant at a remote whistle-stop.
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Cast
- Judy GarlandSusan Bradley
- John HodiakNed Trent
- Ray BolgerChris Maule
- Angela LansburyEm
- Preston FosterJudge Sam Purvis
- Virginia O'BrienAlma from Ohio
- Kenny BakerTerry O'Halloran
- Marjorie MainSonora Cassidy
- Chill WillsH.H. Hartsey
- Selena RoyleMiss Bliss
Recommendations
- 83
Portland Oregonian
The Harvey Girls isn't really anything special, cinematically speaking. This run-of-the-mill Judy Garland musical is notable mostly for its Oscar-winning song, "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe."[10 May 2002] - 75
TV Guide Magazine
THE HARVEY GIRLS has a little of everything: songs, dance, action, romance, and the triumph of virtue and chastity over the forces of saloondom. - 75
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Garland may be the star, but it's Lansbury's turn as the bad girl that audiences will remember. [26 Apr 2002, p.40] - 70
The New York Times
It may be a rather lofty tribute to Fred Harvey's girls, but it's a show. - 70
The New Yorker
The central conceit of glorifying progress and moral uplift in a musical comedy set in New Mexico in the 1880s is certainly a strange one, but it worked out surprisingly well--though the charm is mostly heavy. - 60
Time Out
A likeable but aimless musical which doesn't know what to make of its plot (designed to cash in on the pioneer spirit of Oklahoma) about the Harvey House restaurants which followed the railroad into the West, bringing demure waitresses into the domain of rowdy saloon girls. - 60
Empire
Judy Garland is magnificent in this charming musical with a number of star turns from the impressive cast. - 60
Variety
A curious blend of Technicolor wild-westernism, frontier town skullduggery and a troupe of Harvey restaurant waitresses who deport themselves in a manner that's a cross between a sorority and a Follies troupe.
