Third Annual Judy Garland Blogathon–The Harvey Girls (1946)

What a lovely trip
I’m feeling so fresh and alive
And I’m so glad to arrive
It’s all so grand
It’s easy to see
You don’t need a palace
To feel like Alice
In Wonderland

Back in Ohio
Where I come from
I’ve done a lot of dreamin’ and I traveled some
But I never thought I’d see the day
When I ever took a ride on the Santa Fe
I would lean across my window sill
And I’d hear the whistle echoin’ across the hills
Then I’d watch the lights till they fade away
On the Atchinson, Topeka, and the Santa Fe…

Judy Garland as Susan Bradley in The Harvey Girls

Judy Garland crooned this Oscar-winning Johnny Mercer standard at the beginning of The Harvey Girls, directed by George Sidney. At the start of the film, Judy’s character, Susan Bradley, is on the famed Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe railway enroute from Ohio to Sandrock, a small town in the American Southwest. The film takes place during the 1890s when the American west was still a bit of a wild place and train travel was the most efficient way to get across the country. Susan is traveling to Sandrock to marry her pen pal, a man by the name of HH Hartsey (Chill Wills). She has fallen in love with HH’s beautiful love letters after answering his “lonely-hearts” ad.

Judy Garland meets the Harvey Girls on the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe.

While on the train, Susan meets a group of young women, including Deborah (Cyd Charisse) and Alma (Virginia O’Brien) who are heading west to work at a new Harvey House restaurant that is opening in Sandrock. The head cook of the new pack of Harvey girls is Sonora Cassidy, hilariously played by Marjorie Main. It is refreshing to see Main in a fairly decent sized part and not just popping in and out of the action. She even participates in the musical numbers. The young women and Susan instantly bond when they learn of her upcoming marriage plans.

Judy’s Harvey Girl uniform is a good rendition of the traditional Harvey House uniform–save for the red lipstick.

Harvey House was a real chain of restaurants that existed in the late 19th century in the United States. Fred Harvey opened his first Harvey House restaurant in 1878 in Florence, Kansas alongside the famed Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe railway. The chain grew rapidly with more and more locations added alongside the hundreds of miles of track that stretched from Chicago to California. Another symbol of the Harvey House, depicted in The Harvey Girls, is the employment of an all-female staff which started in 1883. The women working at these restaurants also wore a starched black and white uniform, reminiscent of a typical maid’s uniform, but more stylish. One requirement of Harvey Girls, not followed in The Harvey Girls, is the rule that prohibited women from wearing makeup while on duty.

In The Harvey Girls, the women are depicted as being proud of their employment outside the home and take pride in their appearance and in their work. The opportunity to earn money outside the home was a trait that was true for the real Harvey Girls of the 1890s. While the young women in The Harvey Girls are looking for husbands, they along with their real Harvey Girls counterparts, were able to travel, earn money, and take part in new experiences.

Angela Lansbury wears the best costumes in this film.

In The Harvey Girls, Judy Garland finds herself newly employed when her engagement falls through. It turns out that the smooth, suave, romantic HH Hartsey is actually a much older man, a curmudgeon who does not get along with the real version of Susan. HH and Susan fell in love with each other through their letters; but in person they are incompatible and ill-suited for each other. They very wisely decide to call off the wedding. Susan then learns that Ned Trent (John Hodiak), owner of the local saloon actually wrote HH’s letters. Furious, she decides to tell him off. Her feistiness and anger is nothing but a turn-on to Ned, and he spends the rest of the film pursuing her. Susan does her best to convince herself that she’s not in love with him. Then, because every film needs a love triangle, Ned’s lead saloon singer, Em (Angela Lansbury), is angry to see another woman vying for Ned’s attention. Em is in love with Ned.

To show up Ned, Susan joins the Harvey Girls to work at the Harvey House restaurant next door. This gives competition to Ned’s saloon and his associates, including Judge Purvis (Preston Foster) try their best to sabotage and run the Harvey House out of Sandrock. There’s a particularly funny scene when Judge Purvis and his friends steal all the steaks from the Harvey House. Susan enters the saloon, wielding two pistols and holds everyone at gunpoint until she gets her steaks back. Ned tries to intervene, telling Purvis that there’s room in town for both the Harvey House and the saloon, but Purvis refuses to listen.

Marjorie Main has a fabulous part in this film where she gets to sing and dance.

The Harvey Girls is a lot of fun. Judy is fantastic and it’s fun to see Marjorie Main in a decent-sized role, as well as seeing Cyd Charisse in her first credited role. Cyd even gets to dance and is the girl who gets to dance in the Harvey Girl ensemble numbers. She has a sweet scene singing with her beau (or at least the beau she wants), Terry O’Halloran (Kenny Baker). Angela Lansbury is fantastic as the villain, though it’s a shame that she is dubbed in her musical numbers. She wears some fantastic looking costumes and proves to be a formidable foe against Judy–even physically. Lansbury was 5’8 and Judy was 4’11.

Judy’s co-star from The Wizard of Oz, Ray Bolger, is also in The Harvey Girls along with Virginia O’Brien to provide some comic relief. Bolger plays Chris Maule, the new blacksmith in Sandrock. He’s not very good at his new vocation, but O’Brien’s character, Alma, surprisingly is. O’Brien gets the chance to perform one of her signature stone faced musical numbers in a scene at the blacksmith shop. While I’m not particularly a fan of her schtick, it’s good that O’Brien gets her chance for a solo number. Her character all but disappears in the second half due to her real-life pregnancy. Due to filming delays caused by Judy’s attendance issues, O’Brien’s pregnancy became too advanced to hide. She was supposed to have more scenes with Bolger and have a larger role in the plot, but was more or less written out after the “Wild, Wild West” number.

The Harvey Girls teach everyone how to waltz.

The standout performance in The Harvey Girls, in my opinion, is Angela Lansbury as the bitter showgirl. This easily could have been a one-note stereotype, but Lansbury brings some depth and complexity to Em. This is a woman who is used to being the object of men’s desire, then Susan and the Harvey Girls show up. Soon, the men aren’t as interested in the gaudy, raunchy showgirls, they want the clean-cut, pure (i.e. virginal) Harvey Girls. Despite only being 20-21 when making The Harvey Girls, Lansbury’s Em seems a lot more worldly and mature than the Harvey Girls. While Em views Susan as a rival, never do I get the sense that she hates her. Through Lansbury’s facial expressions and tone, I get the sense that she is jealous and hurt that Susan and the other girls have the impression that she’s a bit trashy (i.e. a tramp) because of her look and occupation. Never once does Em do anything that would indicate that she’s a “loose woman,” this is just a quick judgement made by Susan and the other Harvey Girls. To her credit, Susan does apologize for forming such an opinion about Em which does soften her a bit.

While I typically love a relentless villain that will do anything to get their way, there is no depth too low for them to sink, Em’s redemption at the end of The Harvey Girls is satisfactory. MGM films need to have a happy ending, that’s just how it goes. The stars of the film, Judy Garland and John Hodiak, need to end up together. That’s the obvious conclusion. I know that’s how the film will end going in, it’s just a matter of getting there. Em’s character development is how the film gets there.

I can only hope that she has a happy ending in the cards as well. Maybe she’ll end up working at a Harvey House.