Search - The Harvey Girls on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Child Classic Movie Release: 1946 DVD Release: 04/30/2001 Format: DVD Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 41 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 22 Genres: Musical, Musical Comedy, Musical Western

This glorified Technicolor commercial for the Fred Harvey restaurants stars Judy Garland as a 19th-century mail-order bride. Upon arriving in New Mexico, Garland discovers that her husband-to-be is the town drunk. She cuts her losses and takes a job at the local Harvey restaurant, an establishment which endeavors to bring a little civilization and class to the wide open spaces. Harvey's operation is challenged by saloon-owner John Hodiak, corrupt-judge Preston S. Foster, and local-madam Angela Lansbury. With the help of tenderfoot Ray Bolger, Garland and her fellow waitresses foil the corrupt elements in town. Prominent in the supporting cast are Cyd Charisse, Marjorie Main, Chill Wills, Kenny Baker and Virginia O'Brien (whose musical numbers aren't quite as rambunctious as the contributions of the others, mainly because O'Brien was pregnant during filming). The songs are for the most part perfunctory, with the spectacular exception of the Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer's Oscar-winning "Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe." The Harvey Girls is tenuously based on a more sober-sided historical volume by Samuel Hopkins Adams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Judy Garland - Susan Bradley
John Hodiak - Ned Trent
Ray Bolger - Chris Maule
Angela Lansbury - Em
Preston S. Foster - Judge Sam Purvis
Marjorie Main - Sonora Cassidy

This Warner DVD release of The Harvey Girls is a great example of the classic MGM musical: great stars and contract players, lush color photography, and high production values are all put together with a silly, fun story that can be enjoyed along with exceptional musical numbers. Not only do you get the young and fresh-faced Judy Garland, the long-limbed legend Cyd Charisse, a surprisingly sexy Angela Lansbury, and a stellar supporting cast of comic giants, but the DVD extras are a real treat as well. The disc offers deleted musical numbers which stand up to anything in the finished film, a stereo mix of the movie's most famous musical number, various vocal takes of the Oscar-winning Johnny Mercer-Harry Warren score, and notes and insights into the scoring session itself. The movie was made a good ten years before the widescreen aspect ratio became the norm, so the beautifully restored full-screen transfer is as close to the original theatrical release as you can get. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono audio track isn't as clean as the image track, but while it reveals some crackle and age in the source recording, it won't hamper your enjoyment of the movie in any way. Obviously a labor of love, this budget-priced DVD will be appreciated by film scholars, and by fans of Hollywood's golden age. The fact that Warner Bros. owns and is releasing this MGM classic musical is in itself a sad commentary on the decline of a once great motion picture company. ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide