But when I think of my favourite MGM musicals, George Sidney's under-appreciated 1946 film, The Harvey Girls, always stands near the top. The film is set in the old west, and stars Judy Garland as Susan Bradley, a waitress for the legendary Fred Harvey Company. Their restaurant is in competition with the local saloon, owned by Ned Trent (John Hodiak), and needless to say he and Susan wind up married by the end of the picture.
The Harvey Girls has everything you expect from an MGM musical: memorable song-and-dance numbers, gorgeous Technicolor cinematography, and a wonderful mix of humour, romance, and pathos. It's also a western, so cowboy costumes, fist-fights, and desert landscapes are part of the package. But there are really three main reasons that I love this movie so much. Three simple reasons:
1. The epic musical number "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe," which is one of my favourite songs from the MGM library.
2. More importantly, the scene where Susan learns that Ned's saloon has stolen all the Harvey House's meat, and decides to take it back at gunpoint! Particularly funny because, being a scene in an MGM musical comedy that just happens to involve Judy Garland committing armed robbery, it is treated like a scene in an MGM musical comedy that just happens to involve Judy Garland committing armed robbery.
3. Most importantly, Ray Bolger's comic dance number. He excels in that particular brand of apparent physical discoordination that, in fact, requires the control and finesse of a ballerina. Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" might be the average movie-lover's official selection in the "best comic dance ever caught on film" category, but for me, Ray Bolger has him beat here by about half a foot. (I also think that this number surpasses anything Bolger does in The Wizard of Oz.)
That's all I can say, really. Sometimes, it's the highs, and not the averages, that work a movie into your heart.
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