Apart from its big, Oscar-winning production number, 'On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe', "The Harvey Girls" isn't a particularly good musical but it's certainly a very likeable entertainment. Set in 'the wild, wild west', it has just enough 'action' to give it the feel of a proper Western, (it's got a good guy, John Hodiak, a moustache-twirling villain, Preston Foster, and even a bar-room brawl, though this one is between waitresses and dance-hall hostesses).
It's actually founded in fact. The Harvey Girls were real waitresses who operated in a series of restaurants throughtout America and the movie is dedicated to them. It's also got Judy Garland at her most spirited as well as the great Ray Bolger and, long before Broadway fame and Jessica Fletcher beckoned, Angela Lansbury as the 'bad' girl though the studio insisted on dubbing her songs. Indeed if the songs had been better this might have been a classic instead of just the very solid entertainment it is.
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