I didn’t expect to like George Sidney’s The Harvey Girls half as much as I did – though I’m sure much of that has to do with Judy Garland’s luminous performance as a jilted mail-order bride who goes to work as a waitress in a frontier restaurant in direct competition with the local saloon. It’s all overly sanitized and the rivalry between the restaurant and saloon is mostly good natured – though it is an absolute delight to see Garland barge into the saloon with two six-shooters and demand that the local ruffians give her back steaks that had been pilfered to put the restaurant out of business. Much about the film is pretty pedestrian, but Garland has such brilliant comic timing and an easy rapport with all of her co-stars that she manages to elevate this otherwise middling effort.
