Instead of Meet Me in St. Louis’s 1903 Midwest, The Harvey Girls occupies a late nineteenth-century Southwest. This is a western musical, based on the real-life Fred Harvey restaurants that helped tame the territory, and the impact of the recent Broadway sensation Oklahoma! (1943) is evident. You can’t quite describe The Harvey Girls as a full-fledged, Oklahoma!-style integrated musical—one in which the songs advance the plot—yet it still makes some small strides in the genre’s progress, notably in its memorable “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” production number.
excerpted from John DiLeo’s
Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery
© 2008 Hansen Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Carole Panuccio // Aug 16, 2008 at 9:57 am
I sooo remember this movie, and I think I remember eating in a Harvey House restaurant.
Do you remember the movie, April Fools (60′s)
Jack Lemon, I loved the song!
2 John DiLeo // Aug 16, 2008 at 10:43 am
Hi Carole,
I never ate in a Harvey House but I remember my cross-country train stopping at a station that had once been a Harvey House. But nobody was singing!
I don’ t think I’ve ever seen THE APRIL FOOLS. It’s one of so many movies that doesn’t seem to be shown anywhere. Keep a lookout for it, and so will I!
3 Mark // Dec 16, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Hi John:
Enjoyed your analysis of this film in SCREEN SAVERS, though personally I preferred the lovely “Just You Wait and See” to “The Valley Where the Evening Sun Goes Down.”
Although Judy is beautifully photographed in this number and basically looks lovely in it, she also (to me) looks rather wan and frail: too thin and somewhat pale despite the expert MGM makeup.
I also think the song lies somewhat awkwardly for her voice. She delivers the opening lines a hushed whisper, which, though appropriate for a solitary character expressing her innermost thoughts, also seems to lie a little too low for her, and it’s followed shortly after with a leap into head voice. As Judy did not have a wide vocal range, this is one of her few numbers where I sense some onscreen discomfort from her in her delivery.
“Wait and See, “on the other hand, I think is a lovely song, well (and comfortably) sung by Kenny Baker, that even allows movie newcomer Cyd Charisse to strut her tersichorean stuff in a brief lilting dance.
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