The Harvey Girls (1946)
Music, Western, Romance, Comedy • 1h 44m
Director: George Sidney
Cast: Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger, Angela Lansbury, Preston Foster, Virginia O'Brien, Marjorie Main, Chill Wills, Selena Royle, Cyd Charisse, Mary Moder, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Eve Whitney, Thelma Joel, Ruth Brady, Jack Lambert, Edward Earle, Morris Ankrum, William Phillips, Ben Carter, Norman Leavitt, Stephen McNally, Dorothy Tuttle, Marcia Van Dyke, Stuart Hall, Melba Snowden, Jane Allen, Arnet Amos, Jean Ashton, Frank Austin, John Barton, Eleanor Bayley, Phil Bloom, Chet Brandenburg, Hazel Brooks, Rand Brooks, Ewing Miles Brown, Joan Carey, Lucille Casey, Jack Rube Clifford, Tex Cooper, Victor Cox, Georgia Davis, Virginia Davis, Dona Dax, Vernon Dent, Gwen Donovan, Vivian Edwards, Mary Jo Ellis, Virginia Engels, Kay English, Bess Flowers, Mary Jane French, Sam Garrett, Vincent Graeff, Virginia Gumm, Beatrice Hagen, Jane Hale, William Hall, Gloria Hope, George Huggins, Virginia Hunter, Joe Karnes, Jack Kenny, Al Kunde, Janet Lavis, Vera Lee, Maxine Leslie, Mitchell Lewis, Johnny Luther, Peggy Maley, Matt Mattox, Catherine McLeod, John Merton, Daphne Moore, Edith Motridge, Paul Newlan, Loulie Jean Norman, Shirley Patterson, Jack Perry, Lee Phelps, Tom Quinn, Dorothy Raye, Charles Regan, Al Rhein, Kenneth Rundquist, Erin Selwyn, Harry Semels, Ray Teal, Al Thompson, Joan Thorsen, Jim Toney, Elinor Troy, Tyra Vaughn, Bunny Waters, Jacqueline White, Herberta Williams, Katherine Yorke
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 11 months ago
Overview
On a train trip out west to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley meets a cheery crew of young women traveling out to open a "Harvey House" restaurant at a remote whistle-stop.
Director: George Sidney
While no comparison available, Twilight Time Blu-ray is OOP and reviewers say the transfer is likely the same
Director: George Sidney
2D version: Warner Archive Blu-ray
3D version: Warner Archive 3D Blu-ray
Directors: Vincente Minnelli & Lemuel Ayers & Roy Del Ruth & George Sidney & Robert Lewis
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
Warner Archive Blu-ray in October
More Music on Blu-ray
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Shout Factory Blu-ray
Shout's BD has both cuts of the film in addition to the 3.0 stereo and 2.0 mono mixes making it the first time the full theatrical cut is available with the 3.0 mix. The new commentary is good. The 3.0 stereo sounds wonderful and the mono sounds solid.
That's where the positives end. This is the same terrible Universal DVD master slapped on a Blu-ray disc with a terrible encode making both versions share the disc separately taking up more space. This master was already poor for DVD and is nearly unwatchable here on the Shout disc. It looks virtually identical to the upscaled DVD most of the time with only a bit less noise due to it being 1080p. This is one of the most appalling cases of "DVD master slapped on a Blu-ray disc" you can possibly find. Absolutely shameful video presentation. This should have never been released this way. Sadly it's still ever so slightly better than the DVD and the only way you get the proper theatrical cut with lossless 3.0 stereo. This is still the best source we have for the film.
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has excellent master in SDR and a good encode. BD caps here.
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor audio: The 2.0 is fine but unremarkable, the 5.1 is presumably an upmix with a botched, strongly raised LFE channel which makes the entire track unlistenable on well-tuned equipment. Audio graphs here.
Director: Sian Heder
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Apple TV 4K Blu-ray with Atmos
(Eagle Pictures is 5.1)
Director: Miloš Forman
Theatrical: WB 4K Blu-ray
Extended: Warner Bros Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray: Huge improvement in colors and detail. The restoration was done by the Academy instead of WB MPI which explains that there’s no grain management or issues with colors. They also accessed the original credit optical and scanned that one instead of recreating them digitally
Theatrical: WB 4K Blu-ray, according to Saentz, the 5.0 is a recreation of the original and subsequently 70mm mix from original elements.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray replacement disc for fixed audio (there were some dialogues missing)
While the video on the replacement disc is exactly the same as the original release, the Atmos with missing lines has been corrected as it was also corrected on the Criterion commentary. Criterion also included the 6-track which is almost identical to the PAL track; It’s 4.0 in a 5.1 container. This 6-track is slightly better than the PAL DVD track as the PAL has some flutter on some parts that Criterion doesn’t have.
The Atmos on the replacement is identical to the Imprint AUS Blu-ray track which also has all the lines. The compatibility track is also the same,
It is worth mentioning the Imprint only has the Atmos and no 6-track. The 5.1 surround is with LFE and split surrounds and it’s just a downmix of the Atmos. Ditto for the LPCM 2.0 on said Blu-ray.
Edit history
Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.