figlet

I love watching "High Society" too. It always lifts my spirits. Since "Lili" is on at 3am, I'm setting my alarm now.

Like a majority of repliers, my first exposure was "The Wizard of Oz" because of the annual Easter airings on TV, and my mother's annual insistence that the two of us sit in front of our TV and watch the annual Easter airing. In truth, my mother and I would almost certainly continue this ritual if it were still only aired on Easter Sunday. I was struck by this statement by Dr. Ament, "Never satisfied to be just a pretty face with a magnificent voice, Garland demonstrates how she can be on stage with anyone and make it almost impossible to watch anyone else, even though she is generous with her co-stars.". All these years of Judy Garland film watching, and I never once considered her generosity yet it was there in every film and every dance and every duet. I don't think I'll ever view my favorite films again without watching for this graciousness. "The Harvey Girls" isn't one of her later later films, but it has been my favorite since circa 1984 when I was home sick from school and it aired on Channel 9 in LA (KHJ at the time, KCAL now). I rarely meet anyone who holds this film in as high esteem as I, but, I swear, what Judy Garland does with a pistol in a saloon to get her restaurant's protein back remains aspirational for me. I didn't really answer the singing/lyric question here, but I never turn down an opportunity to talk publicly about "The Harvey Girls".

I watched the film in its entirety (all 3 hours - ?) this morning so I agree with a few previous commenters that it's difficult (for me) to view the clip without adding that it was a biopic. That being admitted. It was a frothy, fun, extravagant, and overly long biopic that, I'm sure, delighted the Depression-era audience at the time. Those dance sequences were incredible especially the one with the dogs! I even looked at my bored dog sitting next to me and considered a few leg kicks just to liven up our Tuesday morning. I have a question though. I thought early-era musicals were normally shorter in duration. Was this an exception due to the recreation of the Ziegfeld Follies? I honestly had no idea it was 3 hour film until it got to be 10:30am, and it didn't seem to be rushing to a conclusion.