Spoiler Alert
If you were to ask what Debbie Reynolds best film was you might say Singing In The Rain, which IMO was the best movie she was involved with.
Others might say The Unsinkable Molly Brown was her best performance in a musical.
In my opinion Debbie's greatest performance came in the western How The West Was Won, because not only was she stretched as an actress, she had to play a music hall entertainer, who makes 3 trips out west.
Firstly as a young woman, who came out west with parents Karl Malden, Agnes Moorehead with Carrol Baker as her sister Eve. When her parents died when their raft fell over a rapid waterfall, Debbie's Lily Prescott headed back east, leaving her sister and brother, who along with James Stewart build a farm, not far from where her parents perished. (I never did find out what happened to the brother as the story went on. He was ill and could have died, but there was no headstone in the family grave to confirm it)
Lily made a living as music hall entertainer, singing her own songs, when she discovers she's inherited a goldmine out west. With difficulty she persuades Wagon-Master Robert Preston to let her travel on his train, partly because as he said 'Her sturdy body' and as a partner for older single woman Thelma Ritter. Lily also attracted the attention of Cleeve, a gambler, played by Gregory Peck, who saw a way of making a fast buck.
After fighting of an Indian attack Lily finds that her goldmine has gone bust and is abandend by Cleeve. So she resumes her career, singing her's and the films theme song Home In The Meadow, on a riverboat, when she meets up with Cleeve, who proposes marriage and expresses a desire to build a railroad, which he does.
Yrs later after Cleeve and Eve are dead, the once wealthy Lily, apart from a ranch, is broke. I'm not sure if she's in her 60s or 70s, but she decides to make a final and permanent trip out west to live on her ranch with her nephew Zeb, a retired sherif, played by George Peppard, and his family.
Debbie gives a great acting performance, sings her songs just as well and she has to age about 40-yrs or more over the course of the film
Was How The West Was Won Debbie's best all-round performance
I can't agree about HTWWW and Debbie's part in it. Granted, she was good, but she wasn't the main character, nor was she on screen very much, although I would have preferred it to be so. I do however, feel her Unsinkable Molly Brown is unmatched in energy and enthusiasm. The closest thing to it would be Betty Hutton in Annie Get Your Gun - It's a shame Debbie wasn't just a little bit older to have been considered for that part. Even though I like Betty in it, I think Debbie, in the same shape as she was for Molly Brown would have definitely been Oscar material.
Anne
Anne
Anne
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Anne
Though she wasn't the biggest star in HTWWW, I felt that she had along with George Peppard the two main parts, both appearing in three of the five segments. To be fair though I agree with you up to a point and respect your point of view. Debbie was only a supporting player in The Rivers to James Stewart and Carrol Baker and in The Railroad to George Peppard, but she was the star of The Plains segment of the movie
You mentioned you would have liked to have seen Debbie in Annie Get Your Gun. It got me thinking. Debbie in the 1970s went through a lean period movie wise, but how about her as realistic Calamity Jane. in her early 40s she she could have played both the teenage Martha Jane and the older CJ around the time of her death in her early 50s in 1903
Though she wasn't the biggest star in HTWWW, I felt that she had along with George Peppard the two main parts, both appearing in three of the five segments. To be fair though I agree with you up to a point and respect your point of view. Debbie was only a supporting player in The Rivers to James Stewart and Carrol Baker and in The Railroad to George Peppard, but she was the star of The Plains segment of the movie
You mentioned you would have liked to have seen Debbie in Annie Get Your Gun. It got me thinking. Debbie in the 1970s went through a lean period movie wise, but how about her as realistic Calamity Jane. in her early 40s she she could have played both the teenage Martha Jane and the older CJ around the time of her death in her early 50s in 1903
As often as I've seen the movie, I never realized the segments had names. I wasn't really discounting the size of her part, just the limited amount of singing and dancing she did. Don't get me wrong about Debbie, I think she is one of the better things about the movie, I just don't think of her part as a musical role because it is so limited.
As for Calamity Jane - if they were going to do a serious life story of Jane, I think another actress would have been better than Debbie, she's too pretty, dainty and delicate. I know make up has a lot to do with it, but she just doesn't strike me as gun toting, foul mouthed western female as Jane really was. I was thinking more as the Doris Day type musical which was very similar to Molly Brown in going from tomboy to lady. Molly was an amusing role, and Debbie put her all into it, that's what made me think of her.
Anne
As for Calamity Jane - if they were going to do a serious life story of Jane, I think another actress would have been better than Debbie, she's too pretty, dainty and delicate. I know make up has a lot to do with it, but she just doesn't strike me as gun toting, foul mouthed western female as Jane really was. I was thinking more as the Doris Day type musical which was very similar to Molly Brown in going from tomboy to lady. Molly was an amusing role, and Debbie put her all into it, that's what made me think of her.
Anne
Anne
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Re: Was How The West Was Won Debbie's best all-round performance
To my mind Maureen, Susan Hayward, or Barbara Stanwyck would have been much better in the lead female role for How The West Was Won. 
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Re: Was How The West Was Won Debbie's best all-round performance
Stuart I agree with you about Debbie Reynolds in HTWWW. I have this film on DVD (the 2008 release) and have seen it many times, primarily because of the actress who plays Rebecca Prescott 
but I love the whole film. Although I have not seen a great many of Debbie's films, I have seen a few others including Singing in the Rain and Molly Brown and I think she is at her best here, and is a wonderful Lily Prescott -- I couldn't imagine a better one. He does show real range here, aging from late teens to probably seventies, covering drama, comedy, and song-and-dance. I do think it's her best work on film that I've seen, and it is a sizable part for this epic motion picture.
The only thing I disagree with is that, as far as I can tell Lily never went back east. It's true that early in the picture she says that what she wants in back east, not in the west, but after the death of her parents we pick up with her again in St. Louis; from there she heads out to California, where she eventually settles in San Francisco (having met up with Cleve again while entertaining on a river boat), and at the end it appears that she's going to be living out her final years on her ranch in Arizona, joined by her nephew and his family. So, in spite of what she says early on, I believe Lily becomes and remains a true westerner.
but I love the whole film. Although I have not seen a great many of Debbie's films, I have seen a few others including Singing in the Rain and Molly Brown and I think she is at her best here, and is a wonderful Lily Prescott -- I couldn't imagine a better one. He does show real range here, aging from late teens to probably seventies, covering drama, comedy, and song-and-dance. I do think it's her best work on film that I've seen, and it is a sizable part for this epic motion picture.The only thing I disagree with is that, as far as I can tell Lily never went back east. It's true that early in the picture she says that what she wants in back east, not in the west, but after the death of her parents we pick up with her again in St. Louis; from there she heads out to California, where she eventually settles in San Francisco (having met up with Cleve again while entertaining on a river boat), and at the end it appears that she's going to be living out her final years on her ranch in Arizona, joined by her nephew and his family. So, in spite of what she says early on, I believe Lily becomes and remains a true westerner.