Meet Me in St. Louis
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Written by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoff from the book by Sally Benson
1944/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Warner Home Video Special Edition DVD
#177 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Through the years/ We all will be together,/ If the Fates allow/ Hang a shining star upon the highest bough./ And have yourself/ A merry little Christmas now. — “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, lyrics by Ralph Blane[/box]
A musical lover’s musical with the poignancy of a happy family in a simpler time.
The year is 1903 and the place is St. Louis, Missouri, where the Smith family is looking forward to the opening of the World’s Fair. They are relatively well-to-do. Father Lon (Leon Ames) is a lawyer and mother Anna (Mary Astor) stays home and makes ketchup with housekeeper Katie (Marjorie Main). There are three older children — young Lon, who is about to go off to Princeton, and daughters Rose (Lucille Bremer) and Esther (Judy Garland), whose lives revolve around boys. There is a longish gap before we get to 12-year-old Agnes and little 5-year-old Tootie, everybody’s baby and quite the scamp. Both of the little girls adore everything gruesome.
Rose is waiting for a marriage proposal from her beau and Esther has a crush on the boy next door, John Truett. Esther and John finally meet and gradually fall in love. The father announces he has received a promotion which means the family will have to move to New York. The girls are devastated that their own plans will be ruined and nobody looks forward to leaving the comfortable home they have made or to missing the World’s Fair they have waited for so long. That’s it, the whole story in a nutshell.
I have seen this movie more times than I want to count and I cry every time. Every single time. It always starts by “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas but I ususally mist up when Ames and Astor start singing “You and I” (that’s producer Arthur Freed dubbing Ames). I must identify with with the powerlessness of children in the face of decisions, even well-intentioned decisions, made for them by their parents. Sure the crises seem trivial but when we are young trivial things take on an immense importance. There is also a deep nostalgia or longing for the kind of idealized family life Minnelli captures so well here. This had to have had a powerful effect on folks at home during World War II when so many people were separated.
I haven’t gotten to the more obvious pleasures of this film, which are the fabulous color photography and lighting, the wonderful songs, and the phenomenon which is Margaret O’Brian’s Tootie. That Halloween profile in courage is among my favorite scenes ever. I don’t think Judy Garland ever looked more beautiful or sounded better. I will leave my mash note at that. Highly recommended.
Author Sally Benson was the original Agnes Smith and, yes, in real life the family eventually did move to New York.
Margaret O’Brien won a Special Academy Award for Best Child Actress of 1944. Meet Me in St. Louis was nominated in the categories of: Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Cinematography, Color (George J. Folsey); Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture; and Best Music, Original Song (“The Trolley Song”).
Re-release trailer
Yet another Hollywood classic that never grows old….
I think you liked it a lot more than I did.
Plusses:
Great songs, truly great and classic songs
Splendid cinematography, the colours spring out at you and are dazzling
Margaret O’Brien, the daughter I wish I had.
Minusses
Storyline
Message
Attitude
I was grinding my teeth through most of the movie, only to let up through the songs. Usually it is the other way around, but not here. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is my all time favorite Christmas song, I cannot help it, and the other songs are only short behind.
To be fair, I might like it more than most people! I just needed to explain why.
Good review for a wonderful movie. Just a minor typo to correct: in the third paragraph from the bottom, Margaret “O’Sullivan” should of course be “O’Brien”.
Oops! I guess I’ve seen one too many Tarzan movies! Thank you.
The songs were the best part of this film for me.
I’m afraid when the daughters threw fits that their father dwould are take a job that would allow him to support his large family and it would interfere with their crushes of the moment I lost sympathy for them. It hurt the film some in regards to my enjoyment.
I laughed at a number of the youngest daughter’s lines. She’s a little psychopath in training. “I have to go dig up my dolls from the yard.”
I can see how you would feel that way. The way I saw it was that nobody wanted to move, including the father really, but that they were trying to make the best of it by sticking together. I have given up expecting that anybody will like this as much as me!