Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

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