Meet Me in St Louis ***** (1944, Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Leon Ames, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Marjorie Main, Harry Davenport, June Lockhart, Joan Carroll, Hugh Marlowe) – Classic Movie Review 1,119

Thanks to a triumphant Judy Garland, the 1944 American Technicolor Christmas musical film Meet Me in St Louis was MGM’s most successful musical of the 1940s.

Director Vincente Minnelli’s nostalgic, warm-hearted, colourful classic 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St Louis is based on novelist Sally Benson’s 1942 family saga novel, which is set in St Louis in 1903 just before the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World’s Fair in 1904.

Judy Garland is on her best form both acting-wise and vocally as young Esther Smith, who’s in love with the boy next door John Truett, but alas he doesn’t even notice her. The small, soapy dramas of Esther’s comfortable middle-class family of four daughters and one son accumulate engrossingly until finally they come to a climax when Esther’s father Mr Smith announces to the family that he is to be sent to New York on business and eventually they will all move. The family is devastated at the news, especially Esther and her elder sister Rose, whose plans are all threatened – and they will miss the World’s Fair too!

Some of the songs in the film are from around the time of the St Louis Exposition and others were written specially for the movie. It’s hard not to thrill to Garland’s renditions of Hugh Martin-Ralph Blane new songs, now of course standards — ‘The Trolley Song’, ‘The Boy Next Door’, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ all of which became hits after the film was released — plus the 1904 title number (by Kerry Mills and Andrew B Sterling). Other old songs include Under the Bamboo Tree, Down at the Old Bull and Bush and Skip to My Lou to put us in the period mood.

Director Minnelli is totally in his element, lavishing tender loving care on the characters, turn-of-the-last-century period atmosphere, emotional heat and entertainment value. The tale is simple, sentimental, tearful and sad, then a joyful celebration, and it has an extraordinary way of grabbing all but the most hard-hearted by the throat.

That’s partly because there’s an adorable cast, performing adorably. Margaret O’Brien as Judy’s little sister Tootie, Lucille Bremer as her big sister Rose, Leon Ames and Mary Astor as her parents Alonzo and Anna Smith, Harry Davenport as grandfather, Tom Drake as the boy next door John Truett, and Marjorie Main as the family maid and cook all contribute to the film’s wonderful down-home, nostalgic aura. George J Folsey‘s Technicolor cinematography is the icing on the cake.

But finally Meet Me in St Louis is the 22-year-old Judy Garland’s triumph. She’s on stonking form, magnetically mesmerising in a heart-yearning, near heart-breaking performance. And the way she puts those songs across in incredible. However, she won no awards and it was little scene-stealer O’Brien who won an Oscar as the year’s outstanding child actress (a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944 for her role in Meet Me in St Louis).

Happily, in the late 2010s, O’Brien (born January 15 1937) was still working, playing Ms Stevenson in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (2017), Bridgette’s Grandmother in Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! (2017), and Amanda in Impact Event (2018).

The film was nominated for four Oscars for Best Colour Cinematography, Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, Best Original Song (Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin for The Trolley Song) and Best Screenplay, but alas there were no wins.

Over the years Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas has become a schmaltzy seasonal standard oozing goodwill, but in the film it’s bitter and ironic lament to the troubled family’s very unhappy holiday. Revisions were made to the lyrics later when Frank Sinatra objected to the song’s downbeat tone and this revised version is the one usually performed now. Lyricist Hugh Martin had already changed his lyrics that referred to the soldiers fighting during World War Two after Garland opined it was too mean for her to sing to O’Brien.

Also notable in the cast are June Lockhart as Lucille Ballard, Joan Carroll as Agnes Smith, Hugh Marlowe as Colonel Darly and Chill Wills as Mr Neely.

Henry H Daniels Jr, Robert Sully, Donald Curtis and Darryl Hickman are also in the darned fine cast.

Screenwriters Irving Brecher and Fred F Finklehoffe adapted Sally Benson’s series of short stories originally published in The New Yorker magazine as 5135 Kensington, and later in novel form as Meet Me in St Louis.

Minnelli met Garland on the set, and later married her in 1945 but divorced in 1951.

Taking a massive $5,016,000 in North America, it was the second-highest grossing picture of the year behind Going My Way. It also earned $1,550,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $2,359,000 for MGM. Re-releases raked in another $12.9 million.

The American Film Institute ranked the film tenth on its list of Greatest Movie Musicals.

A Broadway musical based on the film was produced in 1989, with additional songs.

The cast

The cast are Judy Garland as Esther Smith, Margaret O’Brien as Tootie Smith, Mary Astor as Mrs Anna Smith, Lucille Bremer as Rose Smith, Leon Ames as Mr Alonzo Smith, Tom Drake as John Truett, Marjorie Main as Katie the maid, Harry Davenport as Grandpa, June Lockhart as Lucille Ballard, Henry H Daniels Jr. as Lon Smith Jr, Joan Carroll as Agnes Smith, Hugh Marlowe as Colonel Darly, Robert Sully as Warren Sheffield, Chill Wills as Mr Neely, and Dorothy Tuttle as Girl on Trolley.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,119

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