Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Director:

Vincente Minnelli

Writers:

Irving Brecher (screenplay) and
Fred F. Finklehoffe (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

January 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

A cast of favorites in the Charming . . . Romantic . . . Tuneful Love Story of the Early 1900s !

Plot:

In the year before the 1904 St Louis World's Fair, the four Smith daughters learn lessons of life and love, even as they prepare for a reluctant move to New York.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Spring | Flour | Teenager | Disappointment

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Judy Garland	...	Esther Smith
Margaret O'Brien	...	'Tootie' Smith
Mary Astor	...	Mrs. Anna Smith
Lucille Bremer	...	Rose Smith
Leon Ames	...	Mr. Alonzo Smith
Tom Drake	...	John Truett
Marjorie Main	...	Katie - Maid
Harry Davenport	...	Grandpa
June Lockhart	...	Lucille Ballard
Henry H. Daniels Jr.	...	Lon Smith Jr.
Joan Carroll	...	Agnes Smith
Hugh Marlowe	...	Colonel Darly
Robert Sully	...	Warren Sheffield
Chill Wills	...	Mr. Neely

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:G (Ontario) | UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #10050) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

In "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", Judy Garland refused to sing the grim original line, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last" to little Margaret O'Brien. The line was dropped from the final version of the song.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Esther and Tootie perform "Under the Bamboo Tree", Tootie's bedroom slippers are pink at the beginning of the number...but change to blue in the "cake walk" finale.

Quotes:

Katie the Maid: Would it start a minor revolution in this household if dinner was served an hour early today?
Mrs. Anna Smith: Mr. Smith hates to eat early on a hot day.
Katie the Maid: Eating early on a hot day gives you more time to digest your food before retiring. Besides, I'm due at my sister's at seven o'clock on a family matter.
Mrs. Anna Smith: Is there something wrong with your sister?
Katie the Maid: She's having trouble with her husband. Him bein' a man.
Mrs. Anna Smith: Well, eating early is all right with me, but you'll have to explain it to Mr. Smith.
Katie the Maid: Oh, he won't mind, seein' as how tonight's corn beef night.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Indestructible Man (#5.9)" (1992)

Soundtrack:

Under the Bamboo Tree

A wonderful Musical for the whole family!

I don't think that there's any doubt that this is one of the best Musicals ever made. It remains a real classic and doesn't feel dated.

On the surface the story seems trivial: We follow a family through 4 seasons, getting to know them very well, laughing with them and feeling for them. The only enemy, as producer Arthur Freed put it, is New York. The threat of moving away , to leave the places you love and care for. As it is in a world like today, where people constantly moving this picture represents some ideal place of continuity many people long for.

But of course underneath the surface there are some disturbing emotions. Little Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) displays some hysterical emotions, who probably show some signs, that Kansas after all is not a perfect place. Her doll has mortal diseases, in an absolute rage she destroys snow mans.

Next to Margaret O'Briens wonderful performance (for which she won a special juvenile Oscar) the film focus of course on Judy Garland as the men-crazy Esther, who is able for the first time to display some more mature and also mischievous emotions than in her previous parts, where she often enough was the ugly duckling. But here her beauty is finally seen and wonderful photographed.

The credit for this goes to director Vincente Minelli, whose camera flows through the scenes, picking up every detail.

The supporting cast is (as in most movies made under the old studio system) full of perfect character actors, Mary Astor, Marjorie Main, Harry Davenport and Lucille Bremer in her screen debut are just a few to mention.

This movie was one of the first to connect the story with the music numbers, so that they no longer appear as showstoppers, but as part of the story. Especially memorable are "Have yourself a merry little Christmas", which surely had in the wartime some special meaning for the soldiers and their relatives at home. And of course "The Trolley Song" which is with no doubt one of the best musical numbers ever filmed (and done in an amazing single take).