Meet Me in St Louis
United States 1944, 113 mins
Director: Vincente Minelli
Starring: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor
Director: Vincente Minelli
Starring: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor
The plot hinges on the possibility that Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames), a banker and a father, might uproot his family to New York, scuttling his daughter Esther's (Judy Garland) romance with boy-next-door John Truett (Tom Drake) and causing similar emotional trauma for the rest of the household.
In a cast that includes Mary Astor as Alonzo' wife, Lucille Bremer as another daughter, and Marjorie Main as the housekeeper, the most fascinating character is played by six-year-old Margaret O'Brien.
As kid sister Tootie, O'Brien seems morbidly obsessed with death and murder, burying her dolls, "killing" a neighbor at Halloween (she throws flour in the flustered man's face on a dare), and maniacally bludgeoning her snowmen when Papa announces his plans to move to New York.
Margaret O'Brien won a special Oscar for her remarkable performance, prompting Lionel Barrymore to grumble: "Two hundred years ago, she would have been burned at the stake!" The songs are a heady combination of period tunes and newly minted numbers by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin, the best of which are The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
As a bonus, MEET ME IN ST LOUIS is lensed in rich Technicolor, shown to best advantage in the climactic scenes at the St.
Louis World's Fair of 1904.
