Barnes & Noble

One of Hollywood's best movie musicals, the enchanting Vincente Minnelli hit Meet Me in St. Louis sits alongside The Wizard of Oz as one of the greatest Judy Garland films. Made and released in 1944, this tasty slice of Americana tells the story of a well-to-do midwestern family in 1903, secure and happy in their home yet unnerved by the prospect of imminent changes. Garland plays the oldest daughter of screen parents Mary Astor and Leon Ames, with Tom Drake supplying romantic interest and little Margaret O'Brien stealing scenes left and right as the precocious younger daughter. In the best tradition of Hollywood musicals, Minnelli eschews realism entirely; his St. Louis is an art director's dream, spotlessly clean and brightly colored. The same can be said for Garland's home and the costumes worn by her and her family. If early-20th-century American life was in the least bit inconvenient, you'd never know it from this film. But that hardly matters: Minnelli's St. Louis is a wonderful place to inhabit, if only for two hours. And those songs! Tunesmiths Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin wrote "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" for the movie, and the score also includes such standards as "The Boy Next Door" and "The Trolley Song." Finally, there's Garland herself: Radiant in Technicolor, young but already a seasoned pro, she is at her very best, long before illness and emotional disturbances sapped her vitality and diminished her beauty. Meet Me in St. Louis long ago took its rightful place among the pantheon of movie musicals, but its equally noteworthy for presenting a legendary star at the peak of her abilities. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Sally Benson's short stories about the turn-of-the-century Smith family of St. Louis were tackled by a battalion of MGM screenwriters, who hoped to find a throughline to connect the anecdotal tales. After several false starts (one of which proposed that the eldest Smith daughter be kidnapped and held for ransom), the result was the charming valentine-card musical Meet Me in St. Louis. The plot hinges on the possibility that Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames), the family's banker father, might uproot the Smiths to New York, scuttling his daughter Esther (Judy Garland)'s 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 Ames' wife, Lucille Bremer as another Ames daughter, and Marjorie Main as the housekeeper, the most fascinating character is played by 6-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. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 012569508927
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Sound: Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 1:53:00
• Sales Rank: 486

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• American Musicals - TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection

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