Meet Me in St. Louis

Plot synopsis:
The backdrop for Meet Me in St. Louis is St. Louis, Missouri in the year leading up to the 1904 World's Fair.
It is summer 1903. The Smith family leads a comfortable upper-middle class life. Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames) and his wife Anna (Mary Astor) have four daughters: Rose (Lucille Bremer), Esther, Agnes, and Tootie; and a son, Lon Jr. (Henry H. Daniels, Jr.) Esther, the second eldest daughter (Judy Garland), is in love with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), although he does not notice her at first. Rose is expecting a phone call in which she hopes to be proposed to by Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully).
Esther finally gets to meet John properly when he is a guest at the Smiths' house party, although her chances of romancing him don't go to plan when, after all the guests are gone and he is helping her turn off the gas lamps throughout the house, he tells her she uses the same perfume as his grandmother and that she has "a mighty strong grip for a girl".
Esther hopes to meet John again the following Friday on a trolley ride from the city to the construction site of the World Fair. Esther is sad when the trolley sets off without any sign of him, but cheers up when she sees him running to catch the trolley mid journey.
On Halloween, Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) returns home injured, claiming that John Truett attacked her. Without bothering to investigate, Esther confronts John, physically attacking him and scolding him for being a "bully". When Esther returns home, Tootie confesses that what really happened was that John was trying to protect Tootie and Agnes (Joan Carroll) from the police after a dangerous prank they pulled went wrong. Upon learning the truth, Esther immediately dashes to John's house next door to apologize, and they share their first kiss.
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 and upset at the news of the move, especially Rose and Esther whose romances, friendships, and educational plans are threatened. Esther is also aghast because they will miss the World's Fair.
An elegant ball takes place on Christmas Eve. Esther is devastated when John cannot take her as his date, due to his leaving his tuxedo at the tailor's and being unable to get it back. But she is relieved when her grandfather (Harry Davenport) offers to take her instead. At the ball, Esther fills up a visiting girl's (Lucille Ballard, played by June Lockhart) dance card with losers because she thinks Lucille is a rival of Rose's. But when Lucille turns out to be interested in Lon, Esther switches her dance card with Lucille's and instead dances herself with the clumsy and awkward partners. After being rescued by Grandpa, she is overwhelmed when John unexpectedly turns up after somehow managing to obtain a tuxedo, and the pair dance together for the rest of the evening. Later on, John proposes to Esther and she accepts.
Esther returns home to an upset Tootie. She is soothed by the poignant "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Tootie, however, becomes more upset at the prospect of the family's move and runs downstairs, out into the cold to destroy the snowmen they have made. Mr. Smith sees his daughter's upsetting outburst from an upstairs window.
Mr. Smith later announces that the family will not leave St. Louis after all when he realizes how much the move will affect his family. Warren boldly declares his love for Rose, stating that they will marry at the first possible opportunity.
On or after April 30, 1904, the family take two horse drawn buggies to the World's Fair. The film ends that night with the entire family (including boyfriends-to-turn-into-presumed-husbands and Lon's new love interest) overlooking the Grand Lagoon at the center of the World's Fair just as thousands of lights illuminate the grand pavilions.

Tags: romantic, psychedelic, prank

Review:
Only the most jaded cynic imaginable could not be charmed by this film.The songs are perfect, the cinematography, the set direction, costumes, everything really - MGM movie magic at its best!
The storyline is not a love story between Esther (Garland) and "The Boy Next Door" (one of the three timeless classic songs found in this movie).
Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames) and his wife Anna (Mary Astor) have four daughters: Rose (Lucille Bremer), Esther (Judy Garland), Agnes (Joan Carroll), and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien); and a son, Lon Jr.
But, on Christmas Eve, they decide not to move after all, and become one of the first visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904.This movie is one of the greatest movie musicals of all time, and one of Judy Garland's BEST movies!
(She sings the legendary "The Trolley Song", the heartwarming "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", the lovely "The Boy Next Door", and the cute duet with Margaret O'Brien, "Under The Bamboo Tree")I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS WHOEVER  LIKES MUSICALS!
Among the elements which contribute to the project's success are the songs - and the film contains three classics: "The Trolley Song", "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and (of course) "Meet Me In St. Louis".Judy Garland was 22 years old when she made this film (though she easily passes for a 17-year-old) and it was this movie which cemented her relationship with Minnelli.
From the small family conflict over the quality of homemade ketchup that begins the movie, to the agony over moving at the end, the Smiths are a collection of distinctive, vibrant and at times almost incompatible characters bound together not only by love but by a contagious, and very particular, sense of fun.
Minelli's genius for musical numbers in interior spaces--most notably the great party in the Smith home near the beginning of the movie--is complemented here by two unforgettable outdoor sequences, Judy Garland's matchless "Trolley Song" and Tootie's Halloween adventure in the neighborhood, where she shows such vulnerability, such courage,and in the end such diabolical lack of conscience that no one can fail to love her.
These outdoor scenes protect "Meet in St. Louis" from the claustrophobia that so frequently limits the power of "family" dramas.Tootie, at five, is the youngest of the five Smith children, and as played by the great child actor Margaret O'Brien, she is also the center of most of the fun.
When the Father is requested to move to New York permanently with his job, the rest of the family are not that keen to leave their memories and their beloved home in St. Louis, and in to the mix is the varying degrees of blossoming love involving the elder daughters and their respective beaus.This film is just so gorgeous on many fronts, the colour beautifully realises the tremendous scope director Vincent Minnelli brings with his recreation of the era, the attention to detail is quality supreme.
The cast are across the board doing good work but it is of course Judy Garland who carries the movie firmly on her slender shoulders, and here she has never been prettier, and her voice is practically as good as it ever was in her career.A film for all the family to enjoy, a film that is from the top echelons of musicals, and a film that simply demands you relax and enjoy.
And to my knowledge no other World's Fair had as enduring a theme song as the one written for this fair, serving as the title song for the film.The Smith family consists of parents Leon Ames and Mary Astor and their five children, son Henry Daniels, Jr. and daughters in descending order, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland, Joan Carroll, and Margaret O'Brien.
Not to mention they don't want to miss the fair.Vincente Minnelli directed Meet Me In St. Louis and it was his first opportunity to work with Judy Garland whom he would marry after the film was finished.
The Boy Next Door, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, and The Trolley Song all come out of Meet Me In St. Louis and were staple items at Garland concerts for years.
The other nominations were for musical scoring, color cinematography, and screenplay.Margaret O'Brien did a remarkable job in this film, this was probably her best role while a child star at MGM.
Her number with Judy Garland, Under The Bamboo Tree is a gem.Meet Me In St. Louis was one of the earliest and best films coming out of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM.
In "The Wizard of Oz" Judy Garland's character, Dorothy, opines, "there's no place like home." In "Meet Me in St. Louis" we are treated to a depiction of exactly what an ideal home, a home to cherish and nostalgically remember, is.
The brilliantly talented Vincente Minneli has created in this film an irresistible homage to home and family circa 1903/04 with the added piece de resistance of Judy Garland singing some of her most well-known and beloved songs: "The Boy Next Door," "The Trolley Song," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Beautiful!Garland is the supreme entertainer of her generation and possibly for all time.
And while she has been known to wave her hands in the air during "The Man That Got Away" or "I Could Go On Singing," it's "The Trolley Song" from Meet Me in St. Louis that is her signature Judy Garland performance.
The film is chock-full of songs, with old-fashioned standards like the title song and "Under the Bamboo Tree," as well as new songs for the film, including "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." While the movie is upbeat and fun, it's also a little sad; Judy sings the Christmas song to a sobbing Margaret who has just destroyed her own snowman.
The cast in this movie are good, especially for Judy Garland; although I like her more when she was in "The Wizard of Oz." I do love the film's cinematography and its setting.
Told episodically, it focuses on a family's problems, which mainly involve daughters trying to get husbands and decisions on where to live.While silly, the movie has charm to spare, supplied mainly by the always riveting Judy Garland and by Margaret O'Brien, giving her best performance as an anti-Shirley Temple.O'Brien's performance is surprising.
It is far more real than the simpering children who inhabit most 40s films.While the story is slight, the movie gets buy on tremendous moments, all involving Garland and O'Brien, as when Garland's heartbreaking rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is followed by O'Brien's surprising reaction.While it's no more realistic than Sleeping Beauty (even though Republicans often act as though this white, patriarchal, upper middle- class world is a thing we could actually "return" to), it is utterly charming..
She just looked odd.Leon Ames, as head "Mr. Alonzo Smith," of the household, played the most likable character, followed by Harry Davenport as the grandpa.As for the music, "The Trolley Song" was my favorite although I admit I found myself humming the title tune for several days after watching this.
This was the third time I watched this particular movie and the reason I watched this just now was because it was Christmas and this film had the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" sung by Ms. Judy Garland to Margaret O'Brien.
Feeling good & no place like home come into play too.Vincent Minelli directs this Garland starring vehicle & then marries her after the film.
The supporting cast is strong from character actors Marjorie Main & Chill Wills, to Mary Astor & even a 19 year old June Lockhart.The story is basically about St. Louis & a family living there in 1903.
One great star isn't enough to make this movie really shine.The story follows the Smith family of St. Louis in the months leading up to that city's 1904 World's Fair.
Charming with old-time innocence, the film's musical scores are almost beyond comparison ("The Trolley Song," "Skip to My Lou," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," etc.).
His decision to move to New York to take advantage of a job offer thereby disrupting his family's picture-perfect life forms the core of the film, along with Esther's romance with the "boy next door."  In the end Rose and Esther get the boys they are each after, the father decides to stay in St. Louis, and the World's Fair comes to town, demonstrating that they don't have to go to a big city like New York to have enjoyable and accomplished lives.The movie was meant to be the ultimate escape, presenting an idealized, sentimentalized view of the American family during the hard times of World War II, a goal it accomplishes admirably well.
The musical numbers are static and uninteresting to watch and do not make the film any better, even though some of the songs are quite good.The only things that make this film watchable are Margaret O'Brien's as well as Judy Garland's performance and Vincente Minnelli's direction.
Judy Garland plays one of the daughters, and one of the most touching parts of this film is when she sings to her little sister Tootie 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' when the family are upset to learn that they may have to move from St. Louis to New York City.
There isn't a single bad performance amongst the supporting cast, although the most enjoyable to watch are Harry Davenport and Margaret O'Brien  probably the most talented child actress of her era.Meet Me in St Louis did very little that had not been done somewhere before, but nevertheless it is a landmark musical, but it helped establish the trend for all future screen musicals.
Starring the lovely, young Judy Garland as Esther Smith, the movie traces the story of the Smiths as the two girls of the family try to land marriageable prospects, even as their father's (Leon Ames) decision to move the family out of the picturesque St Louis to New York threatens to tear their dreams asunder.The movie isn't particularly demanding or especially thought-provoking.
There's little doubt that this movie was plotted around her talents; she is without a doubt the star, although little Margaret O'Brien puts in a valiant, adorable performance as her mischievous sister Tootie, and Mary Astor and Ames do a good job of depicting a relationship that's, in the end, still founded on love.
The first combination between star Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli is a success as they tell the simple, yet elegant story about a family living in St. Louis in the early part of the twentieth century.
It was pure magic and is probably Judy Garland's best adult performance--she is radiant and on the top of her game.I think another reason I love this movie so is that it is not just a bunch of songs thrown at the audience, but a very enjoyable slice of life film about a wonderful family filled with great characters.
This movie is in Color, and boy does he love to showcase a lot of color in this movie.SUMMARY Judy Garland never looked better in a movie, she is only 22 years old when she made this movie, and it really feels like she is having a lot of fun in this one.
Made with a genuine appreciation for hearth and home, the film ostensibly features Judy Garland; but Minnelli seamlessly incorporates her into his large cast, and also allows ample room for complex performances from the wonderful Leon Ames, Mary Astor and, in the pivotal role of the youngest daughter Tootie, the sublime Margaret O'Brien.
And what songs..."The Boy Next Door", "The Trolley Song", "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (lovely to hear this as the festive season beckons) and of course the title song itself.The story takes us through a year in the lives of the family and each quarter is cleverly kicked off with a picture-postcard still coming to life, effortlessly drawing the viewer into the fantasy.
It is far too saccharine and drags when the musical numbers have gone by (the songs are fine, The Trolley Song, The Boy Next Door, Have Yourself A Very Merry Christmas ...), and Margaret O'Brien, good though she was, is very irritating and I don't have much goodwill left for her by the end of the film!
Although Meet Me in St. Louis is one of the best remembered of the classic era of musicals, Minnelli made many better films.
One of the best and most beloved is director Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis.If you were making a musical in 1944, your dream cast would certainly include Judy Garland.
A delightful film about a year in the life of the Smith family leading to the 1904 World Fair in St. Louis.
Note also the film has a message curiously similar to "The Wizard of Oz".******** Meet Me in St. Louis (11/28/44) Vincente Minnelli ~ Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Tom Drake, Mary Astor.
Judy Garland has one of her best roles as Esther, second oldest of the Smith girls; her sisters are played by Lucille Bremer, Joan Carroll and overused Margaret O'Brien as the youngest, "Tootie".
The episodic structure, and the somewhat slack finish (which seems a little cheap, allowing us no more than a glimpse of the World's Fair the family's been eagerly anticipating), do not intrude on Judy Garland's starring performance, and her song numbers ("The Trolley Song", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "The Boy Next Door") are thrilling.
Hands over the ears and they start yelling 'CLANG CLANG CLANG WENT THE TROLLEY!'), or perhaps for 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,' perhaps for the very beautiful title song, or perhaps as the musical where Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli fell in love.
She was 21 and didn't want to play teenagers anymore but had also been advised by Joesph Mankiewicz that the best part in the film would belong to youngest sister 'Tootie.' Although MGM did ultimately convince Garland to be part of the film, Mankiewicz's prediction came true -- 'Meet Me in St. Louis' gave 7 year old Margaret O'Brien an honourary Academy Award in the Juvenille category and solidified her position as a major child star for the 1940's.Great songs, Judy Garland, strong performances, a sweet and charming story line; these things make 'Meet Me In St. Louis' well worth your time..
Judy Garland was at her career peak and never looked more beautiful on screen than here portraying the second eldest Smith daughter, Esther, trying to deal with the idea of moving from St. Louis just when she has found love with the boy next door (the forever bland Tom Drake).
A meticulously crafted film, with Judy offering three of her finest song performances with "The Trolley Song","The Boy Next Door" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Her duet with O'Brien, "Under the Bamboo Tree" is also a delight.
At least for those who enjoy classic cinema, "Meet Me In St. Louis" would be a very hard movie not to like.This is probably one of Judy Garland's best roles, and she gets a good variety of material to work with.
In the film Judy Garland starts to sing part of it with her sister on the piano, but the song is interrupted half way thru by their father's coming home !
The family has four daughters named Rose (Lucille Bremer), Esther (Judy Garland), Agnes (Joan Carroll), and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien).
Judy Garland gives another wonderfully fantastic performance in this film particuarly in the tender "Boy Next Door",the uplifting Trolley Song and the poignant "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" She looks amazing and so beautiful she puts Marilyn Monroe to shame.Margaret O Brien is also touching as little Tootie..
LOUIS is probably his most pleasant film to watch, probably because it mixes all the elements that would please parents and children of the '40s: vivid colors, friendly songs, a story that comes from the heart, a smart child and most of all Judy Garland.
LOUIS is a great musical, the perfect film to watch with your whole family.
I also liked how they showed how the seasons passed.The best part of the movie was probably "The Trolley Scene" or when the family had a party.Of course, this movie sure showcases Judy Garland and shows how much of a gem she is, but it also is wonderful for all the other actors, as they are just as great.Meet Me in St. Louis is a fun song and dance movie..
The "Trolley Song" is great, but Garland singing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" softly is the most tear-jerking sequence ever filmed--don't worry--everything ends happy.
There are a couple of touching moments in "Meet Me in St. Louis," most notably the scene where Judy Garland sings a little Margaret O'Brien "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to soothe the girl who's upset about having to leave the only home she's known to that point.
and the most beautiful movie of the classic cinema.The songs are marvelous, Judy are beautiful, Tom Drake are the perfect "boy next door", little Margaret o'Brien are the perfect little sister, The color are of another world."Meet me in st.
I loved the little look into that time period and how different it was for a middle class family at the turn of the century.Judy Garland looked her best and "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a classic.Meet me in St. Louis is a Christmas tradition in my household and I think it would be a great addidion to other people's traditions too..
This movie was made famous for many reasons, but one song stands out, Judy Garland's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas".
With gorgeous music (believe it or not but the song 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' first came from this song sung by Judy Garland) and a great plot line this movie could never be better.
Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien are amazing in this wonderful movie.