Margaret O'Brien
Mary Astor
Lucille Bremer
Leon Ames
Tom Drake
Marjorie Main
Harry Davenport
June Lockhart
Henry H. Daniels, Jr.
Joan Carroll
Photography:
Color
Cinematography:
George J. Folsey
Distributed By:
Loew's, Inc. MGM
Release Date:
November 22, 1944 (St. Louis) November 28, 1944 (New York City)
Runtime:
113 minutes
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Budget:
$1,885,000
Box Office:
$6,566,000 (original release) $12,800,000
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 American Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, it tells a story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (or the World's Fair) in spring 1904.
Why It Rocks
Arthur Freed played a large part in the distinctive MGM style of musical. In this film in particular, Blane and Martin provided a memorable score.
Andrew B. Sterling and Kerry Mills' "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" was used to celebrate the 1904 fair. It was also used to introduce the Smith family one-to-one as they sing bits of the lyrics.
Freed insisted that Blane and Martin had to write a song about a trolley. And despite having a troubled start, "The Trolley Song" became a pop hit and one of Garland's signature numbers.
Another song that became one of Garland's signatures is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", which is a bleak holiday tune that blended in with the wartime spirit. It's also the film's strongest emotional point, and a moment of despair which the film never quite recovers from.
The film's based on Sally Benson's autobiographical sketches about growing up in St. Louis, Missouri at the turn of the 20th century. When Benson's project about the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair was published in 1942, MGM executives were unconvinced that a film could be crafted from it, due to the fact that it wasn't comtemporary, a love story, or much of a story in general. Rather it was a series of 12 nostalgic recollections about a middle-class suburban family enjoying the World's Fair before preparing to move to New York. For the film adaptation, the producer fashioned a plot from the reminiscences. It primarily focuses on the Smith children's reluctance to be uprooted, and takes takes almost entirely at the Smith house. The prospect of losing friends, memories and a way of life was a relatable theme, especially during the period when America got involved in World War II.
Vincente Minnelli was one of the most visually extravagant directors on the lot, as he often used expressionistic flourishes, and could capture fragile emotions. The film's Halloween sequence gives Minnelli the most room to stretch out. The scene's composed almost completely of subjective shots, with Tootie becoming increasingly frightened walking down a dark street.
A major stand-out moment for O'Brien is her duet with Garland to "Under the Bamboo Tree", a popular hit in 1902. While the sequence would fit right in Andy Hardy film, there are darker emotions here overall that would disrupt the family. Plus the film doesn't solve these conflicts the way the book did, which can be seen as a masterstroke by Freed.
Esther Smith might just be Judy Garland's best post-Oz role due to the winning story surrounding her.
Margaret O'Brien provides a powerful and emotional performance as Tootie.
Lucille Bremer and Henry H. Daniels made their film debuts.
Women were the primary audience of the film, and it centers around six strong women (mother Anna Smith, maid Katie, daughters Rose, Esther, Agnes, and Tootie Smith); the male characters' absence mirroring life in 1944. Yet there's also the trope that men will return, and it's clear that female education is secondary to marriage, and a woman's place is to make the home comfortable.
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