The seductions of nestolgia are nothing new to Americans. While
today's nostalgia addicts look back to the '20's, '30's, and the 40's, nothing
compares the way we look at the turn of the century. Meet Me in St. Louis
is the picture of a year, 1903-1904, in the lives of the Smiths, a well-off,
home-oriented mid-west family enjoying day-to-day living during a time when
the days were somehow longer and sunnier, exquisite pleasure was to found
in evening sings around the piano, and the greatest excitement imaginable
was a visit to the St. Louis Exposition, right there in one's own home-town.
The four Smith sisters are the focal points of the picture: Rose (Bremer)
just wants to get married and have as good and happy life as her father
(Ames) and mother (Astor). Ester (Garland) has developed more than a crush
on the boy next door (Drake). "Tootie" (O'Brien) lives in the
fantasy world of childhood, and encourages her dolls to die so she can have
funerals in the backyard. Agnes (Carroll) is at the tomboy stage, and her
geatest interests lie in the quality of hunting knives and her swimming.
Watching over the family, privileged busybody and hardheaded advisor, is
Katie the maid (Main).
A bombshell is thrown into the Smith's idyllic life when Father Smith is
offered, and accepts, a promotion that means the family must move to cold
and foreign New York City. Drama and heartbreak come to the Smiths until
Father realizes that he doesn't want to move any more than his family does,
and he decides they will stay where true happiness is to be found.
Woven into this simple fabric are musical set-pieces that remain vividly
in the memory of everyone who sees Meet Me in St. Louis: Garland,
comforting "Tootie" with the classic "Have Yourself A Merry
Little Christmas" O'Brein's cakewalk
in ther nightgown at a grown-up evening party; Garland belting "The
Trolley Song" and caressing "The Boy Next Door"; Ameas and
Aster remembering a lifetime of love with "You And I"; and the
non-musical but hilarious (and frightening) Halloween trick-or-treat adventures
of the credulous "Tootie."
More than any musical before or sice, Meet Me in St. Louis touched
deep emothional welsprings in its audiences. It is a period, and a place,
and a way of living captured forever...and enduring and endearing American
classic.
Released November, 1944
Screen play by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe; based
on the New Yorker stories and the book by Sally Benson; Title song by Andrew
B. Sterling and Kerry Mills; new songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane; Music
adapted by Roger Edens; music director, Georgie Stoll; orchestrations by
Conrad Salinger; dances by Paul Jones; dance director, Charles Walters;
directed by Vincente Minnelli; produced by Arthur Freed.
Cast
Ester Smith.......Judy Garland
"Tootie" Smith.....Margaret O'Brien
Mrs. Anne Smith.....Mary Astor*
Rose Smith.....Lucille Bremer
Lucille Ballard.....June Lockhart
John Truett.....Tom Drake
Katie, the Maid.....Marjorie Main
Grandpa.....Harry Davenport
Mr. Alonzo Smith.....Leon Ames**
Lon Smith, Jr......Henry H. Daniels, Jr.
Agnes Smith.....Joan Carroll
Colonel Darby.....Hugh Marlowe
Warren Sheffield.....Robert Sully
Mr. Neely.....Chill Wills
Johnny Tevis.....Darryl Hickman
Baggage Man.....Victor Kilian
*Voice dubbed by D. Markas
**Voice dubbed by Arthur Freed
Songs
Meet Me In St. Louis
The Boy Next Door
The Trolley Song
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Skip To My Lou (traditional)
You And I (Nacio Herb Brown/Arthur Freed)
Under The Bamboo Tree (Bob Cole)
What the Critics Said
"The Smiths and their home, in Technicolor, are eyefuls
of scenic delight, and the bursting vitality of their living inspires you
like vitamin A...As comparable screen companion to Life With Father,
we would confidently predict that Meet Me in St. Louis has a future
that is equally bright."
--The New York Times
"...one of the year's prettiest pictures...the real love story is between
a happy family and a way of living..."
--Time Magazine
"Meet Me in St. Louis is the anwer to any exhibitor's prayers. Perhaps
accented in these days as ideal 'escapist' film faire, it would be surefire
in any period. It hold everyting for the film fan."
--Variety
The above information is from the book "The Golden Age of Movie
Musicals The MGM Years" by Lawrence B. Thomas ©1971 published
by Columbia House, New York, Distributed by Arlington House
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