{"id":19879,"date":"2011-09-30T20:21:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T03:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=19879"},"modified":"2022-01-14T10:33:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T17:33:58","slug":"meet-me-in-st-louis-1944","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=19879","title":{"rendered":"Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to be just introduced to him. I want it to be something strange and romantic and something I&#8217;ll always remember!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Poster-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-19880\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Poster-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Poster.jpg 333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn turn-of-the-century St. Louis, a teenager (Judy Garland) in love with the boy next door (Tom Drake) is distraught when her father (Leon Ames) declares that she and her family &#8212; including her sisters (Lucille Bremer, Joan Carroll, and Margaret O&#8217;Brien), her brother (Henry H. Daniels, Jr.), her mother (Mary Astor), and their housekeeper (Marjorie Main) &#8212; will be moving to New York City.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Family Problems<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Hugh Marlowe Films<\/li>\n<li>Judy Garland Films<\/li>\n<li>Margaret O&#8217;Brien Films<\/li>\n<li>Mary Astor Films<\/li>\n<li>Musicals<\/li>\n<li>Vincente Minnelli Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary describes this &#8220;wonderful M-G-M musical&#8221; &#8212; which he argues is the best musical by director Vincente Minnelli, and the second-best for Garland (after <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3361\"><em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em><\/a>) &#8212; as &#8220;a warm, unsentimental&#8221; [really???] &#8220;tribute to family, home, and tree-lined America&#8221;. He doesn&#8217;t go into much detail in his analysis of the film, instead simply calling out certain notable aspects, such as the &#8220;magnificent $100,000 set designed by Lemuel Ayres and Cedric Gibbons&#8221;, the &#8220;striking color photography&#8221; by George Folsey (which &#8220;contributes to the picture&#8217;s early-century flavor&#8221;), and the performance given by &#8220;cute, feisty O&#8217;Brien, who won a Special Oscar&#8221; for her role here as the youngest child in Garland&#8217;s family, thanks in part to &#8220;two exceptional dramatic scenes&#8221;: &#8220;one set on a scary Halloween night and another in which she destroys her snowman because she&#8217;s so upset about the family&#8217;s moving&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Adapted from &#8220;Sally Benson&#8217;s short stories about her youth&#8221;, the narrative of <em>Meet Me in St. Louis<\/em> is similarly vignette-driven, divided into four seasons (introduced by old-fashioned title cards), and primarily concerned with showing a nostalgia-riddled vision of a bygone era (which, one should recall, was just 40 years earlier at the time the film was released). At this latter goal, it succeeds admirably: viewers would be hard-pressed to find anything at all unappealing about the lives lived by the Smith family, who are close-knit, wear gorgeous period clothing, live in a &#8220;large-but-cozy&#8221; house, and have a stern but kind housekeeper (Main) to watch over them. Their biggest concerns &#8212; other than the imminent move to NYC, of course &#8212; are whether a batch of ketchup stirred up by Astor is too sweet or too sharp; whether Bremer&#8217;s long-distance boyfriend will propose to her over the phone; whether the &#8220;boy next door&#8221; will finally realize Garland is alive; and whether young Tootie and Agnes (Carroll) will survive that year&#8217;s Halloween &#8220;festivities&#8221; (which provide us with a fascinating glimpse at what <em>used<\/em> to serve as entertainment for young kids on this ghoulish night; getting eggs thrown at your windows no longer seems quite so bad in comparison.) <\/p>\n<p>For a rare dissenting (or at least refreshingly critical) view of the film, be sure to check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1169meet.html\">DVD Savant&#8217;s review<\/a>. While he rates the film &#8220;Excellent&#8221; and acknowledges its many virtues, he points out that its primary function at the time was to serve as a subtle wartime reminder &#8220;that staying home and staying the same is a great ambition&#8221;, and that &#8220;Americans were supposed to be lovable small town hicks, the kind who would keep buying tickets to MGM movies indefinitely.&#8221;  He&#8217;s also not afraid to specifically call out some of the storyline&#8217;s more troublesome elements &#8212; such as during the climactic high school dance, when (as we watch Garland dancing with a series of &#8220;undesirable&#8221; boys she was originally planning to hoist onto her rival), &#8220;the movie&#8230; dooms a whole social underclass of boys &#8230; to &#8216;inhuman&#8217; status, in the kind of casual discrimination that the writers had no trouble milking for laughs.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>DVD Savant also admits, &#8220;When I first saw the film, I thought Margaret O&#8217;Brien was delightful, but her precocious morbidity no longer seems so funny.&#8221; Indeed, O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s iconic performance here continues to divide viewers into two distinct camps (as evidenced by a heated discussion on IMDb&#8217;s message board for the film): those who find her &#8220;annoying and disturbed&#8221;, and those who prefer to view her behavior more forgivingly, as simply a product of the film&#8217;s escapism and time period. I&#8217;ll admit to agreeing with Savant&#8217;s overall sentiment: while I thought she was the cutest thing ever when I first saw this film years ago, upon rewatching it recently I found her surprisingly irritating during certain early scenes. With that said, her heartfelt performance during the two dramatic scenes called out by Peary (particularly the latter one with the snowmen &#8212; a precursor to her teary presence while Garland sings the heart-rending &#8220;Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas&#8221;) do show clear evidence of her acting abilities, and I believe she deserved the honorary Oscar she was given. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Judy Garland as Esther<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Garland.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Garland.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19884\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Garland.png 528w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Garland-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Garland-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Margaret O&#8217;Brien as Tootie<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-OBrien.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-OBrien.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-OBrien.png 528w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-OBrien-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-OBrien-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Garland&#8217;s first meaningful interaction with Drake, as he helps her put out the lights in her home<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Lights.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Lights.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19902\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Lights.png 528w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Lights-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Lights-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fine sets and period detail<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Sets.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Sets.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19886\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Sets.png 528w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Sets-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Sets-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Garland singing &#8220;The Boy Next Door&#8221;, &#8220;The Trolley Song&#8221;, and &#8220;Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas&#8221; &#8212; three memorable classics<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Boy-Next-Door.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Boy-Next-Door.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19887\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Boy-Next-Door.png 528w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Boy-Next-Door-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Boy-Next-Door-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Trolley.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Trolley.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19888\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Trolley.png 528w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Trolley-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Trolley-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Have-Yourself.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Have-Yourself.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19889\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Have-Yourself.png 528w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Have-Yourself-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Have-Yourself-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>George Folsey&#8217;s rich Technicolor cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Technicolor.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Technicolor.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19890\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Technicolor.png 528w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Technicolor-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Meet-Me-in-St-Louis-Technicolor-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as an acknowledged American classic. Nominated as one of the Best Pictures of the Year in Peary&#8217;s Alternate Oscars. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Genuine Classic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0037059\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1944\/11\/29\/archives\/the-screen-meet-me-in-st-louis-a-period-film-that-has-charm-with.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitallyobsessed.com\/displaylegacy.php?ID=5860\">Digitally Obsessed Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=4566&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/movies.tvguide.com\/meet-me-in-st-louis\/review\/105912\">TV Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmsite.org\/meetm.html\">FilmSite Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/meetstlouis.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1169meet.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/310\/meet-me-in-st-louis#articles-reviews\">TCM Articles<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/b9W9XVzGSYw\">Tired Old Queen at the Movies Video Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to be just introduced to him. I want it to be something strange and romantic and something I&#8217;ll always remember!&#8221; Synopsis: In turn-of-the-century St. Louis, a teenager (Judy Garland) in love with the boy next door (Tom Drake) is distraught when her father (Leon Ames) declares that she and her family &#8212; including her sisters (Lucille Bremer, Joan Carroll, and Margaret O&#8217;Brien), her brother (Henry H. Daniels, Jr.), her mother (Mary Astor), and their housekeeper (Marjorie Main)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=19879\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19879"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26133,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19879\/revisions\/26133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}