Film Review of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Classic Judy Garland Musical Still Delights on 65th Anniversary

Aug 17, 2009

The classic movie, Meet Me in St. Louis, is the perfect model of a wholesome MGM musical. A period film set in 1903 St. Louis, it stars Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien.

Described as a “warm and beguiling” show for “those who would savor their enjoyment of innocent family merriment” by Bosley Crowther (New York Times, 29 November 1944), Meet Me in St. Louis went on to be ranked by the Times as a top 10 movie for 1944. The film has remained a well-loved Hollywood musical and, in 2006, it was listed by the American Film Institute as #10 of the top 25 musicals.

The film focuses on the domestic joys and troubles of the Smith family, a family of seven, on the cusp of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. The only son, Lon (Henry H. Daniels, Jr.), is heading off to Princeton, leaving Mom (Mary Astor) and Dad (Leon Ames) with a houseful of four girls: Lucille (Rose Smith), Esther (Judy Garland), Agnes (Joan Carroll), and little Tootie (Margaret O’Brien),

Grandpa (Harry Davenport) and maid Katie (Marjorie Main) round out the household while John (Tom Drake) and Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully) provide the love interests for the two oldest daughters. Tensions increase when Mr. Smith is offered a promotion that would move the family to New York City, away from friends, the “boy next door,” and the upcoming World’s Fair.

The narrative is shaped in four “acts”: four seasons in a year in the life of the Smiths from summer 1903 to spring 1904. This "family album" concept comes from the 12 monthly short stories published in New Yorker magazine in 1941 and 1942 by Sally Benson as memoirs of her life in St. Louis. The songs of the musical are “carefully and naturally integrated into the story…and serve to advance the action and plot from one season to the next,” a point which Tim Dirks of Filmsite emphasizes in his review. This represented a change for the studios as, from the introduction of sound on, musicals had been mostly singing and dancing reviews with little plot.

Minnelli Joined Freed Unit at MGM, Created Magical Musicals

It was the Busby Berkeley style reviews that brought set and costume designer turned director Vincente Minnelli from Broadway to Hollywood and Arthur Freed who had the vision to bring Minnelli into his unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (better known as MGM). Minnelli and Freed continued to collaborate, creating a string of successful musicals including Ziegfeld Follies (1945), An American in Paris (1951), Brigadoon (1954) and Kismet (1955).

More importantly Meet Me in St. Louis is the movie that brought together for the first time the complete "Arthur Freed Unit" responsible for dozens of MGM musicals over the next fifteen years, including Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Freed’s unit was the most profitable of all the units at MGM throughout the ‘40s and ‘50s and Meet Me in St. Louis itself was the second most profitable film ever for MGM, right behind Gone with the Wind (1939).

Catchy Songs Become Music Standards

The talented but relatively unknown songwriting team of Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin were brought on board and produced what Variety called “socko musical highlights“ (1 Jan 1944). They added to the work of Mills and Sterling, who had already written the title song Meet Me St Louis. Blane and Martin’s songs include three Judy Garland classics: The Trolley Song, The Boy Next Door, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (for which, in 1989, Blane and Martin were honored with an ASCAP Film & TV Music Award recognizing songs from feature films that have become standards).

Casting the Smith Family – Garland, Astor, Ames, & O’Brien

Judy Garland was determined not to be cast in Meet Me in St. Louis, according to Scott Brogan of The Judy Room website. Then age 21, she had broken out of the mold as Andy Hardy’s girlfriend in For Me and My Gal (1942) with Gene Kelly and saw this as a step backward. It took Minnelli, Freed, and Louis B. Mayer (head of the studio) together to convince her and even then she wasn’t satisfied until she saw dailies from the shoot. Brogan notes that the introduction of Dottie Ponedel as Garland's makeup artist (a relationship that was to last throughout the rest of Garland’s film career) was another factor in swaying her; Ponedel altered Garland's make-up style to emphasis her natural beauty as a young woman. Meet Me in St. Louis was one of the Garland’s three career-best films, along with the Wizard of Oz (1939) and A Star is Born (1954). All three are in the American Film Institute's list of top 10 musicals.

Mary Astor and Leon Ames as Mr. and Mrs. Smith were wonderfully cast, so much so that they were paired up again as Marmee and Mr. March in the 1949 Little Women. The surprise success in casting for Meet Me in St. Louis was that of 7-year-old Margaret O’Brien as little sister Tootie. Described in the role as “thoroughly bewitching and fay” and a “wholly delightful imp of Satan” (Crowther), O’Brien was awarded a special Oscar (in miniature!) for the Outstanding Juvenile Performance of 1944.

Americana, the World Series, and Meet Me in St. Louis

Released during World War II, the movie provided the gentle escapism of “picture-postcard Americana and youthful romance” (Dirks, Filmsite). Variety called its “wholesome story….colorful both in background and its literal Technicolor, and as American as the World’s Series.” And, according to Scott Brogan, even Gene Kelly “would always call it ‘my favorite musical,’ “so it should be no surprise that Meet Me in St. Louis is one of the few films on the Rotten Tomatoes site achieving a 100% freshness rating. It is one of those rare movies that creates a feeling of warmth and innocence that draws us back again and again.

The copyright of the article Film Review of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) in Classic Film Musicals is owned by Susan Z. Swan. Permission to republish Film Review of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.