Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) [Blu-ray]

I love this movie and Margaret O'Brien, Judy Garland and what a cast. Grew up on this sort of movie.

Meet Me In St. Louis is warm, engaging, fun and a classic in every way. MGM was determined to make one of their best films ever in 1944 and assigned all of their top talent to it. A musical, it was given to Arthur Freed's unit which specialized in musicals. Freed gave it to Vicente Minnelli who he had recently hired in 1940. He had made only four films so far but he had had a great career on Broadway before this. The music was overseen by Roger Edens who adapted much of the period music used in the film. He also became a friend of Garland's and wrote special material for her like Dear Mr. Gable and Born In a Trunk. New songs were written by experienced team Hugh Martin and Hal Blane. Because of the wealth of period music, including the title song, only four new songs made it into the movie, two of them becoming classics (at first The trolley Song was the big hit but the perennial nature of Christmas music has now made Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas the most well-known song). A fifth song, by Rodgers and Hammerstein had to be cut.No expense was spared in the settings which are lush and detailed and filmed in a warm and vibrant Technicolor. The studio went to great extremes to be accurate in every way. The screenplay was adapted from a series of New Yorker stories later put out in book form based on author Sally Benson's memories of growing up (her real nickname had been "Tootie"). Benson gave Minnelli many details about just how her family home had been decorated. Many of the costumes were made from illustrations that appeared in the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs of the day. What you see is as accurate a material representation of the period as they could create and not just some production department's fantasies or generic period props.Then there is the cast. The cast is mostly filled with MGM's experienced character actors, plus, being centered on family life, some newcomers. Of course it's Garland's picture but everyone else gets lots of time and it isn't a star vehicle. Leon Ames and Mary Astor are Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Mary Astor in a rare nice mother role; though she had also been Judy Garland's mother in Listen Darling). Old Harry Davenport, 78 when the film was made, is an ideal Grandpa and Marjorie Main is her usual comic, down to earth self as the family's housekeeper and cook, Katie. Among the younger players Tom Drake is as fresh-faced and amiable a boy-next-door as one could wish for, and Lucille Bremer is good as big sister Rose. But the two outstanding performers are Judy Garland who is relaxed and natural as Esther Smith and seven-year-old Margaret O'Brien who is amazing in the complex role of youngest child Tootie.Admittedly this is a sentimental, idealized portrait of turn-of-the-century life. After the war (in fact after two World Wars and a Depression) Hollywood became very nostalgic about that era putting out films like Life With Father, In the Good Old Summertime, I Remember Mama and others. The public was in the same mood because all of these films were hits. So the Smith's are a very well to do upper middle class family (Mr. Smith is with a prestigious law firm) and live in an enormous Victorian house in a lovely neighborhood. The neighboring sons all attend or plan to attend noted Eastern Universities. Everyone here is good-natured and healthy, well dressed and fairly happy. At first the big issues are Whether Rose's boyfriend Warren is going to propose to her soon and whether Esther will be noticed by John Truitt, the neighbor boy she's got a crush on. The big issue of the film comes when Father announces he's being promoted to head the firm's New Your office and the whole family will be moving next year. Other than that it's all house parties, Christmas Eve Balls and the coming Fair.It would be easy for something like this too get too idealized and saccharine but the film avoids this, mostly in the character of Tootie, who is anything but the idealized Victorian child. The Halloween sequence is positively scary in the context of this film, especially when Tootie must set out alone to do what no other child will dare do: go to the Braukoff house and throw flour in Mr. Braukoff's face. Her scene just after Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is positively traumatic. Tootie brings a less than perfectly sweet presence into the film that balances it. Of course I know it's really a Valentine to an era that seemed so innocent from the viewpoint of 1945, but I fall for it every time. It's a beautiful film, well done.MGM exceeded their goals with this film. Not only was it popular but it was their biggest grossing film after Gone With the Wind. It was nominated for four Oscars. It placed in the Top 10 of the AFI's movie musicals, gets a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Don't miss it!

I can watch the movie any time I would like. I love it.

I seem to end up watching "Meet Me In St Louis" about once a year or so, and each time I do I am happily surprised to find it to be as good as it is, and better than I'd remembered. One of its selling points to a modern audience is it's sparkling use of Technicolor, and the print restored for streaming, here, is so gorgeously done that all of the color and clarity comes across on the flat screen. Of course it is also a musical---and not all of those aged very well; some Busby Berkeley numbers (in other films), as zippy as they are to listen to often cause people in theaters today to start laughing; some songs don't age well either, or the early film sound quality reduces the appeal of both the music and the singers. Here, most of the songs (all of which are eminently singable) have entered the Great American Songbook and have become standards, sung and resung in countless versions, one is even a holiday standard; and in fact, the movie itself is often seen as a Christmas movie.It certainly doesn't hurt that almost all of the singing is left to one of the greatest voices ever to loft from our American shores: Judy Garland.The story is dominated by women, with men playing secondary roles. It's worth noting then that none of the women use that burbling tone and rapid-fire delivery that had been so popular in the '30s, and which made the otherwise hilarious "The Women" so irritating to listen to. Judy Garland and Lucille Bremer play sisters, with Garland the youngest, just finishing highschool. Rose (Bremer) is in love with a local boy gone off to Yale (but does he still love her?) and Esther (Garland) has fallen in love with the Boy Next Door, literally---John Truett (Tom Drake) has only been there for three weeks. All we ever find out about him is that he plays basketball---we never see his family or whomever he lives with in the big family house next door. Mother (Mary Astor) remains an emphathetic background figure, and Father (Leon Ames) only shows up occasionally, to huff and puff and exclaim his loving frustration. That leaves whatever part of the story that is not dominated by Garland and Bremer to be picked up by Marjory Main playing her usual blustery self, this time as a cook who is as much a part of the family as Grandfather, the Great Explorer, Retired, played by Harry Davenport, both of whom are usually revolving around the youngest sisters, most famously led by a very little Margaret O'Brien, who is a darkly imaginative and macabre child who buries her dolls and never presumes anything but the worst conclusion to any question. Today she'd be banned from most schools, condemned to perpetual counseling, and forced to take regular doses of Ritalin, as she's CLEARLY got something wrong with her---or is it our out of whack modern sensibility? It's seems that the Halloween scene rattles some modern, overly fearful, helicopter parents as judged by some of the citizen reviews. Certainly, the children did with a lot less supervision in those days... And boy what they get up to!!! Woo Hoo!Told over four seasons, beginning with Summer 1903, and closing with Spring 1904 and the opening of the World's Fair---the Louisiana Purchase Exposition---the story is told almost entirely from the Smith family home in the St. Louis suburbs; a quaint backlot victorian that will cause a lot of viewers to think of Main Street Disneyland. Father is a successful attorney, and just as his older daughters are either finishing school and or starting to fall in love, he announces that the family will be moving to New York, where the firm is promoting him to run their office---and with the World's Fair about to open! This practically sends the family into a funk, but there's no question as to how the movie will end. For a film of its period, and a musical, "Meet Me In St Louis" remains fresh, even today, even with its hyper-idealized 1904 America. The story doesn't drag; when romance isn't pulling it forward, the antics of Tootie and her older sister are. And every now and then a song comes along to carry a moment, recognizable classics with melodies that make at least some of us want to sing along (and some of us should not). And, it's cheerfulness isn't tempered by the other bugaboo of the time---preachy moralizing. "Meet Me In St Louis" is simply an enjoyable and breezy 113 minutes of vintage film worth watching, again and again.

This movie is so good. I know all the songs cause I’ve seen it so many time lol

Collection of movies would not be complete without this one.

retro in an almost cloying way but a period piece. Shades of Little Women. We wanted to see Judy Garland sing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, which, like many of the songs in this musical are kind of plopped into the plot. But, as pure Americana this is worth watching. Our 14 yo son who seems to fancy himself a bro enjoyed it.

classic films from a classic era so very different from the pathetic worthless sewage spewing out of hollyqueerhole today. judy garland had more talent in her shoe than the bigots of hollyqueerhole has in their entire business today. keep it up hollyqueerhole lets keep praying for your demise.

I LOVE classic musicals. I have always wanted to buy this movie and I was not disappointed. Great packaging and came fast.

Aún no la he visto ya que la adquirí para un regalo,

This is an excellent quality DVD. Good sound, and it has subtitles too. However, the cost was rather high - worth it for something so hard to get..

Es una película musical y para todos los públicos. Una de las mejores películas de Vincente Minnelli, en color. Aconsejable para todo el mundo.Verla mejor en su idioma original. Una joya.

It is a good movie with good music