Review: Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Judy Garland was box office gold during the late 1930’s and 1940’s. She made many a musical for MGM during that period, including the film Garland's best known for, The Wizard of Oz (1939). Meet Me in St. Louis, another one of Garland's most famous films, was released five years after Oz. The film was a smash hit for MGM, more than doubling Oz's box office take, and grossing more money than almost any of the studios' other film releases over the previous 20 years, the only film having made more being 1939's Gone With The Wind (Which, adjusted for inflation, is still the highest grossing film of all time).

A family with four daughters finds out that they will be leaving their home in St. Louis for New York City just before their beloved city is set to hold the World's Fair in 1904. Issues on life and love ensue, with a few musical numbers to help them along the way.

"You've got a mighty strong grip for a boy."

Often billed as a Christmas movie, Meet Me in St. Louis has very little to do with Christmas. In fact, only a very small portion of the film is actually set at Christmastime, though I suppose it is probably the most important part of the film, as it’s when the climax occurs. It also happens to be the part of the film where we hear the famous song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", which was written specifically for the movie.

The songs in St. Louis are very catchy, with two of them proving particularly difficult to remove from one’s head; their names are "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Though "The Trolley Song" is generally considered the best known song from the film, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is the better known of the two in general. It's achieved world wide fame as a premiere Christmas tune, and has been covered by dozens of artists over the decades. The song also holds 76th spot on AFI's list of the 100 greatest songs from American cinema. "The Trolley Song" also landed a spot on the list at number 26.

You know, I've always wondered how it is that everybody in a musical knows all the words to the songs and all steps to the dances. It lacks realism, and I always notice it in musical numbers. But, I suppose films arn't really supposed to be realistic, are they? If they were, then they'd lose some of the magic that the best films manage to produce, and magic is an important ingredient to any film; not realism. Besides, it doesn't annoy me. No, I must admit, I do enjoy a big musical number. It's just something that I tend to notice...

And while I'm on the subject of things I noticed, I must say a word about the dresses in this film: They all look like they were made out of curtains. Now, this did annoy me (ever so slightly), until I watched the Making Of... featurette after the movie. Apparently, all of the costumes in Meet Me in St. Louis are historically accurate, which means that it's not the film's fault; it's the time period's. You know, I bet that people back then thought that those clothes were the cat's meow. That's funny to think about. 100 years from now, people will likely look at the types of things we wear and think, "What were they thinking?"

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light. Next year, all our troubles will be out of sight..."

John Truett. Ahh, now he is definition of the boy next door. He’s nice, handsome, charming; everything that a girl could want in a man. I always seem to fall for the leading men in these classic films. The leading men of today got nothing on them. John was, well, perfect. And his romance with Esther was terribly sweet. Tom Drake, who played Truett, gave a wonderful performance in the film

Judy Garland. What a legend. Her acting was so natural, and she had such a beautiful voice.  In St. Louis, Garland gives a wonderful performance as Esther, the girl in love with St. Louis. Directing Garland in the picture was her future husband, Liza's father Vincente Minnelli, whom she met on set. The two married not long after the completetion of the film, but would sadly part ways in 1951 after six years together. Judy had the great ability to inject cheer into the hearts of not only her characters, but the hearts of her audience as well. What happened to her was such a shame. Her death was a great loss to the entertainment world. Very few entertainers have ever been as talented as her.

One final preformance from the film that I must mention was the preformance given by then-seven year old Margaret O’Brien. She is absolutely adorable as little Tootie, the youngest of the girls in the film. O'Brien would go on to win a special juvenile Oscar for outstanding child actress of 1944 for her role as Tootie. Incidentially, Judy Garland had won this award in 1940 for her "outstanding performance as a screen juvenile" during the year of 1939.

Meet Me in St. Louis is delightful. And, despite it not strictly being a Christmas film, Christmas is certainly a good time to watch it. 8/10

Trivia: One of Meet Me in St. Louis's most famous songs, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", was drastically rewritten during filming when the film's star, Judy Garland, refused to sing the original, gloomy lyrics to seven year old Margaret O'Brien. The original lyrics read like this:

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last.

Next year, we may all be living in the past.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, pop that champagne cork,

Next year we will all be living in New York.

No good times like the olden days, happy golden days of yore,

Faithful friends who were dear to us, will be near to us no more.

But at least we all will be together, if the Fates allow,

From now on we'll have to muddle through somehow.

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now."

The song's writter, Hugh Martine, was initially against changing the lyrics, but eventually did so to make the song more upbeat and match the feel of the film. A later rewrite was also made by Martin in 1957, when Frank Sinatra asked him to lighten up the line "Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow". Martin changed the line to read "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough", hence introducing the most commonly used version of the song today.