Week Twenty-Nine: Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Producers: Arthur Freed
Writers: Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe
Cinematography: George Folsey
Studio: MGM
Starring: Judy Garland (Esther Smith), Margaret O’Brien (Tootie Smith), Mary Astor (Mrs. Anna Smith), Leon Ames (Mr. Alonzo Smith), Lucille Bremer (Rose Smith), Tom Drake (John Truett), Joan Carroll (Agnes Smith)Marjorie Main (Katie), Harry Davenport (Grandpa), Henry H. Daniels Jr. (Lon Smith Jr.), June Lockhart (Lucille Ballard), Robert Sully (Warren Sheffield)
As we saw when discussing 42nd Street, Top Hat, and Stormy Weather the standard for movie musical storytelling in the thirties and early forties was quite low. This is partially because even the musicals on Broadway, the cutting edge of the development of the genre, were still just a few years into the new style of musical theater, in which story, music, and songs all worked together to tell a cohesive story. From the late 19th century into the late twenties, musicals on Broadway were dominated by “revue” style shows that lacked any sort of story and were made up of unrelated musical numbers, skits, and comedy routines strung together. Famous examples of these include the various Ziegfeld Follies or George White Scandels. Slowly but surely, musicals with a connected plot started to be made, though the quality of the story was often poor, ending up as just a more structured version of a revue. In 1927 Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Show Boat revolutionized Broadway with its serious, grounded story and number of hit songs. Again progress was slow, but this type of musical eventually replaced the revue almost entirely. In Hollywood, The Jazz Singer kicked off both talkies and musicals with an attempt at a legitimate story but after that, the movie musical also got bogged down in the tired revue formula. The Warner Bros. and RKO musicals did away with the revue aspect but the Hollywood musical was still lacking for films with great musical numbers and legitimate story. In the forties, MGM began moving in the direction with films like For Me and My Gal that combined a serious melodramatic story about vaudeville and World War I with popular music taken from the setting. The film was a success but the story, which was heavy-handed and maudlin, wasn’t quite all the way there. Two years later, MGM got all the way there and then some with Meet Me in St. Louis, a movie with a story good enough to stand up on its own, without any music at all.
By this point, MGM’s musical department was a well-oiled machine. Under producer Arthur Freed’s unit (a veteran of Tin Pan Alley), MGM collected the most talented writers, composers, choreographers, artists, designers, and directors to pair with their legendary stable of stars. Freed had the knack for producing hit musicals and making the right choices with talent and material, his name is attached to the majority of MGM’s most celebrated musical films.
Helming Meet Me in St. Louis was Vincente Minnelli, who like Busby Berkeley before him was a star director on Broadway before making the move to Hollywood. Minnelli was the premier director of the visual aesthetic in Hollywood, he was formally a makeup artist, set and costume designer as well as a perfectionist that carefully crafted the production values of his film. No director was able to produce better-looking sets, costumes, and makeup in Technicolor than Minnelli.
Coming from Broadway, Minnelli was often put in charge of musicals, therefore his ability as a serious artistic director is often ignored (as if musicals weren’t serious art!), however one need only watch the surreal and sublime Halloween sequence in Meet Me in St. Louis to know that Minnelli is a top-notch director.
Judy Garland was Minnelli’s star in Meet Me in St. Louis (and soon to be his wife), and though she was troubled off-screen, Garland was MGM’s biggest musical star and box office draw due to her natural youthful appeal and show-stopping singing voice. The Wizard of Oz may be the film Garland is best known for, but Meet Me in St. Louis is the film that establishes her as one of the great performers because it represents a growth point in her ability as an actor to go with her already tremendous musical ability.
The same can be said for the Technicolor cinematography by George Folsey. With a nostalgic atmosphere, vibrant period clothing, and most of all the luscious red hair of Judy Garland and Lucille Bremer Meet Me in St. Louis was made for Technicolor.
After You Watch the Movie (Spoilers Below)
On the surface, there is nothing groundbreaking about the story of Meet Me in St. Louis: it tracks a year in the life of the Smith family, the triumphs and tragedies of each member of the family. However, it is this simple concept that makes the film so universally relatable. This is a movie about growing up, change, and family, and who among us can’t relate to one or all of those things? The Smith’s aren’t rich, nor are they poor, they are Middle America and they experience the same highs and lows that the average American family does, whether it be in 1903, 1944, or 2019. It is a movie that will never seem dated because the setting, though esthetically wonderful, doesn’t really make a difference. There will never stop being families, the march of progress will continue on, and growing up will always be difficult.
The egalitarian nature of the storytelling sets apart Meet Me in St. Louis from other musicals that couldn’t manage one storyline as a well as this one manages five. Similarly, Minnelli’s direction nails the tone of each of the stories better than many directors could handle one. Instead of filming the movie in one straight style, like an average director might, Minnelli films each separate part with the most fitting manner. Take the Esther/John storyline – two young people on the cusp of adulthood, falling in love – these sequences are filmed with a sense of innocence with just the hint of adult romance. Their trip through the house turning off the lights and Esther’s performance of “Over the Banister” has a sense of that confliction to it, the contrast between a youthful crush and adult love.
On the other hand, Tootie’s scenes are filmed much more dramatically, from the surreal and spooky Halloween night adventure to the devastating Christmas Eve snowman massacre. To a child, Halloween night isn’t just scary, it is terrifying and moving to a new city isn’t just sad, it is the worst thing possible.
From writing to acting to direction, Meet Me in St. Louis hits all the right notes and showed Hollywood that a musical could have a great story that added to the overall quality of the musical sections. Which brings us to the music. Meet Me in St. Louis’s music doesn’t advance the plot as much as modern Broadway musicals do, nor are the songs completely unrelated to the plot like many musicals previous. Instead, the musical numbers do two things: they bare the emotions and characteristics of the performers far better than any dialogue could and they contribute to the overall level of nostalgia.
The latter group is obvious: often repeated songs like “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” or “Skip to My Lou” enrich the setting and strike that nostalgic tone. It is important to remember that songs popular at the turn of the century would be remembered by many people in 1944, you only had to be in your fifties. Those that were raised in the 70s and 80s are now experiencing something similar with movies like Ready Player One and television shows like Strangers Things that traffic in a similar type of nostalgia aided significantly by strategic musical choices. Obviously, anyone watching Meet Me in St. Louis today wouldn’t have memories of that time or those songs, but the rest of the movie’s sense of time and place is strong enough that these songs still perform their original task.
The former group is the most interesting, however. All the original songs written for the movie do more for the definition of the characters than any of the dialogue does. Esther’s longing to grow up (mirroring Garland’s desire to play adult roles after years as a juvenile) is laid bare in “The Boy Next Door.” Later, any doubt that she has fallen for John is dismissed when you see her face change as he chases after the trolley as the music of “The Trolley Song” swells in a glorious fanfare.
We can see Esther’s deep love for Tootie and her own conflicted feelings pouring out of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Overall, the family’s undying love for one another, even through the tough times, is evident in “You and I.”
Not all of the traditional music in the film is purely for nostalgic purposes, some of it is used to build up characters and create audience affection for them. Who, after seeing Tootie’s impudent performances of “I Was Drunk Last Night” and “Under the Bamboo Tree” doesn’t immediately love her character most of all?
In a time when child stars were routinely terrible in movies, Meet Me in St. Louis gets two of the best child performances out of Margaret O’Brien especially, as well as Joan Carroll, both of whom routinely steal scenes despite being only seven and thirteen, respectively. Overall, all of the acting in the movie is excellent and the casting ideal.
Meet Me in St. Louis proved that musicals could have great music and a deep, interesting, engaging story and juggle multiple characters. In the next few years, the genre still consisted mostly of dumb stories and great musical numbers, but a change had started to come and more care was paid to the stories in musicals.
See Also
Cover Girl (1944) dir. Charles Vidor
A dueling storyline, one set around the turn of the century and the other in present day, is at least adventurous though the musical performances by Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth still do most of the work.
Yolanda and the Thief (1945) dir. Vincente Minnelli
Starring Lucille Bremer with the incomparable Fred Astaire as her dancing partner. A weird movie that pushed too far into artistic territory for contemporary audiences but today stands out for its experimentation and of course, Minnelli helmed visual vibrancy.
The Harvey Girls (1946) dir. George Sidney
A decent story and a cardboard cutout of a leading man aren’t enough to sink Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Angela Lansbury, and Virginia O’Brien’s wonderful performances. Contains the great opening song “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.”
The Pirate (1948) dir. Vincente Minnelli
A flop as confusing to audiences as Yolanda and the Thief. The story, while ambitious and interesting at times, is quite strange but the music by Cole Porter (especially “Be a Clown”) performed by Garland, Gene Kelly, and the Nicholas Brothers are still worth the time of investment.
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