| Meet Me in St. Louis - 60th Anniversary SE (1944)
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| Front Cover |
Actor |
Back Cover |
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| Judy Garland |
Esther Smith
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| Margaret O'Brien |
"Tootie" Smith
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| Mary Astor |
Mrs. Anne Smith
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| Lucille Bremer |
Rose Smith
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| Tom Drake |
John Truett
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| Marjorie Main |
Katie the Maid
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| June Lockhart |
Lucille Ballard
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| Leon Ames |
Mr. Alonzo Smith
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| Harry Davenport |
Grandpa Prophater
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| Henry Daniels, Jr. |
Lon Smith, Jr.
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| Henry H. Daniels Jr. |
Alonzo 'Lon' Smith Jr.
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| Plot |
| Sally Benson's short stories about the turn-of-the-century Smith family of St. Louis were tackled by a battalion of MGM screenwriters, who hoped to find a throughline to connect the anecdotal tales. After several false starts (one of which proposed that the eldest Smith daughter be kidnapped and held for ransom), the result was the charming valentine-card musical Meet Me in St. Louis. The plot hinges on the possibility that Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames), the family's banker father, might uproot the Smiths to New York, scuttling his daughter Esther (Judy Garland)'s romance with boy-next-door John Truett (Tom Drake) and causing similar emotional trauma for the rest of the household. In a cast that includes Mary Astor as Ames' wife, Lucille Bremer as another Ames daughter, and Marjorie Main as the housekeeper, the most fascinating character is played by 6-year-old Margaret O'Brien. As kid sister Tootie, O'Brien seems morbidly obsessed with death and murder, burying her dolls, "killing" a neighbor at Halloween (she throws flour in the flustered man's face on a dare), and maniacally bludgeoning her snowmen when Papa announces his plans to move to New York. Margaret O'Brien won a special Oscar for her remarkable performance, prompting Lionel Barrymore to grumble "Two hundred years ago, she would have been burned at the stake!" The songs are a heady combination of period tunes and newly minted numbers by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin, the best of which are The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. As a bonus, Meet Me in St. Louis is lensed in rich Technicolor, shown to best advantage in the climactic scenes at the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904. — Hal Erickson |
| Movie Details |
| Genre |
Family; Musical; Romance |
| Director |
Vincente Minnelli; Alan D. Courtney |
| Producer |
Arthur Freed |
| Writer |
Irving Brecher; Fred F. Finklehoffe; Sally Benson |
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| Studio |
Warner Bros. |
| Country |
USA
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| Language |
English |
| Audience Rating |
G |
| Running Time |
113 mins |
| Movie Release Date |
11/28/1944 |
| Color |
Color |
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| Personal Details |
| Format |
DVD |
| Seen It |
No |
| Index |
424 |
| Collection Status |
In Collection |
| Purchase Date |
3/17/2005 |
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| Product Details |
| Edition |
Special Edition |
| Region |
 Region 1 |
| Screen Ratio |
 Standard 1.33:1 Color |
| Layers |
Single Side, Dual Layer |
| UPC (Barcode) |
012569508927 |
| Release Date |
4/6/2004 |
| Subtitles |
English; French; Spanish |
| Packaging |
Custom Case |
| Audio Tracks |
 ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
 ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Mono [CC] |
| Nr of Disks/Tapes |
2 |
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Extra Features
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Disc 1
New Introduction by Liza Minnelli
New Commentary by Garland biographer John Fricke with Margaret O'Brien, screenwriter Irving Brecher, songwriter Hugh Martin and daughter of producer Arthur Freed, Barbara Freed-Saltzman
Music-only track (without vocals)
Vincente Minnelli trailer gallery with trailers from eight of his most treasured films including Meet Me in St. Louis, Father of the Bride, An American in Paris, The Bad and the Beautiful, Brigadoon, Designing Woman, Gigi, and The Courtship of Eddie's Father
Disc 2
Meet Me in St. Louis: The Making of an American Classic (Narrated by Roddy McDowall)
Hollywood: The Dream Factory (Emmy-Award winning 1972 MGM-TV special, narrated by Dick Cavett-- First time on home video)
Becoming Attractions: Judy Garland (1996 TCM special)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1966 TV pilot with Shelley Fabares and Celeste Holm)
Bubbles (1930 Warner Bros. short featuring Judy Garland at age 7)
Skip To My Lou (Rare 1941 musical short with Meet Me in St. Louis composers Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane)
Audio Vault: Boys and Girls Like You and Me outtake (re-construction using still photographs) Lux Radio Theater Broadcast from December 2, 1946
Stills Gallery
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