To be honest, Iām not a huge fan of classic musicals but since this one has a really solid reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that the whole thing looked really nice and the production value was quite impressive. Judy Garland, who was only 21 years old at the time, was also at the top of her game. Indeed, she was really quite charming and, even if I didnāt care much about the songs in this movie, her voice was still quite marvellous. Unfortunately, those were pretty much the only things I did enjoy in this flick. Sure, Margaret O'Brien did give a decent performance as Tootie Smith but I still didnāt care much about her character and the rest of the characters were even more tedious, at least, to me. Above all, the story was just so flimsy and shallow. Seriously, what did really happen during this movie after all? Not much. Nobody loses his job, Nobody gets sick, nobodies dies,ā¦ I mean, the most and only dramatic event was for the family to move from St Louis to New York but even this ātragicā event didn't occur after all. Sure, Iām well aware it is inherent to the genre to give 2 hours of entertainment with songs and dance with very little drama or without even a basic plot. However, in my opinion, the best movies in this genre still manage to do something original or at least interesting with this formula but it wasn't the case here. Anyway, to conclude, even if I didnāt care much about the damned thing, it is still a classic and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.Ā
Meet Me in St. Louis Reviews
A classic
Posted : 3 years, 3 months ago on 26 January 2021 09:510 comments, Reply to this entry
Meet Me in St. Louis
Posted : 8 years, 2 months ago on 8 March 2016 03:15Itās that subtle hint of darkness lurking underneath the sweet, colorful surfaces that makes Meet Me in St. Louis such a classic. Centering on a year-in-the-life of one typical suburban family pre-1903 Worldās Fair, the story quietly details the triumphs and travails of the family, forfeiting a complicated narrative for the comfort of nostalgia. It is one of the greatest films ever made, and possibly Vincente Minnelliās best-known film.
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Perhaps the greatest thing about Meet Me in St. Louis is how it forgoes the prior conventions of screen musicals, thereās nary a stage performer putting on a show to be found. No hyper-stylized sets, no dream world of the impossibly rich, famous, and glamorous, just an upper-middle class family in realistic settings slowly breaking out into song to express their highs and lows throughout the year.
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It opens in an ingenious way, introducing each of the various members of the family as they sing the title song, flowing throughout the house and revealing the entirety of the unit. From a younger daughter walking past her mother and the maid cooking ketchup in the kitchen, going upstairs and running into her grandfather, before pulling out and introducing the older siblings coming home from their social lives. Itās this combination of leisurely scope and pacing along with ambitious filmmaking that makes the film so unique.
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Minnelliās camera glides like a prima ballerina throughout. A scene in which Judy Garland, tough but tender and free from neurosis, leads Tom Drake through the various rooms in her house after a party, slowly turning down the lights in each, is a quiet bit of eroticism. Or the way it follows Garlandās slow-dance with her grandfather throughout the ballroom, behind a Christmas tree only to emerge in the arms of Drake, yet another bravura bit of directing that swells with romance.
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Always a daring auteur with his films, Minnelli infuses much of Meet Me in St. Louis with a modern sensibility, making Garland and Lucille Brimerās sisters the primary actors in their romantic entanglements and husband hunting. When Brimer warns Garland that men donāt want girls with the bloom taken off, Garland delivers a rejoinder about having too much bloom already. Yet Brimerās not one for sitting idly by waiting for her prince charming. She hits him where it hurts and knows what the ultimate reaction will be.
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At times Minnelliās obsessive attention to detail could tip into strange, hallucinatory textures, proving that darkness was buried beneath these elaborate dioramas. Look no further than one of the odder detours in an MGM musical: the Halloween scene in which the children of the neighborhood gather to ākillā the adults by throwing flour in their face. Margaret OāBrien, death-obsessed and ever so slightly unhinged here, decides to take on the most-feared grown-ups by herself. Up to this point, the primary conflict had been a potential move away from St. Louis to New York City, or a missed marriage proposal, yet this scene goes full-tilt into the underside of the suburban paradise. After this, Meet Me in St. Louis doesnāt hold back from the various conflicts threatening to erupt the family.
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āHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmasā has achieved a fame so vast outside of the film that itās easy to forget how ironic the lyric is. Itās an intimate moment between Garland and OāBrien, an older sister trying to comfort the younger one, yet it throbs with the uncertainty of the future, the intangibility of time, how even holiday cheer can evaporate within an instant. In a film packed with knockout musical moments, thereās only about seven here, āHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmasā may be the standout. Thatās really saying something considering āThe Trolley Songāās jubilance, āThe Boy Next Doorāās sweet yearning, and energetic āSkip to My Lou.ā
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Is it any wonder that super-producer Arthur Freed, the man responsible for what we think of as the MGM musical treatment, dubbed Meet Me in St. Louis his personal favorite? While the surfaces are all about a nostalgic bit of Americana that may never have existed outside of the imagination, the film finds numerous ways to appear modern. This tension between naivety and progress make the film great.
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Of course, it doesnāt hurt to have Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Margaret OāBrien, Lucille Brimer, Tom Drake, and Marjorie Main leading your stellar ensemble. Garland and OāBrien are the true leads of the film, with the greatest moments and the best performances. Yet Brimer holds her own, a typically wooden actress under other directorās care, she flowers here. Same goes for Drake as the slightly daft, but very dreamy boy-next-door of Garlandās sexual fixation. Main, Astor, and Ames were old pros by this point, and they deliver their typically solid work as the salty maid, supportive mother, and obtuse father.
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Meet Me in St. Louis is a perfect movie, and I say this with no hyperbole. Vincente Minnelli created quite a few masterpieces in his day (An American in Paris, The Bad and the Beautiful, Lust For Life, Some Came Running, and Cabin in the Sky being personal favorites), but Meet Me in St. Louis was the first. Only his third film, this was the first glimpse of what Minnelli was truly capable of as a director. Itās one of the best movie musicals ever produced, and a film to truly cherish.Ā
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A lively yet very personal classic!
Posted : 14 years, 3 months ago on 24 January 2010 08:35Judy Garland delivers a performance that takes its rightful place on one of my top musical performances. Judy has always been awesome in musicals but I think this is her best one. She was a lot different as Esther Smith than she was as Dorothy Gale because Judy was really striking in Meet Me In St. Louis in which she was anyway. Some people find her really weird looking and I do sort of understand what they mean about that. Her performance was bright, lively, delightful and even inspiring to witness in which she was all four of them to me. She was also very charming which brings a lot of spice towards the character. Esther is a young 17 year old girl who lives with her mother, father, grandfather and three sisters in a detached house in St. Louis. When she first sees her next door neighbour John Truett the romance begins. Their love and how and where they met reminded me a lot of Holly and Fred's love in Breakfast At Tiffany's. I thought this film was better than The Wizard Of Oz which makes Meet Me In St. Louis Judy Garland's best film of the ones that I have seen so far.
Vincent Minnelli directed Meet Me In St. Louis a lot like how George Cukor directed My Fair Lady. Vincent not only made this a beautiful inspiring musical but also a beautiful Christmas film because most of it is set around Christmas days. It is more of a film based around Christmas not a film about Christmas. The songs were written really well with a creative style. They were dancing songs not only just singing songs. Some of the songs lyrics would be awesome sing-alongs.
This is one of my favourite musicals of all time. Singin' In The Rain is still the musical of the 1950s. This is one of my favourite films of the 1950s. It is my favourite Judy Garland film from the ones I have seen from her thus far. I enjoyed the Wizard Of Oz more but Garlands acting is better in Meet Me In St. Louis. Meet Me In St. Louis is a really beautiful musical masterpiece that is a certain recommendation to those who love classic films.
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