It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
“Meet Me In St. Louis” –Musical #10

Studio:
MGM

Director:
Vincente Minnelli

Starring:
Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Margaret O’Brien, Lucille Bremer, Marjorie Main, Tom Drake, June Lockhart, Harry Davenport, Chill Wills, Joan Carroll.

Plot:
“Meet Me In St. Louis” revolves around the Smith family who lives in St. Louis and follows them from Summer of 1903 until the 1904 World’s Fair. The film is broken up into story segments such as Summer, Fall of 1903 with Halloween, Winter of 1903 with Christmas and Summer of 1904 when they go to the World’s Fair.
Esther (Garland) falls in love the boy next door, John Truitt (Drake) and her sister Rose (Bremer) is a flirt who likes older men. The two younger sisters Tootie (O’Brien) and Agnes (Carroll) cause mischief. The conflict comes when their father (Ames) needs to move the family to New York.

Trivia:
-Van Johnson was originally supposed to play John Truitt rather than Tom Drake.
-The daughter of a lighting man was originally cast as Tootie. When O’Brien was cast instead, the lighting man intentionally attempted to drop a light on O’Brien.
-Arthur Freed dubbed Leon Ames’s singing voice.
-Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli met on this film. They were married from 1945 to 1951.
-Garland was 21 when she was in this movie and was disappointed to play another teenager. She wanted to move on to other adult roles.
-“Meet Me in St. Louis” was made into a Broadway show in 1989, according to “Hollywood Musicals Year by Year” by Stanley Green.
-Director Vincente Minnelli’s first film hit, according to The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity by Raymond Knapp

Judy Garland as Esther singing “The Trolley Song”

-The film is based off a series of autobiographical stories by Sally Benson published in “The New Yorker,” according to Knapp’s book
-A personal favorite film of producer Arthur Freed.
-The highest grossing film at the time for MGM since “Gone with the Wind” (1939).
-The film was remade twice for television. Once in 1959 starring Jane Powell, Jeanne Crain, Patty Duke, Walter Pidgeon and Myrna Loy. The second time was in 1966 starring Shelley Fabares and Celeste Holm.

Highlights:
-The terrific cast. Though the leads are amazing, I would argue that the secondary leads of Marjorie Main and Harry Davenport steal the show.
-Lon’s going away party with “Skip to My Lou” and Tootie and Esther singing “The Cake Walk” is one of my favorite parts.
-I love the holiday portions of the film such as:
–Halloween: Tootie and Agnes trick-or-treating in their spooky costumes-Agnes as a drunken ghost and Tootie as a horrible ghost. The two are dared to throw flour on neighbors and shout “I HATE YOU.” I’m always shocked that these kids parents don’t care they are starting a huge bonfire in the middle of the neighborhood.

Margaret O’Brien as Tootie being the “most horrible”

–Christmas: Esther (Garland) and Rose (Bremer) go to a dance and try to sabotage Lucille Ballard’s (Lockhart) dance card by giving her dopey boys to dance with. The scene where Esther dances with all of the silly boys is hilarious.
–More Christmas: Tootie (O’Brien) is a snowman murderer. Tootie is upset the family is moving so she destroys the snowmen.
-And then there is Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully)

Notable Songs:
-The Trolly Song sung by Judy Garland. The most famous song in the film. It’s such fun and Garland did the scene in one take.
-“Skip to My Lou”/”Under the Bamboo Tree” sung by Judy Garland and Lucille Bremer during the party scene. It’s so fun and I wish my party was like this.
-“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” sung by Judy Garland is also another famous song from the film. It makes me mother cry every time. And I have recently inherited sappily crying during the scene.
-“The Boy Next Door” sung by Judy Garland

My Review:
This is one of my favorite films of all time. It’s one of those movies that I have been watching since I was a baby and it never gets old. The humor, the gorgeous Technicolor and the wonderful songs. The story flows well and the songs fit in effortlessly.
I can’t think about this movie without smiling.

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page, follow on Twitter at @HollywoodComet or e-mail at cometoverhollywood@gmail.com