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Yes, Meet Me In St. Louis is a Christmas movie--and a masterwork regardless of the season
Monday, December 23, 2024
“They just don’t make ’em like that anymore" is an axiom—albeit a rusty one—that certainly applies to Meet Me in St. Louis, the 1944 MGM musical directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by Arthur Freed that spotlights the Smith family as they prepare for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. The film stars Judy Garland as Esther Smith, a lively young woman who falls in love with her neighbor, John Truett, played by Tom Drake. Margaret O’Brien delivers a standout performance as Tootie Smith, Esther's mischievous and imaginative younger sister. Mary Astor and Leon Ames portray Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the loving but occasionally strict parents who must navigate significant family decisions, including a potential move to New York—a decision that comes to a head in the Christmastime segment near the end of the film.
To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of Meet Me in St. Louis, click here. To hear the latest Cineversary podcast episode honoring this movie’s 80th birthday, click here.
Rewatched by many around the Yuletide season, it’s fair to ask: Is this really a Christmas picture? In his book Christmas Movies: 35 Classics to Celebrate the Season, author Jeremy Arnold wrote: “The two and a half minutes of screen time in which Judy Garland sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas would be enough to catapult Meet Me in St. Louis to the front ranks of holiday classics. As it happens, the film devotes 25 minutes to the season, all of them set on Christmas Eve and all rich with meaning in a story built entirely around themes of family and nostalgia. (The song’s) melancholic feel, conjuring loss and sorrow beneath the nostalgia, injects a dose of honesty into the film’s image of Christmas—not to mention childhood…The meaning that the song imparts to the audience’s experience of the story is significant, enough to make this a genuine Christmas movie. As a point of comparison, the Bob Hope comedy The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) also introduced a top-notch holiday song to the world—Silver Bells—but the song carries no real meaning to the story or characters and therefore is not enough to make The Lemon Drop Kid a ‘Christmas movie.’”
Regardless of whether or not you deem Meet Me In St. Louis worthy of your time as a holiday entertainment staple, there’s no denying the magically nostalgic power of this film, which, in 1944, provided a vision of what America could be again. It demonstrates that wistfulness, sentimentality, and Americana can be powerful tools to tell a cinematic story and emotionally impact viewers. The film continually reminds us of a simpler, more innocent, and charmingly quaint time—before any electronic form of popular entertainment, automobiles, or modern technological conveniences—when family was the focus and the limits of your fun were dependent on your imagination and resourcefulness.
Consider that World War II was still raging at this time. This movie made viewers appreciate what we were fighting for: the preservation of the American family and all the precious values that we as a nation held dear. The film intended to make people remember the importance of family unity and happy, secure domestication. In 1944, this picture would’ve touched viewers and families eager to see an end to the war; any homesick soldiers who would have watched were likely moved by it, as well.
Today, the film’s key messages – be true to your roots, honor thy mother and father, continue family conventions in familiar settings – probably don’t resonate as powerfully among modern audiences. They aren’t likely to be inspired to marry the boy next door, buy a single-family home in the neighborhood they grew up in, have three generations living under the same roof, and live life as mom and dad and grandma and grandpa do. However, the simple values on display here, the fantasy of having a normal, close-knit family, and the sentimental Americana imagery can still pack a punch and make a contemporary watcher feel wistful for these things they’ve likely never experienced.
Per DVD Savant critic Glenn Erickson: “The world of Meet Me In St. Louis is a 1944 dream of a life most Americans never had. Yet it is the sentimental definition of the American way of life that our troops were defending. America's official ideals were accepted by a much greater consensus of the country back then, which some people think was a good thing. Although it is an idealized fantasy, this is one of the key films my generation could have looked to, to understand our parents' generation.”
The narrative structure, being segmented by the four different seasons—with tintype postcard visual intros used as framing devices—provides a simple yet effective way to tell the story of one family’s growth and transition over a set period (one year). As each season progresses, so too do the characters, who come of age more as time passes. Interestingly, the season that opens the story, summer, comprises nearly half the runtime, and spring—the fourth and final chapter—commands a mere three minutes.
Granted, there isn’t much of a plot here, tension and conflict are lacking, and not every song is instantly memorable as with other classic musicals. But what the film boasts an abundance of is emotional resonance, courtesy of its reliance on nostalgia, homespun allure, and idealized depictions of domestic harmony and everyday life in an upper-middle-class American family from 120 years ago—a household where the kids engage in relatively believable behaviors as they squabble and scheme, joke around, pine for love, and have each other’s backs.
Meet Me in St. Louis is one of the crown jewels in the cycle we now know as the golden age of the MGM musical that began in 1929 and continued through the early 1960s, with Freed serving as the head of MGM’s musical unit for most of those years. Meet Me in St. Louis is regarded as the first Freed unit masterwork, which would later include Easter Parade, On the Town, Royal Wedding, An American in Paris, Singin’ in the Rain, The Band Wagon, Brigadoon, and Gigi.
This was a huge box-office attraction, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 1944 and the studio’s most profitable picture since Gone With the Wind five years earlier. This helped establish MGM’s signature look and style for subsequent Technicolor musicals.
It’s also the film that established Vincente Minnelli as an A-list filmmaking talent and helped cement Judy Garland as a major box office draw on the heels of her star-making role in The Wizard of Oz five years earlier. The two met during production, fell in love, had a baby (Liza Minnelli), and collaborated on four additional movies prior to their split in 1951.
The music won an Oscar and is among the most memorable song cycles in the Hollywood musical canon. Many of the tunes have become evergreen standards, including The Trolley Song, The Boy Next Door, and the aforementioned Have Yourself a Mary Little Christmas—three numbers written exclusively for the film. The latter song was especially resonant to viewers in 1944, many of whom were missing their loved ones fighting overseas in the war and yearning for them to come home and be reunited with the family.
Other tunes, including the title song, Skip To My Lou, and Under the Bamboo Tree, were turn-of-the-century standards that were period-accurate for the time depicted in this story. But unlike many other contemporary musicals, Meet Me in St. Louis doesn’t drown out the central narrative with a glut of sung music; there are only about seven or so complete songs performed by the cast.
Some experts contend that Meet Me in St. Louis innovated the classic film musical to some extent. This production skillfully integrates song lyrics into the dialogue, allowing both to collaboratively advance the narrative. In most earlier musicals, the songs often seemed arbitrarily placed, mainly to showcase the stars' vocal and dance abilities. Recall how, in spontaneous fashion, different members of the family begin singing the lyrics to the title song, which is actually the official anthem of the real world’s fair that came to St. Louis in 1904. Consider the lyrics to The Boy Next Door, which perfectly summarize Esther’s growing feelings for John Truett, the boy she saw outside a few moments earlier. Ponder, as well, how Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and its words fit the melancholy mood and advice that Esther is offering Tootie in that scene. And remember that this movie doesn’t feature any significant choreographed dance sequences, which many earlier musicals did.
Critic Emanuel Levy makes a case for how the director imprints a strong creative stamp on this work: “In his third film–and first masterpiece–Minnelli fuses brilliantly all the elements of a musical (songs, performances, cinematography, decor and costumes) in service of his singular vision. Stylistically, the film demonstrates Minnelli’s fluid camera, relying on swirling movement and smooth dissolves rather than sharp cuts and montage (the Busby Berkeley style).” Levy also credits Minnelli and his collaborators with infusing the production with thought-provoking thematic underpinnings. “Taking a mythical approach, the film tries to reconcile the dichotomies of art versus reality, stability versus change, small-town America versus the Big City, extended versus nuclear family, East and West, past and present. At the end, the World Fair becomes both a dream image and hometown reality for the Smiths family.”
Minnelli’s camera purposefully lingers long on the youthfully beautiful countenance of his future bride, Judy Garland, who probably never looked as radiant or ravishing before or after in a motion picture. Recall how he maintains a surprisingly long unbroken shot of Judy singing The Boy Next Door in the open window, for example. The director also deserves praise for many smart creative decisions, including the mesmerizingly memorable sequence where John helps Esther turn off the house lights, flaunting incredible shadows contrasting with eye-catching colors.
One of the movie’s finest moments is the lengthy backward tracking shot showing the apprehensive Tootie approaching Mr. Braukoff’s home, allowing us to study her increasingly frightened face. Another standout visual involves Esther dancing with her grandfather, a duo waltzing in a circular pattern as they disappear behind a gigantic Christmas tree only to re-emerge as John and Esther. As featherweight light of a plot as this is, Minnelli also favored economical storytelling, as evidenced by having John and Esther talk about marriage without showing him proposing.
There’s no denying that the vibrant Technicolor on display really pops. The filmmakers were able to create an idealized cinematic confection thanks to the chromatic palette provided by the old-school Technicolor process.
Succeeding films and musicals it may have inspired include State Fair (1945), Life With Father (1947), Cheaper By the Dozen (1950), On Moonlight Bay (1951), The Music Man (1962), and The Sound of Music (1965). Among the predecessors that may have influenced Meet Me in St. Louis to some degree, or that at least come to mind, are Little Women (1933), also a tale about a female-centric household with several independent-minded daughters; The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), a similar study of how technology will inevitably change the American family; and Holiday Inn (1942), which is also segmented into different chapters based on holidays or seasons.
One obvious reading of the film stresses the importance of traditional and conservative family values, staying true to your roots, and navigating challenging familial dynamics. So long as the family remains cohesive, it doesn’t matter what happens in life. Meet Me in St. Louis is a coming-of-age story, too, a tale about experiencing first love, and a narrative maturing into a new stage of life. Hope springs eternal is an obvious takeaway, and it’s fitting that the film’s final act falls in springtime, a time of renewal and rebirth when love, like the flowers, is in bloom.
A further timeless message? There’s no place like home—a message shared by Garland’s earlier film “The Wizard of Oz”. This is echoed in her closing remarks: “I can't believe it. Right here where we live – right here in St. Louis.”
The Smith family dynamics are captivating. The children and the maid are often in collusion with little white lies to fool their parents. Patriarchal order dictates the family meal schedule, tableside etiquette, and major decisions like the choice to move. The maid is a cherished family insider yet unafraid to sarcastically speak her mind. Time and again this work suggests a clash between strong-minded women and the patriarchal order, and how men often fail at accurately reading women’s signals. Remember how John Truitt compliments Esther on wearing a perfume preferred by his grandmother, or how Papa stubbornly insists on moving the family to New York without carefully considering the relocation’s impact on the women in his family. It’s obvious that the females rule this roost, raise the kids, and solve most of the problems, with Father Smith serving as more of a figurehead of the household who is given proper respect but is not the center of the Smith clan. Tellingly, when Tootie is tended to after her injury on Halloween night, Anna tells her daughters “Don’t call your father—what would he do?”, suggesting that Papa doesn’t have the proper nurturing or healing skills.
Of course, this movie unintentionally demonstrates the negative effect of a male-dominated society and the pressures it imposes on women, at least back in this period. Today, Meet Me In St. Louis perhaps unintentionally conveys the relative lack of freedom and agency that women had back then as well as their methods for coping with society’s limitations. Consider, for example, that Tootie gets respect on Halloween by wearing male cosplay; the mother acquiesces to her husband’s rules and wishes; and the older sisters eagerly await and bank on marriage proposals, suggesting that an of-age female’s sole objective back in the day was to land a handsome and upwardly mobile husband. In this turn-of-the-century era, men had the vast majority of jobs and college educations. Ponder, as well, that every vehicle and outlet for escape for these women is literally driven by men, like the trolley, the horse-driven carriage, and the ice truck.
On the other hand, let’s not forget that this is a female-centered story in which the Smith women demonstrate strength and solidarity, with the Smith sisters and their mother supporting each other through challenges and presenting a united, resourceful front. Recall how Rose subtly defies societal dating norms by refusing to call Warren Sheffield, asserting her independence, while the youngest, Tootie, embodies an unconventional spirit with her rebellious, imaginative nature, challenging traditional expectations for young girls and celebrating individuality. We see how Esther strongly defends her sister physically and verbally and castigates her father after nearly spoiling Rose’s telephone call opportunity, and we learn that Mr. Smith is preparing to send Rose to college.
Additionally, Meet Me In St. Louis persists as a fascinating study of childhood precociousness. Both Agnes and especially Tootie possess morbid curiosities, speaking in candidly strong words about violence toward people and animals—although often through the lens of playful pretending and juvenile imagination. It’s interesting that an ultra-family-friendly studio like MGM would have green-lit a movie featuring ghoulish-minded and death-obsessed child characters like these, who almost cause a Trolley to derail that could have killed several people (!) Recall how, after the maid kids Agnes’ about kicking her cat down the stairs, the child replies “If you killed her, I’ll kill you. I’ll stab you to death in your sleep and then I’ll tie you to two wild horses until you’re pulled apart.” Tootie says of her doll: “Poor Margaretha, I've never seen her look so pale…I suspect she won't live through the night, she has four fatal diseases.” Later, she says: “It'll take me at least a week to dig up all my dolls in the cemetery.” Of her Halloween character, she says: “She was murdered in a den of thieves, and I died of a broken heart. I've never even been buried because everyone's scared to come near me.” Of her neighbor, whom she’s vowed to “kill” by throwing flour in his face, Tootie comments: “We'll fix him fine. It'll serve him right for poisoning cats... He buys meat and then he buys poison and then he puts them all together…and Mr. Braukoff was beating his wife with a red hot poker... and Mr. Braukoff has empty whiskey bottles in his cellar.”
The picture echoes across the ages, as well, as a comment on how new technology can serve as both a benefit and a disruption to the American family. Recall how Papa bristles at phone calls during dinnertime from the recently invented telephone, or how the maid remarks, “Personally, I wouldn’t marry a man who proposed to me over an invention.”
At a time when many people criticize the dangers of living in the past and frown on cinematic sentimentality, this film’s entire central premise celebrates nostalgia and its feel-good effect. Today, the media and popular culture often reinforce how different we are generationally, and how it’s healthy and necessary to break from your parent’s unhip and outdated values and traditions. But Meet Me In St. Louis suggests that being in a loving family is perhaps what’s most important, and that family dysfunction isn’t a universal experience.
It also teaches us that you need not have lived in 1944, or 1904 for that matter, to appreciate this movie’s themes, characters, music, or values. These represent some pretty great gifts for an 80-year-old film set 120 years ago. Read more...
