Meet Me In St. Louis is centered around the Smith family of St. Louis. Set in 1903, right before St. Louis hosted the 1904 World's Fair, this movie is a period piece. The Smith family is a big bustling and loving family, headed by disciplinarian father Alonzo (played by Leon Ames) and beautiful Anne (Mary Astor). Esther (played by Judy Garland), the second oldest girl, is the star of the movie and she has a very passionate temperament. Throughout the movie she bursts into song at a moment's notice. She has four sisters (Rose, Tootie and Agnes) and one brother, Lon. Esther is in love with John Truett, the boy next door. Brother Lon is lovesick over Lucille Ballard while Rose can't live without dreamy Warren.
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Romantic complications arise when John is briefly paired up with Lucille, leaving Esther and her brother Lon angry and heartsick.
When Esther's father announces that the family will be moving to New York due to a promotion he has received, chaos erupts. None of the children wish to move from their beloved St. Louis. Esther and Rose can't bear the thought of leaving their respective beaus. Young Tootie becomes tearful at Christmas time as she ponders never having another St. Louis Christmas or building a snowman with St. Louis snow. Big sister Esther cheers her up by belting out Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. As Esther and John pour their hearts out to each other, Esther and her sisters are left to agonize over their future. Will it be in St. Louis or in the faraway New York City? This is a very peppy movie with lots of song and dance numbers.
The review of this Movie prepared by sandra Calhoune
The film presents a year in the life of the Smiths, an upper middle-class family who live in a huge Victorian house in St. Louis Mo. at the turn of the twentieth century. It opens in the summer of 1902, the year before the World's Fair where the whole town is buzzing about how great it is going to be. Nobody in the town seems to be quite as excited as Tootie Smith (Margaret O'Brien). Early on in the film a John Truett moves next-door to the Smiths and Esther is immediately smitten with him. Rose, the eldest sister decides that they should throw a dance at the Smith home to welcome the new neighbour and allow Esther to make her feelings known. Meanwhile Rose is desperately trying to get her boyfriend, away at university, to propose to her even if it is over the telephone.
Everything seems to be going fine in the family until Halloween night when Alonzo Smith Sr. (Leon Ames) comes home with "great news" he has been made senior partner in the law office's New York Office and the family is to move the week after Christmas. This news does not sit well with the family who are all adamant that they want to stay right where they are. As the dependants of the patriarch, the family are grudgingly forced to go along with their father's plans despite their heart's desires.
The film then flashes forward to Christmas Eve and the teenagers are making plans for their dinner with their friends. Misunderstandings and accidents appear to squelch the teenaged Smiths from enjoying the event with the ones they love, but Christmas is the time of miracles and they see the misunderstandings fixed. Meanwhile at home young Tootie, the family member with the purest heart, wants only one thing for Christmas; she wants her father not to move them from what is, in her opinion, the greatest place on earth.
The review of this Movie prepared by Elaine Polishak
