Meet Me in St. Louis

Vincente Minnelli, 1944 (8.4*)
This is one of the best of the Judy Garland musicals, and it involves a family that enjoys life in hometown St. Louis, around the time of the world's fair in 1903. There's not a lot of story here, but it's also not the old "let's put on a show, let's make a musical" plot either. It's primarily about the family enjoying each others company on holidays, and the girls entertaining beaux, all the noise driving father Tom Drake 'to distraction'.

Margaret O'Brien plays Garland's scene-stealing little sister, especially during one Halloween sequence that involves some pretty delinquent behavoir: bonfires in the streets, dusting residents with wet flour, and later even trying to derail a streetcar with a fake body. These kids were middle-class hoodlums, but all in good fun, like the Our Gang comedies.

The musical numbers include "The Trolley Song", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", and the title song. Garland was in her prime here, a young woman of 22 who could really belt out a song. The technicolor is absolutely mouth-watering, perhaps a little too intense, but this is a good, fun family film for all ages. In fact, many think it's director Vincente Minnelli's best, along with An American in Paris. #293 on our top ranked films on the net survey.

Garland didn't want to star in this, as a teenager, but Minnelli not only convinced her to, but also to marry him later.