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Meet Me in St Louis, 1944
A year in the life of the Smith family, focusing especially on Esther (Judy Garland), who is in love with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), and the mischief of her little sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brian).
This is considered a musical classic, and deservedly so. It's one of those movies where you just hear song after song that you know, especially The Trolley Song and Garland's rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
For a musical, it's interesting to see the way that so much of the action takes place in the family home. The set design is really masterful in the way that the house manages to feel large enough for a song-and-dance number, and yet cozy enough to give that family sensibility.
The story itself is mostly very gentle and domestic in scope. When the possibility of the family moving to New York comes up, it raises emotional turmoil in the adults and children. Esther must navigate young love and the possibility of loss at the same time. Esther's sister, Rose (Lucille Bremer) has to deal with a rivalry with another woman she thinks has her eye on Rose's crush.
My only hangup with the film was the character of Tootie. Now, O'Brian's performance is absolutely fantastic. Whether it's a sequence where she has to go and prank a scary neighbor on Halloween night, or the way she delivers the line "Aw, it'll take me days to dig up all the dolls in my cemetery", her presence is undeniable.
But Tootie herself? Too much for me. And also kind of a sociopath? There's a sequence in the middle of the film where Tootie returns to the house late at night with a busted lip, a tooth that's been knocked out, and a fistful of hair in her hand, claiming that John assaulted her. Insert classic sound of record scratching to a stop. It then turns out that Tootie and her sister put a fake body on the trolley track to derail the trolley. This whole sequence was bizarre and off-putting to me, and made me feel like "What is wrong with these people?!".
An interesting musical and overall very enjoyable.
Meet Me in St Louis, 1944
A year in the life of the Smith family, focusing especially on Esther (Judy Garland), who is in love with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), and the mischief of her little sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brian).
This is considered a musical classic, and deservedly so. It's one of those movies where you just hear song after song that you know, especially The Trolley Song and Garland's rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
For a musical, it's interesting to see the way that so much of the action takes place in the family home. The set design is really masterful in the way that the house manages to feel large enough for a song-and-dance number, and yet cozy enough to give that family sensibility.
The story itself is mostly very gentle and domestic in scope. When the possibility of the family moving to New York comes up, it raises emotional turmoil in the adults and children. Esther must navigate young love and the possibility of loss at the same time. Esther's sister, Rose (Lucille Bremer) has to deal with a rivalry with another woman she thinks has her eye on Rose's crush.
My only hangup with the film was the character of Tootie. Now, O'Brian's performance is absolutely fantastic. Whether it's a sequence where she has to go and prank a scary neighbor on Halloween night, or the way she delivers the line "Aw, it'll take me days to dig up all the dolls in my cemetery", her presence is undeniable.
But Tootie herself? Too much for me. And also kind of a sociopath? There's a sequence in the middle of the film where Tootie returns to the house late at night with a busted lip, a tooth that's been knocked out, and a fistful of hair in her hand, claiming that John assaulted her. Insert classic sound of record scratching to a stop. It then turns out that Tootie and her sister put a fake body on the trolley track to derail the trolley. This whole sequence was bizarre and off-putting to me, and made me feel like "What is wrong with these people?!".
An interesting musical and overall very enjoyable.