Meet Me in St. Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis
Meet Me in St. Louis
	Trolley scene from the trailer
Directed by	Vincente Minnelli
Produced by	Arthur Freed
Screenplay by	Irving Brecher; Fred F. Finklehoffe
Story by	Sally Benson
Starring	Judy Garland; Margaret O'Brien; Mary Astor; Lucille Bremer; Tom Drake; Marjorie Main
Cinematography	George J. Folsey
Edited by	Albert Akst
Production; company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures (original); Turner; Warner Bros. (current)
Release date	November 28, 1944;
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$5.2 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)

Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 MGM musical movie. It tells the story of a family living in St. Louis, Missouri at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904. It stars Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien. Garland sang "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Both songs became big hits.

The movie was based on a series of short stories by Sally Benson. These stories were first published in The New Yorker magazine. Later, they were published in the novel 5135 Kensington.

The movie was directed by Vincente Minnelli. He met Garland on the set. Later, they married. The critics liked the movie. In 2005, Richard Schickel wrote, "It had wonderful songs [and] a sweetly unneurotic performance by Judy Garland ... Despite its nostalgic charm, Minnelli infused the piece with a dreamy, occasionally surreal, darkness and it remains, for some of us, the greatest of American movie musicals."

Reputation

The movie was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, Best Music, Song ("The Trolley Song") and Best Writing, Screenplay. In 1994, the movie was chosen for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

The American Film Institute ranked the movie 10th on AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals. Two songs from the movie made AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs ("The Trolley Song" at #26 and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" at #76).

Meet Me In St. Louis Media

Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland perform the song "Under the Bamboo Tree" in Meet Me in St. Louis
Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis
Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland
Reissue trailer of the film Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).
Margaret O'Brien won an Academy Juvenile Award for her screen work in 1944.