Sally Benson's short stories about the turn-of-the-century Smith family of St. Louis were tackled by a battalion of MGM screenwriters, who hoped to find a throughline to connect the anecdotal tales. After several false starts (one of which proposed that the eldest Smith daughter be kidnapped and held for ransom), the result was the charming valentine-card musical Meet Me in St. Louis. The plot hinges on the possibility that Alonzo Smith (
Leon Ames), the family's banker father, might uproot the Smiths to New York, scuttling his daughter Esther (
Judy Garland)'s romance with boy-next-door John Truett (
Tom Drake) and causing similar emotional trauma for the rest of the household. In a cast that includes
Mary Astor as Ames' wife,
Lucille Bremer as another Ames daughter, and
Marjorie Main as the housekeeper, the most fascinating character is played by 6-year-old
Margaret O'Brien. As kid sister Tootie, O'Brien seems morbidly obsessed with death and murder, burying her dolls, "killing" a neighbor at Halloween (she throws flour in the flustered man's face on a dare), and maniacally bludgeoning her snowmen when Papa announces his plans to move to New York.
Margaret O'Brien won a special Oscar for her remarkable performance, prompting
Lionel Barrymore to grumble "Two hundred years ago, she would have been burned at the stake!" The songs are a heady combination of period tunes and newly minted numbers by
Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin, the best of which are The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. As a bonus, Meet Me in St. Louis is lensed in rich Technicolor, shown to best advantage in the climactic scenes at the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide