Search - Meet Me in St. Louis [Special Edition] on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Child Classic Movie Release: 1944 DVD Release: 04/06/2004 Format: DVD - Closed Captioned Edition: Dual Layered,Restored/Remastered Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 2 Number of Discs: 2 Run Time: 1 hrs 53 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 53 Genres: Musical, Americana, Musical Romance, Family Drama

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

Judy Garland - Esther Smith
Margaret O'Brien - "Tootie" Smith
Mary Astor - Mrs. Anne Smith
Lucille Bremer - Rose Smith
Tom Drake - John Truett
Marjorie Main - Katie the Maid

Vincente Minnelli's classic 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis stars Judy Garland as a girl who faces the possibility of being uprooted with her family and moved to New York from St. Louis. Part of the National Film Registry and the recipient of four Academy Award nominations, the film has received extensive and loving treatment on this two-disc DVD set. The first disc features the film itself, introduced by Minnelli and Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli and presented in full-screen with both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Digital Mono audio options. The film can also be viewed with a music-only track or a commentary track featuring star Margaret O'Brien, Judy Garland biographer John Fricke, screenwriter Irving Brecher, songwriter Hugh Martin, and producer Arthur Freed's daughter Barbara Freed-Saltzman. Rounding out disc one are a collection of trailers for several Minnelli films. The second disc is loaded with supplemental features certain to please fans of the film. First, there is "Meet Me in St. Louis: The Making of an American Classic," a behind-the-scenes documentary featuring narration by Roddy McDowall. Next, the 1966 pilot for a proposed Meet Me in St. Louis television series is included, along with Hollywood: The Dream Factory, a 1972 television special narrated by Dick Cavett. There is also a 1996 Turner Classic Movies television special called Becoming Attractions: Judy Garland and two short films: 1930's Bubbles, featuring a seven-year-old Judy Garland and 1941's Skip to My Lou, featuring composers Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. Finally, the disc features two audio clips and an image gallery. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide