Meet Me in St. Louis (DVD)

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You'd better like the music here because there's precious little plot to enjoy.

Fortunately, the songs are memorable, the characters charming, and the romance sweet. Together, they're more than enough to carry the day and make MGM's 1944 production of "Meet Me in St. Louis" one of Hollywood's first important modern musicals, one whose music was directly tied to the action of the story. In tribute to the film's stature, Warner Bros., who now own the distribution rights to the film, have issued it in one of their celebrated two-disc Special Editions. It's worth the trouble.

Set in the twelve-month period just prior to the opening of the 1904 World's Fair, "Meet Me in St. Louis" was released toward the end of World War II, and audiences welcomed the movie's nostalgic look at an earlier, simpler, and far gentler time. Today's viewers may appreciate the movie's look at simpler interpersonal relationships and simpler family concerns, too.

The movie centers on the minor conflicts of an idealized American family, the Smiths, living in St. Louis, Missouri, just after the turn of the century. The movie was directed by Vincente Minnelli and stars Judy Garland, then twenty-one and appearing in her twentieth motion picture. The director and star would marry the next year. For Minnelli, it was the beginning of an illustrious lineup of films that would include "The Pirate," "An American in Paris," "Brigadoon," "Kismet," and "Gigi," among many more. For Garland, the movie was one of the crowning jewels of her young career.

The story involves several related strifes, first and foremost the love life of Ms. Garland's character, Esther Smith. Esther is seventeen, a high school junior, and in love with the new boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake). Thrown into this romance is a second one involving Esther's older sister, Rose (Lucille Bremer), a high school senior, and a college man named Warren (Robert Sully). More important, however, is their father's plan to move the family from St. Louis to New York City, which the mother and children soundly reject but must accept as the father was the head of the family in those days.

The father, Alonzo Smith, is played in representative fashion by Leon Ames, aristocratic, a bit pompous, grumpy, but entirely warmhearted, a typically old-fashioned Hollywood patriarch. The mother, Anna Smith, is played by Mary Astor, the versatile actress who a few years earlier had played the femme fatale, Brigid O'Shaughnessy, in "The Maltese Falcon." Her character here is typically understanding, clearly subservient, yet firm in her resolve not to let her husband completely domineer her. Also in the family are Henry H. Daniels, Jr., as the oldest child, Lon, Jr., about to go off to college; Joan Carroll as Agnes, the next-to-youngest daughter; Harry Davenport as the eccentric Grandpa; and Marjorie Main (later of "Ma and Pa Kettle" fame) as Katie, the maid. Finally, there is the actress who practically steals the show, five-year-old Margaret O'Brien as "Tootie," the youngest member of the family. Ms. O'Brien won a special Academy Oscarette for her performance that year.

The acting is fine, the romances are cute, the family discord is easily amended, and Tootie's adventures on Halloween night are harrowing and delightful. But it is without a doubt the music that has made the film a classic. Older, period tunes are combined with newer songs to make the movie a notable musical experience. The older songs include the title tune, "Meet Me in St. Louis," plus "I Was Drunk Last Night," "Under the Bamboo Tree," and the elegant "You and I." The newer songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane are "The Boy Next Door," "Skip To My Lou," the now-familiar "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and the showstopping "Trolley Song."

The big family, the Victorian house, and the contested move to another city may remind some viewers of "Cheaper By the Dozen," 1950 and 2003, and in many ways it does resemble the older of the two film versions in its gentle manner. But unlike the newer version of "Cheaper By the Dozen," where a similar family relocation brings chaos and disaster, "Meet Me in St. Louis" never resorts to nonsensical slapstick or mind-numbing exaggeration, nor does it ever try to preach to its audience.

"Meet Me in St. Louis" remains charmingly wistful and appealingly sentimental throughout. It's a captivating film.