Pretty Good

Fantastic!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS & SPECIALS. I HAVE NO AGENDAThe backdrop for Meet Me in St. Louis is St. Louis, Missouri in the year leading up to the 1904 World's Fair.It is summer 1903. The Smith family leads a comfortable upper-middle class life. Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames) and his wife Anna (Mary Astor) have four daughters: Rose (Lucille Bremer), Esther (Judy Garland), Agnes (Joan Carroll), and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien); and a son, Lon Jr. (Henry H. Daniels, Jr.). Esther, the second eldest daughter, is in love with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), although he does not notice her at first. Rose is expecting a phone call in which she hopes to be proposed to by Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully).Esther finally gets to meet John properly when he is a guest at the Smiths' house party, although her chances of romancing him don't go to plan when, after all the guests are gone and he is helping her turn off the gas lamps throughout the house, he tells her she uses the same perfume as his grandmother and that she has "a mighty strong grip for a girl".Esther hopes to meet John again the following Friday on a trolley ride from the city to the construction site of the World Fair. Esther is sad when the trolley sets off without any sign of him, but cheers up when she sees him running to catch the trolley mid journey.Even though the there is barely a story-line the film works. IT gets a tad slow here and there but Margret O'Brien steels every scene she is in. Judy Garland however is always a delight to watch. If you like her in this then make sure to see "In the Good Old Summertime". This film was beautifully filmed. If you can watch it on a Blu-ray.

Meet Me in St. Louis is a rather ridiculous "good old days" movie. Told episodically, it focuses on a family's problems, which mainly involve daughters trying to get husbands and decisions on where to live.While silly, the movie has charm to spare, supplied mainly by the always riveting Judy Garland and by Margaret O'Brien, giving her best performance as an anti-Shirley Temple.O'Brien's performance is surprising. While most of the movie is artificial even by the standards of the times, O'Brien offers a surprisingly id-based child obsessed with death and provocation. It is far more real than the simpering children who inhabit most 40s films.While the story is slight, the movie gets buy on tremendous moments, all involving Garland and O'Brien, as when Garland's heartbreaking rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is followed by O'Brien's surprising reaction.While it's no more realistic than Sleeping Beauty (even though Republicans often act as though this white, patriarchal, upper middle- class world is a thing we could actually "return" to), it is utterly charming.

If you want a five letter word for "the perfect musical", here is your title, a film so sentimental yet true to the human desire for home and roots that even today it remains fresh and alive, colorful and magnetic in every way. Of course, it will always be remembered as the film which first paired Judy Garland and director Vincent Minnelli (although he was the one responsible for the "Our Love Affair" fruit/cake orchestra in "Strike Up the Band!") and the film which moved her from black and white ingénue into one of MGM's most photographic Technicolor ladies. It will also be remembered as the film which moved rising child star Margaret O'Brien into the realm of Judy's past as MGM's greatest young actress and for the many beautiful songs which were written for it in its translation onto the screen. There's even the unfortunately short-lived but much loved 1990 Broadway musical version of it which had been trailing around as a touring production for years before being perfected for the Great White Way. A T.V. series was also developed years later when MGM moved into that medium, but nothing can top the wedding cake of perfection that is this salute to the early part of the 20th Century when state fairs (like one perfected in song by Rodgers and Hammerstein the following year) were must-visit attractions and "courting" was the way young lovers romanced each other-by gaslight!From the moment that Judy pokes her head out the window to sing her love of "The Boy Next Door", you know that her future as a maturing leading lady looks brighter than ever. Gone are the Mickey Rooney "Let's put on a show!" films, and even if she does put on a show here (in an impromptu duet with Ms. O'Brien), it's much more believable, as it is part of a house party where Judy does more than her share of trying to catch the eye of that particular boy, played here by the handsome Tom Drake. Her parents are played by Leon Ames and Mary Astor, and if it is at first jarring to see the vixen of "The Maltese Falcon" playing a house frau, just remember that she had played Judy's mother once before: in "Listen, Darling!"."Older sister" Lucille Bremer was Arthur Freed's big attempt to create a new leading lady, and while she's a likable young actress, she seems lost when shown on screen with the magnetic Judy and the perky Margaret. Then, there's the beloved "grandpa", played by that old rascal, Harry Davenport, and the family's cranky but lively maid, Marjorie Main, who dominates the kitchen (and her ketchup recipe) much like Mary Wickes would do almost a decade later in two Booth Tarkington similar stories, "On Moonlight Bay" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon". Ironically, in the big Broadway musical, another MGM leading lady of the 1940's, Betty Garrett, would assume that part, stealing every moment she was on screen.The story is a simple one: Papa Ames wants to move the family from St. Louis to New York and their desire is to remain there for the upcoming world's fair. O'Brien goes homicidal, burying her dolls and killing the snowmen, which leads to a comforting scene where Judy serenades the sobbing girl with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". It should be noted that the original lyrics of that Christmas standard were much darker than what was heard on screen, yet perfectly in tuned with the sometimes darkened theme of the story. Such is the case with the Halloween sequence where O'Brien must "assassinate" the town grouch by pelting him with flour. You wouldn't see anything like this in a Greer Garson movie!Once Judy steps onto a streetcar for the famous "Trolley Song", you've got the stuff that show business legends are made of. The team of Arthur Freed and Vincent Minnelli produced and directed some of Judy's finest works, and Minnelli proves that he is an artist in every way, making the film look as if it was taken right out of Currier and Ives. There's a big rousing version of "Skip to My Lou!" (which features a young June Lockhart amongst its dancers) and a sweet duet between Ames and Astor who re-establish their own love as they watch their growing children discover their first.While the World's Fair sequence is only briefly presented in the finale, it is the dramatic story leading up to it which makes this magical in every way. Simple times, maybe never as simple as this presents, yet still lovely, and something many audiences yearn for today, just like Judy sang with "Over the Rainbow". Sumstuous costumes, lavish sets and rousing songs make this a delight from start to finish which the newer generations have brought into their hearts and cherished to make a family tradition for decades to come, and hopefully much longer.

Vincente MInnelli's masterpiece of reminiscence is much the better for its acute awareness of its own time: made when America's wartime involvement was at its height (1944), the film yearns for refuge in a simpler time and finds it at the turn of the century in a growing but still youthful (the streets are yet to be paved) Midwestern city. Minnelli's mastery of editing to coax complicated feelings from his performers is exquisite, particularly in long, gliding takes that completely envelope the audience as the characters experience emotional peaks (falling in love) and valleys (the threat of being uprooted from home) which are then broken through cross-cutting to discuss them. Made with a genuine appreciation for hearth and home, the film ostensibly features Judy Garland; but Minnelli seamlessly incorporates her into his large cast, and also allows ample room for complex performances from the wonderful Leon Ames, Mary Astor and, in the pivotal role of the youngest daughter Tootie, the sublime Margaret O'Brien. Not just a great musical--a great work of art.