Plot: What’s it about?
Judy Garland. It’s amazing how recognizable one name is and what we associate that name with. For nearly everyone out there, she will forever be remembered as Dorothy, the girl from Kansas who traveled “…somewhere over the rainbow” in “The Wizard of Oz”. Though small in stature, she was only 4’11” tall, she had a voice that many will recognize after only a few notes. To me, her most notable roles were as the aforementioned Dorothy, as Esther Blodgett in “A Star is Born” and as Esther Smith in “Meet Me in St. Louis”. That’s not to say that her film career wasn’t highlighted by other roles, but I believe that these were three of her most famous roles and ones that she’s most easily identifiable with. She was a product of the MGM studio system who decided that Garland would be a star. She (along with many other child actors at the time) was worked up to 20 hours a day, given pills to sleep and then more pills to stay up so she could make more movies. This process eventually evolved into a drug habit for Garland and she ended up accidentally overdosing on sleeping pills in the late 1960’s. With all that aside, though, she had a glorious career, married several times and even produced an Oscar-Winning daughter in Liza Minnelli. What was it about “Meet Me in St. Louis” that made it so special and universally acclaimed?
Family. Family is at the heart of the movie and it’s something that everyone can relate to. Everyone reading this is a part of a family (or will be) at one time in their lives, at least a family of two. Garland plays Esther Smith, the second daughter of four. Esther has fallen for the boy next door, literally, and swoons for him whenever she sees him. This is, of course, the inspiration for the movie’s most intriguing and fun song – “The Trolley Song”. We’ve all heard it: “Clang, clang, clang went the trolley – ding, ding, ding went the bell…” and this is the movie that originated it. Esther feels that John (Tom Drake) doesn’t like her initially, but things soon change (this is a 1940’s musical, after all). The family is shaken up when Mr. Smith (Leon Ames) announces that he has been transferred to a better job in New York City. This would mean that the family would have to uproot itself from their St. Louis roots and miss the now very famous World’s Fair (1904). I hope I’m not giving anything away when I say that they don’t go, but this, like “The Sound of Music” has it’s roots so firmly rooted in the family that it’s almost required viewing.
Garland originally didn’t want the role as she was 22 at the time (playing a 17 year-old) and felt that she was in line for more “adult” roles. She did end up doing the movie and indeed fell in love with the director, Vincente Minnelli and was his wife for six years. What set “Meet Me in St. Louis” apart from other movie musicals, aside from the fact that it was one of the earlier big-budget ones, was that the music wasn’t just there for show. The tunes were ingratiated into the dialogue so the music actually seemed to make sense and was part of the story (i.e. “The Trolley Song” actually took place on a trolley, etc.). The movie merited four Oscar nominations and even won one, an honorary Juvenile Award for Margaret O’Brien in her role of Tootie (ironically enough, Garland had won the same award five years earlier). The songs, the performances and just about everything associated with this movie make it a must own. This marked the beginning of what was to become the Golden Age for Hollywood musicals and what a way to start. They don’t get much better than this and Warner has done this movie right the first time. Need I say more?
Video: How does it look?
“Meet Me in St. Louis” has been digitally re-mastered by Warner, who continues to show that they know what they’re doing when it comes to making old movies look like new. Show in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the colors literally seem to jump off the screen. Using their “Ultravision” process that they’ve used with such movies like “Singin’ in the Rain” and “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, the movie has never looked better. The early days of Technicolor showcased the stars and scenes – I’m happy to say that everything here looks splendid. The detail is great, though it seems to be a tad soft in some spots, but lest we forget the movie is 60 years old. While this doesn’t appear to look quite as good as “Singin’ in the Rain” (a movie that I hold the bar up to video-wise for all full-frame color transfers), it still looks darn good. Garland’s red hair and colorful costumes look as good as they ever have. Whatever Warner is doing, I urge them to keep doing it! A very nice transfer here…
Audio: How does it sound?
The soundtrack had also been re-mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, but there is also an option for the original mono track, too. I have to admit that I listened to the 5.1 track and it sounds fairly natural. There’s not a whole lot of difference between the mono track and the new one, but either one you pick will sound good. For a movie of this age, the songs sound like they were recorded yesterday. The three most popular songs, “Meet Me in St. Louis”, “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” sound great, with Garland’s trademark voice reproduced as naturally as ever. As for the dialogue, it sounds very natural as well; there’s not a “hiss” that’s associated with movies of this age. For as good as the video looks, the audio isn’t far behind – I was impressed.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Extras…extras – we’ve got ‘em. Another in Warner’s “Two Disc Special Edition’s” is here and looking and sounding great. The first disc contains just a few supplements and the rest are located on the second disc. We start off with a five minute introduction by Liza Minnelli (for those who don’t know Minnelli is Judy Garland’s daughter) as she remembers her mother and father (director Vincente Minnelli) and professes that this is her favorite film. It’s a bit hard to take Ms. Minnelli seriously as she’s been in the news with her personal life lately, but it’s nice to have and we get a little history of the movie (which is repeated about five times once you take in all of the supplements). There’s a commentary track with Judy Garland biographer John Fricke, Margret O’Brien (Tudy in the movie), screenwriter Irving Brecher, songwriter Hugh Martin (who is also featured in a few of the supplements) and Barbara Freed-Saltzman (daughter of Arthur Freed). Ok, that’s a mouthful! The track is a bit disjointed and even quiet at times, which is odd considering the amount of people on it. Still, they all clearly still have very fond feelings for the movie and it’s no surprise that they just sit back and watch some of the more famous scenes. We don’t get a whole lot of new information here, just some tidbits here and there. Still, it’s a pretty-good track and I think fans will like having the addition of it. There is also a music-only track (no vocals) and a Vincente Minnelli trailer gallery from eight of his best-known films (“An American in Paris” and “Gigi” are included). This rounds out the supplements on the first disc. Now onto the second…
On the second disc, we find the rest of the supplements. First up is “Meet Me in St. Louis: The Making of an American Classic”. This is at least a few years old as it’s narrated by Roddy McDowall, who died in 1998. The interviews seem to be done in the mid to late 80’s; but this is still an entertaining documentary nonetheless. We hear from Vincente Minnelli (in a 1973 interview) and other members of the cast reflecting on how popular and enjoyable the movie has become. An Emmy-Award winning television special titled “Hollywood: The Dream Factory” is also included as the next feature. This doesn’t really have so much to do with the movie, but rather the rise of MGM studios in general. Narrated by Dick Cavett, this certainly has the “retro” look and feel to it (though I doubt it’s retro as it was really made in the early 70’s) and we get a good, albeit brief, history of the once mega-powerful studio. A 1996 Turner Classic Movies special called “Becoming Attractions” focuses on Judy Garland. Essentially, they show trailers of all of her more popular movies and add a bit of brief commentary to them. This was an ongoing series and something I rather enjoyed, but I haven’t seen any new episodes lately. Still, this is the place to get your list of “essential” Judy Garland movies. The entire “Meet Me in St. Louis” television pilot is shown with Shelly Fabares (best-known from TV’s “Coach”) and Celeste Holm (“All About Eve”) as the leads. There are two very old shorts, one from 1930 featuring an eight year old Judy Garland and then a 1941 musical short of “Skip to My Lou”. Both are fun for campy value, but don’t really add a lot to the disc. There is a stills gallery and some audio-only features with the original Lux Radio Theater Broadcast from Dec. 2, 1946 and an outtake of “Boys and Girls Like You and Me”, which was a musical number by Rogers and Hammerstein that was dropped from the final cut of the movie. All in all, if you like this movie (and plenty of us do); this is an example of a DVD done right the first time. And I’d be lying if I said that this wasn’t another jewel in Warner’s Two Disc Crown. Highly recommended.
