By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: November 29, 1944

Now that the style for family albums in the theatre has been charmingly set by Broadway's perennial "Life With Father," Metro has taken the cue and has turned out a comparably charming movie in virtually the same period style. It is a warm and beguiling picturization based on Sally Benson's memoirs of her folks, "Meet Me in St. Louis," and it came to the Astor yesterday. Let those who would savor their enjoyment of innocent family merriment with the fragrance of dried-rose petals and who would revel in girlish rhapsodies make a bee-line right down to the Astor. For there's honey to be had inside.

And it isn't just the clang-clang-clanging of "The Trolley Song" that will ring in your energized ears, despite the rather frightening impression you may have got from the radio. Nor is it, indeed, the musical phases of the film that are most likely to allure. Except for maybe half a dozen numbers which Judy Garland melodically sings—and which had been planted like favors in a bride's cake—this is mostly a straight family lark, covering a year of rare activity in a house heavily peopled with girls. And, as such, it is fraught with such dilemmas as are peculiar to that fair, bewildering tribe.

For this is a free and genial recount of events in the home of the Smiths, who are staunchly devoted to St. Louis, during the year 1903-1904. There are long-suffering papa and mama, four daughters, a saucy elder son, grandpa (who is something of a crack-pot) and a tautly tyrannical maid. And the tempests which occur in this large hen-roost derive from such grand necessities as meeting the right boy at the right time and not moving to New York.

There is the charming and homely incident when elder sister Rose anticipates a proposal of marriage from her hopefully "intended" in New York and has to take the call amidst the whole brood over the goose-necked telephone.

There is the equally terrifying episode when sisterEsther biffs the boy next door because she thought he had walloped little Tootie, who was skylarking all the time. And, for the younger fry, there is the thoroughly bewitching and fay experience of this same little fanciful Tootie on a windy Hallowe'en.

All of these bits of family humor—and several more in the same vein—are done in a manner calculated to warm and enthuse the heart. The Smiths and their home, in Technicolor, are eyefuls of scenic delight, and the bursting vitality of their living inspires you like vitamin A. Miss Garland is full of gay exuberance as the second sister of the lot and sings, as we said, with a rich voice that grows riper and more expressive in each new film. Her chortling of "The Trolley Song" puts fresh zip into that inescapable tune, and her romantic singing of a sweet one, "The Boy Next Door," is good for mooning folks.

Little Margaret O'Brien makes a wholly delightful imp of Satan as Tootie, and Lucille Bremer is lovely and old-fashioned as Rose, the nubile sis. Marjorie Main as Katie, the maid; Harry Davenport as Grandpa and Tom Drake as the boy next door are only three of the several excellent members of the cast.

Vincente Minnelli, in his direction, has got all the period charm out of ladies dressed in flowing creations, gentlemen in straw "boaters" and ice-cream pants, rooms lush with golden-oak wains-coating, ormolu decorations and red-plush chairs. As a comparable screen companion to "Life With Father," we would confidently predict that "Meet Me in St. Louis" has a future that is equally bright. In the words of one of the gentlemen, it is a ginger-peachy show.


MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, screen play by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe; based on the book by Sally Benson; songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane; directed by Vincente Minnelli; produced by Arthur Freed for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At the Astor.
Esther Smith . . . . . Judy Garland
Tootie Smith . . . . . Margaret O'Brien
Mrs. Anna Smith . . . . . Mary Astor
Rose Smith . . . . . Lucille Bremer
John Truett . . . . . Tom Drake
Katie . . . . . Marjorie Main
Mr. Alonzo Smith . . . . . Leon Ames
Grandpa . . . . . Harry Davenport
Lucille Ballard . . . . . June Lockart
Lon Smith Jr. . . . . . Henry H. Daniels Jr.
Agnes Smith . . . . . Joan Carroll
Colonel Darly . . . . . Hugh Marlowe
Warren Sheffield . . . . . Robert Sully
Mr. Neely . . . . . Chill Wills