Meet Me in St. Louis
Overview
 
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

 which tells the story of an American family living in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...

 World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...

 in 1904. It stars Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

, Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history...

, Mary Astor
Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...

, Lucille Bremer
Lucille Bremer
Lucille Bremer was an American film actress and dancer.Bremer was born in Amsterdam, New York and began her career as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, aged 16. Bremer, along with fellow stars Vera-Ellen and June Allyson, appeared as a 'Pony Girl' in the Broadway musical Panama...

, Tom Drake
Tom Drake
Tom Drake , born Alfred Sinclair Alderdice in Brooklyn, New York, was an American actor. Drake made films starting in 1940 and continuing until the mid-1970s, and also made TV acting appearances....

, Leon Ames
Leon Ames (actor)
Leon Ames was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing fatherly figures in such films as Meet Me in St. Louis , as Judy Garland's father, and in Little Women ....

, Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.-Early life and career:...

, June Lockhart
June Lockhart
June Lockhart is an American actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s television, but with memorable performances on stage and in film too. She is remembered as the mother in two TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. She also portrayed Dr...

, and Joan Carroll
Joan Carroll
Joan Carroll was a successful child star in movies between 1938 and 1948.-Biography:Born as Joan Felt, she became an accomplished child actress, scoring personal successes on Broadway in the hit musical Panama Hattie, and the 1940 film, Primrose Path, as Ginger Rogers's younger sister...

.

The movie was adapted by Irving Brecher
Irving Brecher
Irving Brecher enjoyed early success as a screenwriter for the Marx Brothers; he was the only writer to get sole credit on a Marx Brothers film including At the Circus in 1939 and Go West in 1940...

 and Fred F. Finklehoffe
Fred F. Finklehoffe
Fred Franklin Finklehoffe was an American film writer and producer. He was educated at Virginia Military Institute where he met his writing partner John Cherry Monks, Jr...

 from a series of short stories by Sally Benson
Sally Benson
Sally Benson was an American screenwriter, who was also a prolific short story author, best known for her semi-autobiographical stories collected in Junior Miss and Meet Me in St...

, originally published in The New Yorker magazine, and later in the novel 5135 Kensington. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...

, who met Garland, on the set, and later married her.
Quotations

[singing] The moment I saw him smileI knew he was just my style.My only regret is we've never met,Though I dream of him all the while.

[singing] How can I ignore the Boy Next Door?I love him more than I can say.Doesn't try to please me, doesn't even tease me.And he never sees me glance his way.And though I'm heartsore, the Boy Next Door,Affection for me won't display.I just adore him, so I can't ignore him,The Boy Next Door.

[to Mr. Smith] Well, Papa, if losing a case depresses you so, why don't you quit practicing law and go into another line of business?

[to Mr. Smith, after he hangs up on a caller] You've just ruined Rose's chance to get married, that's all...That was Warren Sheffield calling long-distance to propose.

Well, I'll bet there isn't another girl in St. Louis who's had a Yale man call her long-distance just to inquire about her health.

[singing] Clang, clang, clang went the trolley,Ding, ding, ding went the bell.Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings,As we started for Huntingdon dell.

[singing] I went to lose a jolly, hour on the trolley, and lost my heart insteadWith his light brown derby and his bright green tieHe was quite the handsomest of menI started to yen, then I counted to ten, then I counted to ten again.

John Truett. I've come here to ask you something...What do you mean hitting a nine-year-old child?...The next time you want to hit somebody, pick on somebody your own size. If there's anything I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate, it's a bully.

[after finding out that Tootie had lied about John Truett] You're the most deceitful, horrible, sinful creature I ever saw, and I don't ever want to have anything to do with you again.

[to her Grandpa] You're the first human being I've danced with all evening. It's our last dance in St. Louis. I feel like I'm going to cry.

 
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