Meet Me in Saint Louis (1944)

This is another of those postcard-picture, year-long, slice of life musicals centered around a holiday or a yearly event (Like Easter Parade, but the World’s Fair, in this case,) in which we go around the year, see some holidays (Halloween, Christmas, etc.) then come back round to the same event which started it all.

In this case the slice of life portion refers to a couple (Leon Ames, Mary Astor,) with two daughters just on the verge of marriage who are seeking to get either a fiancé, or a proposal from their current fiancé.

The elder daughter (Lucille Bremer) is expecting a long distance call from her boyfriend, and much reorganizing is done about the time when dinner will be server in order to have the dining area free for her; all the while attempting to keep the affair from becoming known by the father (although everyone else is aware of the significance of the event,) who comes home tired, ready for a relaxing bath, and expects dinner to be served at the family’s usual time.

The second daughter (Judy Garland), in the meantime has her eye on the young man who just moved in next door, and is making her own plans to meet him, invite him to a party and to be kissed by him.

There is also an adult son (Henry Daniels, Jr.) and other younger daughters (Joan Carroll & Margaret O’Brien.)

Complications ensue, things don’t go initially as planned, but the young women, of course, do not give up.

Time goes by.

Halloween brings its own scary, complicated, family event where the six-year-old manages to get herself in trouble with a pretty extreme prank (by today’s standards, though at the time maybe not nearly as problematic,) causes some strife in someone’s love life which is only momentarily disrupted.

Soon everything is back to normal, with things going according to plan, until Father announces they are moving to New York for a business opportunity which disrupts everyone’s life plans all over again.

Things are tranquil until they boil over in the winter as the youngest reveals she is upset about the move (destroying a family of snowmen in the process.)

This only has the winter scenes for a short time’s duration, but since it features a performance of “Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas” there is no reason not to think of this as a holiday movie.

Vicente Minelli’s best musical and certainly worthy of getting Best Picture that year (even if it did not.)

Check it out.